that has to be addressed. i think he is doing a good job. i am going to vote democratic as long as i can. host: here is a bit from the news are reviewed journal about the atmosphere surrounding the debate last night. the supporters ignored cordoned off sections of the parking lot set up for them and instead line flamingo road near mcleod drive. members of the media were also out in force, including press from across the united states, france, germany, japan, and the netherlands. the security detail included dozens of local and federal police officers, and several

security checkpoints were set up in the studio parking lot. a separate 22nd, a fight broke out among partisan audience members a forum at a local christian school, where sharron angle appeared live and harry reid appeared via pre taped video. back to your phone calls and reaction to the debate. this is charles, democrats line. caller: i think harry reid won won that debate. host: tell me why. caller: well, because he deals with facts. this lady did not deal with no facts. she had talking points and you could see it. she was stumbling over words and everything else. she did not have nothing to back up nothing she was saying. she needs to woman up, because

any woman who votes for her, they are going to be in trouble. host: next, from a woman who calls herself the new u.s. woman -- "i believe as harry reid that my tax dollars should go toward education, caring for poor and widows in the united states. "tough and salty through the debate, questioning how harry reid could afford the high and life style on a government salary. harry reid is a good public speaker, but he delivered a solid performance, attacking sharron angle's opposition to -- >> we will show you last night's senate debate at 2:00 p.m. eastern right here on c-

span. for now, we go to the national press club where former secretary of state condoleezza rice will talk about her new memoir. you are watching c-span. >> thank you. [applause] the parents of today's speaker had two early goals for her. in dr. condoleezza rice's words, "my mother was as determined to raise a musician as my father was to cultivate a sports fan." they succeeded on both counts. her mother bought her her first piano when she was 3 months old. she went on to be recognized as an accomplished pianist. she went on to live up to her goals.s "for better or for worse, the cleveland browns became my team." her book tells the highly personal life story of someone

who grew up in birmingham, alabama, which she describes as the most segregated big city in america, where one of her childhood friends was among four young girls killed when a complex clan bomb exploded at a church in 1963. she writes of how she went on to become the first black woman and the august to the provost at stanford university at age 38 -- and the young guest to be provost at stanford university. throughout her book, she pays tribute to her family, especially her parents, john and angelina rice, for building a good learning environment for her, starting by reading stories to her every night until she was able to read herself. in 2000 she became george w. bush's national security adviser. we look forward to you returning when you write the

memoir of those years. please welcome to the national press club, condoleezza rice. [applause] >> thank you very much. i would like to thank allen for that wonderful introduction, and thanks very much to the leadership of the national press club for inviting me here. i just have to say that my rent is in large part responsible. we were neighbors at the watergate, and every time in the lobby said you have to come to the national press club. i had actually moved back to california, i'm back to it -- but i'm glad to finally be here. it is indeed to be a pleasure back in -- to be back in washington. i have been out of office for quite a long time and i have to say i am getting very accustomed to reading the newspaper and being able to say, "isn't that interesting, but not thinking i have to do anything about what is in it. stanford will have been my home for almost 30 years now. next year it will be 30 years

since i have been at stanford university and teaching. and i have been right thing. the book i just finished -- and i have been writing. the book that i just finished i will spend some time talking about that book and what it says about my own experience and what it says about the united states of america. when you are coming to the end of eight years, fairly turbulent years, and you reflect on those years and you think about what you might like to say about them, it is natural to try to place 1's own life in perspective in these big, historical circumstances, and i will in fact write about those eight years. but i continued with each impossible events during that period of time, whether it was negotiating with palestinians and israelis, or stepping off a plane that simply said "the united states of america," and

sitting with vladimir putin and others. at each -- as each implausible events unfolded, i kept being drawn back to the question that people very often ask me -- "how in the world did a little girl from birmingham, alabama, end up here?" i always said in answer to that question, in order to know that answer to that question, you had to know john and angelina rice. so this book is really their story. my story wrapped in their story. you did have to know my parents. you had to know that they were in many ways ordinary people. my mother was a schoolteacher. in fact, she was first an english teacher and later on a science teacher. but as an english teacher, one of the students was willie mays. i was talking with him not too

long ago, and he said, yes, i remember miss rae because she told me, "son, you are going to be a ballplayer, and if you have to school early to practice, you go ahead." he quite appreciated that, but he also recognize that she was such a southern bell, a lady, herself never picking up a ball or bat of any kind and found my tomboy tendencies unnerving. but she was a musician and believe fundamentally that the arts belong to everyone. so, throughout her extraordinary career as a teacher, she had her kids in the poorest of schools involved in operettas. they put on music, one year they and bess pickup

in fact, my name, condoleezza, my mother found the name "with sweetness" -- to the musical. my father was ordinary as well. he was a presbyterian minister who also was a high-school guidance counselor allman high school in birmingham, alabama. a school whose principal was the uncle of alma powell, colin powell's wife. he coached football and basketball as well, but he, too, was an ordinary person. he had an ordinary profession, as my mother did. so these people, who never between then made more than

$60,000 in their life, somehow managed nonetheless to give me every educational opportunity -- as a matter of fact, every opportunity that could be remotely called educational, they gave it to me. and in that way, they were extraordinary. they were extraordinary, too, in the context of birmingham, alabama. birmingham, alabama, was indeed the most segregated big city in america. when my parents were growing up there, of course the harsh racism of that place could have been racism that simply crippled them and kept them down. but they, like their parents before them, believed fundamentally that you might not be able to control your circumstances, but you could control your response to your circumstances. there were no victims in their community and in mine. there were no excuses. yes, you had to be twice as

good, but it was said not as a matter of debate, just as a matter of fact. that armored them from the sense that they did not control their lives. now, they were bred to that, too, by their parents, after my mother passed parents sent all five of their kids to college. -- after my mother's parents send them all to college. it says a little bit about how the ricees were. john wesley senior was a sharecropper's son in utah, alabama. when he was a young man of 19, he decided he wanted to get book learning in college. he asked people how a colored man might go to college, so they said, you see, there is this little presbyterian school called stedman college, about 35 miles from here.

spellman college -- spellman college. after his first year, they said how are you going to pay for your second year. they said you are out of luck. they said to him, they have what is called a scholarship. and if you wanted to be a presbyterian minister, then you could have a scholarship, too. my grandfather said, that is exactly what i had in mind. [laughter] at my college -- and my family has been college educated and presbyterian ever since. john wesley rice senior was an educational and the west, and he passed that spirit on to his son and to his daughter in law, the believed firmly -- who believed firmly in the importance of education. perhaps what was especially important in birmingham, alabama, which had such a hard edge -- many of these stories in

this book recall the civil rights. thus the civil-rights period, but i try to do it not from the perspective of the great civil- rights leaders that we know, but the perspective of a little family, three of them living in the midst of it all in birmingham, alabama. it could be a place where the middle class could control in many ways the messages that their kids got. we had our own ballet lessons, we had our own piano lessons. we even had a little club called tots and teens where we took etiquette courses where we learned which fork to use. i was glad at my first white house dinner that i had had that training. but birmingham was not just a place of tots and teens and

ballet lessons. it was, of course, a very harsh place, too. my parents felt that in many ways. my father in 1952 went with my mother -- they were not yet married -- to try to get registered to vote. and my mother, who was very fair skinned and beautiful was asked by the pull tester if she knew who the first president of the united states was. she said, yes, george washington. he said, fine, go out and register. and then he looked at my father's dark skin, and he said how many beans are in that chart. there were hundreds and my father could not count them. and he was devastated, and he went back, an old man, and he said, reverend, i know how to get you register. he said a woman who is a clerk down there is a republican and

she will register anyone who says that he is a republican. and my father went down and said, "i am a republican," and she registered him and he was a republican for the rest of his life. [laughter] one of the things i tried to do with his book is to show that from the perspective of a family, it did not intrude every day. we went to church. we had our lessons. people got married. it intruded -- racism and violence -- in a major way in birmingham in 1962 and 1963 when tomingham would becomwould come be known -- would come to be known as bombingham. we visited my grandparents one night, and a loud explosion went off just as we pulled up to the door. in those days we knew what it

was, so we got in the car and we started to drive away. my mother asked where my father was going, and my father said i am going to the police. she said, "why are you going to do that? they probably set it off." that you know that for birmingham citizens, there was no law on their side, and in many ways they felt they had to take it on their own hands. we drove to my grandparents' house instead. but on a sunday morning in september, 1963, when we had just arrived at my father's church, there was again a loud explosion. this time we thought it might be in the community, in ran a woman who was at the church and said that 16th street baptist church .ad been bombed not long after that, it was learned that four little girls were killed, and among them

were girls that i knew, especially dittanies, who had gone to my father's kindergarten -- is betony denise -- denise, who had gone to my father's kindergarten. i remember sitting on the porch that night in the september heat, my father with a shotgun on his lap. later he would organize the men of the community into what i think the founding fathers would have called a well-regulated militia, so they could patrol the neighborhood so that night riders could not come through. but birmingham did finally change. the civil rights act of 1964 passed, public accommodations were now open to blacks. for the first time you could go to a hotel or restaurant or a theater. and i will never forget the

night that it passed. my father -- my family loved david brinkley. we watched that every night. the channel 13 anchor, the local anchor came on and said, "the so-called civil rights act passed today." so a couple of nights after, my parents decided if it really made a difference. so we entered a restaurant and people literally drop their forks and stopped eating. but somehow they knew something had changed. we were served, no incident. a couple of nights later we went to a drive-in called jack hamburger. i got my hamburger, i bit into it, i said something tastes funny. my father turned on the car light, and it was just onions.

my family would soon leave to go to tuscaloosa, and then denver. today is a birmingham in which the last several mayors had been black. one of the city council members was my friend with whom i played and lived across the street. where the successor many times over would be a black woman. when i return to birmingham as national security adviser and my aunt gave a party for me, inviting my childhood friends and my teachers, everyone was black, but the caterers were white. [laughter] and i said to my aunt, "how did you choose the caterers?" she said, "i had a little girl whose mother started a catering service, so i thought i would give her a chance." perfectly logical for 2003, but

for the birmingham that i knew as a child, wholly and completely implausible. so i hope that this story, as much as it is a story of loving parents, parents who gave me an unconditional love and believe in myself, parents and a community that believed in the transforming power of education , parents who were tireless in their pursuit of every opportunity in their -- for their child, i hope that this is also a story that resonates with others -- not just about their parents, but about what our country can become and has become. after all, i am not that old to have experienced these things. and yet today we have had back- to-back black secretaries of state, and we have a black president of the united states.

that says that america is a country that is incredibly adaptable, incredibly able to overcome old and deep wounds and move forward. but it says, too, that it is always done it on a central premise, which is our great national myth, a log cabin. and a myth is not necessarily something that is untrue, it just comes from outside. it does not matter where you came from, it matters where you are going. and there, too, i hope that this story contributes. because what my grandparents and parents understood is that that is true in america, but only if you are well-prepared. and that preparation comes for us mostly in the form of access to education. and there i will and my story because my greatest concern today for our country is that

for so many of our kids, when i can look at your zip code and tell whether or not you're going to get a good education, that dream that my grandfather took hold of with both fists and delivered to the next generation and the next generation, may seem very, very distant and impossible to grasp. education for the least of our children is at the core of who we are as americans. because we are not united by blood or by ethnicity or by nationality. we are not united by religion. we are muslims and jews and protestants and catholics, and some of us nothing at all, and we are still american. but we are united by that belief that it does not matter where you came from, it matters where you are going. if we ever lose the ability to make that true, we will have

lost our selves. thank you. [applause] >> and thank you very much for your time today, dr. rice. we have no shortage of questions from our audience. the first question -- education is the most or one of the most important gifts your parents shared with you. considering the current state of u.s. education, what role do you think parents and teachers should play in reforming and improving the school system? >> well, i think there is a role both for parents and teachers. first of all, not every child is going to be as fortunate as i am or perhaps some of you are to have had parents like mine. but there has to be some adult that advocates for and cares for that kid. maybe it is a teacher, it is a minister, a be a member of a community. but every child needs some

adults who says you really can achieve that, and do not be held back. but the schools, i fear, have come to the place where we are warehousing too many kids did how can we look at ourselves where you can get to third grade and still not be able to read? and we know that if you cannot read by third grade, he probably will not be able to read. somebody has to be accountable. i am a great defender of teachers, who have the hardest job in the world. my mother was a teacher. but if you teach poorly, learn to teach better or find another profession, because teachers have enormous responsibility for the lives that they are shaping. and i hope that accountability what is happening to our children will be at the corporate accountability for excellence is what gives kids a chance. >> what you believe is necessary to rebuild the african-american family so that the family

success structure you experienced can become the norm? >> i thought a lot about a paradox, which is that with the end of segregation, the black community began to split in terms of experiences. my community had a solid and strong middle-class with men at the center of it, and at community then radiated out into more poor communities surrounding us. now a lot of those middle-class black families even in birmingham cannot live in other middle-class enclaves, so in a sense, the positive role models for kids in poor areas have left the community. that is very sad. so i think actually is the responsibility of those of us first and foremost, those of us who benefited from those family values, benefited from that education to reach back and make

sure that we are advocating on behalf of black kids, on behalf of black families, advocating for the proposition that children should not have children, and giving girls in particular a way to avoid what we know is going to be a dead end. to the degree that a girl has already had a child, i have watched remarkable programs around this country, particularly in places like community colleges, taking young mothers and giving them a chance to remake their lives. so there is a lot been done out there that is good, and i think we have a special responsibility to make sure they succeed. >> you discussed race relations significantly, and your book very largely deals with issues of race. in your book you talk about how in your own case affirmative action helped you to get to stanford not because you are a black woman but because it motivated the schools to recruit someone who was not from an elite school.

the university of denver. it's more of that type of diversity, greater is more of that type of diversity -- is more of that type of diversity needed? >> i would hope that particularly when it comes to diversifying populations, that we recruit as broadly as possible. the great frustration to me as secretary of state, i could go all day at the state department and never see another person who looked like me in a meeting. for the most ethnically diverse, the biggest multi-ethnic democracy in the world, that was a big problem. so i think you have to broaden where you look, broaden your channels, and that means sometimes recruiting in "non- elite places." in also means understanding that people come with different strengths. i am a great believer in admissions,ollege emission

that you can take a whole range into consideration when you are recruiting a class. if you end up recruiting all 1600 s.a.t.'s with straight a's -- which you could do at a lot of universities, you may miss the great violinist who actually is not so good in some other aspect. you may miss the great athlete, who should be able to do the work but perhaps does not look like the -- so i think we do ourselves a great disservice. diversity in an ethnic sense, diversity in a gender cents -- if we all but in the same place. that is why i think of current action -- not as affirmative- action but as a clarion call to make sure that you just are not replicating the same group of people out of the same channels over and over again. it makes the world a pretty dull

place when you do that. >> our college campuses diverts enough today? compared to the stanford you saw, as affirmative action run its course? >> stanford is now a very diverse campus, and most of the elite universities are. by the way, one challenge for all of these universities is that they are able to recruit on need-blind basis, meaning financial assistance is available. some places are not able to produce students to do the work, and we are losing that sense of diversity that is not just ethnic diversity but class diversity. i love standing in front of a stanford class and saying that kid is a fourth generation kid, that kid is the child of an itinerant farm worker, and they will soon get out of here and the only thing that will matter to them is that they went to stanford. and i fear that with the

problems in the public schools, it is really class diversity that is suffering in our universities. so, yes, it is a much more diverse place. the faculties are unfortunately not that diverse. that in part speaks to th fact that many the maminorities do no on to better school. black students would say why aren't you hiring more black faculty, latino faculty? somebody has got to go to graduate school. >> this audience member asks, many among the african-american community viewed negatively that use appeared -- that you appeared unconcerned about matters that were important to them. >> someone asked me a little

while ago about the perception of the black community. i do not know who that community is because when i go out into what is campuses or churches or the grocery store, overwhelmingly, black people think me -- thank me for my service, so i do not know how to speak for the black community. maybe that is one line we ought to lose because i think the black community is very diverse. but as to the record of the bush administration, i know for reasons i do not understand, it was difficult for people of color to see the president that i saw. this is a president who was incredibly proud of the fact that he had won large percentages of the black population and the hispanic population as governor of texas, whose signature achievement from his point of view was improving the achievement gap or narrowing the

achievement gap between minority children and majority children, who the reason i was originally attracted to him was not about foreign policy, but it had to do with a phrase i heard him utter, "the soft bigotry of low expectations." if you were a minority, you felt that soft bigotry of low expectations, that that child cannot learn so i will stop trying. so i recognized that there was a gap, that we were never able to close. but i hope people will actually go back and look at the record and also look at the fact that this republican president was the president for whom to black secretaries of state served. i know that there was a gap. i wish we could have filled it better, but i believe that the record will in the long term serve him well. [applause] >> have racial relations

improved in the barack obama administration? >> well, racial relations have improved over a long period of time, and sometimes they are tested by something that someone says. one of the things i think we could do in terms of race relations is turned down the volume a little bit on race. there is no more sensitive and difficult issue in the united states than race, because we have the birth defect of slavery, the deep wounds of segregation and prejudice, and the worst thing that i think you can say about somebody is that person is a racist, and we throw that epithet around way to easily. i would rather try and give people the benefit of the doubt -- maybe they are looking at me and they just do not like me, it may not have anything to do with the fact that i'm black. but i do know that we as a country have come a very, very

long way. but as i say in the book, we have come a long way, i no longer believe that race is deposited in how far you can go. but i also know this is not a colorblind society. that when somebody walks in the door, you do see colors. the good thing is, increasingly you do not define then what that person's role is going to be by his or her collaor. i would just like to see us that we recognize that we have come a very long way, recognize that we have a lot of work to do, give each other a little bit of the benefit of the doubt and really focus on the issue of race that i think is unresolved, and that is race and poverty. that is where our efforts ought to be. >> during president obama's presidential campaign, one of the criticisms you hear up from him -- that you hear from him is

-- when your dad was coming -- was growing up, he was hanging out with louis farrakhan and other controversial black leaders. those issues were not things that seem to have come up during your career and during the republican party. did it raise any particular eyebrows, and was the criticism of president obama justified in the campaign? >> in campaigns, all kinds of things get said, and we are pretty rough in campaigns. that is the nature of our politics. but i did say in the book that when that was being raised, i wondered what people might have thought about some of the people who sat at our table. my father was a great fan and friend of stoke the carmichael's, and in my book i -- and i try tostoicall reconcile about how a person who loved his country so much could

have defended so many black radicals. my father loved to stir the pot, whether it was in his sermons that he said, for some things that made the congregation blush, or as a university administrator where he brought a lot of these forces. but i think there was something more. my dad was a very proud man, and i think he was often probably conflicted. he did a very good job of navigating his way in the white world. a tremendous job of it it. but there may have been, should have been in in some rage or anchor that was attracted to people who took -- or anger that was attracted to people who took on racism aggressively. and was not humbled. in fact, when dr. king was marching -- and my dad lionized martin luther king like everyone

else. i remember saying to my mother, and he said, i am not going out there because if somebody comes after me with a billy club -- and he met a policeman -- he said i'm going to try to kill him, and then my daughter is going to be an orphan. my father was not very attracted to the non-violent side, meeting violence with non-violence. i suspect somewhere deep down inside he was interested in why others chose different courses. >> your father, you mentioned, loved to test the limits of intellectual tolerance to the speaker's he invited to the university of denver. how did you test the limits of intellectual tolerance in the bush administration? >> well, it might surprise you that there was not intellectual intolerance in the bush administration. we talked about things extremely broadly, and i always felt that i could say anything i wished to president bush and he was not going to hold it against

me. in fact, i tell the story in the book about the one time that i actually publicly went on the record to say that i disagreed with something that had been done. i am a believer that when you're in the administration, you say your piece inside, and then you do not go to the press to say how you disagree. but in this case, the university of michigan, a case on affirmative action came to the supreme court. the administration was going to write a make this brief -- an amicus brief. i said to the president that i did not understand how, given that we have looked at everything else in university admissions we would not look at race, which is one of the most important characteristics of americans. he let me say my piece, and i think it had an effect on his thinking.

but in a stake in "the washington post," there was a story -- but the next day in "washington post," there was a story that said i had told him to overturn it. i said i need to do this publicly and i did. >> are there any things you would like to talk about with the press now? [applause] >> not particularly. >> in your book, because of the timeframe in which is written, there are a lot of topics that people have an interest in that you did not addressed directly in your book, understanding that you will explain things in more detail later. one contrast is, you speak warmly of your relationship with george h. w. bush in your book. because of where the memoir and,

you do not speak much of george w. bush. can you contrast the two men? >> they were of course father and son, and if you contrast yourself to your parents, you might think of that as a starting point. different generations. george h. w. bush i always felt really loved texas but was all for the northeast. but was of the northeast. george w. bush love texas and was of texas, and that was something. they were presidents at very different points in time. i think if you recognize -- remember, i was in the white house on 11/9, so i was in the white house when the berlin wall fell. it was not really any greater thrill than to be the white house specialist at the end of the scold war. germany unified completely on

western terms. we were at the end of a big historical era, and sometimes i would have to remind myself that the decisions that led to that had actually been taken in 1946 and 1947 and 1948 and 1949. and that if anybody had told you in any of those years, when the italian communists won 48% of the vote, and the french communists 46% of the vote, and the soviet union exploded a nuclear weapon -- if anyone had told you that 70 years of communism -- never mind. if they had said that, they would have had you committed. so we were at the end of a historical era where good decisions that overtime led to the victory in the cold war, that was the world that george h. w. bush inherited, and his skill and his ability to bring people together and to gently

laid the soviet union to rest was a tremendous, tremendous achievement. but george w. bush was, of course, president in a very different world, and i was also in the white house on 9/11. 9/11 was the beginning of a big historical effort, a period in which an enemy that we did not know well, an enemy that had done something unthinkable, attacked the united states with its own planes -- 3000 people dead, people jumping out of an 80-story window to try and avoid the inevitable, shadowy network in a place called afghanistan where they were hiding. the thought of a 9/11 with weapons of mass destruction was a very different world and a new historical epoch. it took a different kind of leadership, not ending that at but on our terms but beginning on our terms.

i know that many of the things that we did work controversial, and i know that history will judge the degree to which some of them worked. but when i think now about where i was on 11/9 and where i was on 9/11, i can tell you that it is easier, frankly, to beat at the end of an historical epoch -- to be at the end of an historical epoch that at the beginning of one. the leadership of those two men had more to do with when they were president and who they were. >> defense secretary robert gates, someone you have known for a long time and talk about in the book, has talked about the iraq war and said that the accomplishments that came for in iraq will always be tainted by the reasons which we went to war if it is that an opinion you share? >> well, i have not exactly seen

that quote from bob, so i will not comment on a quote i have not seen. but when we went to war in iraq, it was because saddam hussein had been a cancer in the region. he had brought the united states into war twice, first in 1990 and then when president clinton bombed iraq in 1998. every source of intelligence in the world thought he had hidden weapons of mass destruction. he had put people in mass graves, you shooting at people patrolling. he was a danger. now, you can't argue whether he was a danger -- now you can argue whether he was a danger that needed to be dealt with then rather than later. we decided he needed to be dealt with that. then once you do that, you need to have a view of what the future will look like for the people of iraq.

we did not go to war in iraq to democratize iraq. that is a false understanding. anymore than people went to war against adolf hitler to democratize germany. you go to war and there is a security threat. saddam hussein was seen as a threat to our interests and our security. but once the war was over, you had to have a view of what should follow. we hoped to help the iraqi people build the first multi confessional democracy in the arab world. and while they are struggling -- and let me tell you, we could have done things much, much better. i do not have any doubt about that. maybe i will talk about some of that in the next book and can tell you what those were. and i will never be able, any of us, to forget the many, many lives that were lost. but if the iraqis do take the opportunity to build the first multi-confessional arab

democracy, where they settled their differences within democratic institutions rather than either by violence or somebody oppressing somebody else, then the middle east is going to be a very different place because iraq is an important country in the middle east. and while we are frustrated with them as they rangel for who is going to the prime minister and who will get that post and who will get that post -- just think about it. the conversation we're having about iraq today is not about weapons of mass destruction, about kuwait, between ahmadinejad and saddam hussein -- is whether she and sumy's can find a way to form a government. whether -- whether shia and sunnis can form a government.

>> cuba seems to be taking some steps toward liberalization, and fidel castro is much older, though very much alive. is it time for castro and by extension the cuban people to stop paying for the cuban missile crisis? >> well, it is time for people of cuba to stop paying for the castro regime. i do not see, frankly, that raul castro is going to be the answer to liberalization in cuba. i would hope that when fidel castro dies, eventually, that there will be some international support for the beginning of a process with the cuban people to express themselves in a democratic fashion. it was always quite extraordinary to me, if you go to the organization of american states meetings and the only country that could not take its seat there was cuba because it did not have been elected

president -- even hugo chavez was an elected president. it should not be that in the western hemisphere in the 21st century there is a place where people have no say in who is going to govern. and so i know it will take time, and i am not saying that the day after castro dies there has to be an election, but the international community ought to take an interest in advocating for democratic elections in cuba so that the cubans can choose their own leadership. it is high time that that happen. >> another topic you discussed in your book is your face. given that you are a woman of faith, what part did that play in your handling of muslim countries? >> it is always hard to know how to separate out what is faith and what is reason.

they worked together in ways that are pretty much imperceptible, but i always assumed that the role of my faith was to give the attentive grounding to help me to ask for guidance, to steady myself in difficult times, and to remember that i am part of something larger than myself. that is how i saw my faith. when it came to the middle east peace process, i felt that one of the problems in the middle east peace process was to get it to the place that we could deal with it as a political problem, and a territorial problem. and to begin to understand that if you deal with it as a religious problem, you are not going to solve it. that for me was most vividly seen when i went to jerusalem for the first time. and you see that jerusalem is not where the world's great religions come together, it is where the world's great religions clash.

and somehow a solution is going to have to understand that jerusalem is a place for all of the children of abraham, and then come to a political solution that allows people to govern themselves. so, to the degree that i understood how powerful faith and religion can be in 1's life and in 1's sense of oneself, i think i understood the intensity of the middle east problem between the israelis and palestinians. but i think the good news is that as a political conflict and as a territorial conflicts, there are a number of possible solutions on the table. and i believe they are going to get there. >> some questions on current events, first dealing with your expertise on russia. what do you think about the reset with russia, and does it

take adequate attention to democracy and human rights? >> the relationship with russia is always complicated. i think for us relations with russia are actually pretty good. i think the russians were extremely helpful in the middle east and north korea, very helpful on terrorism. in fact, even helpful on iran. i think they got a bit of a bad rap on iran because the russians were willing to sign on security in council resolutions. i know they sent the right messages to iranians, so relations were pretty good except when it came to issues surrounding the periphery of the former soviet union. if it is about georgia or ukraine or the central asian states or even poland and the czech republic, which after all are in nato now, that is when it got hard with russia. i think, too, that russia's internal development started to go into a direction that was

hard to fathom given that there was hope that russia would become more democratic. but i think to a certain extent we in the west made a mistake, and that all it -- that goes all the way back into the 90's. for us, in 1990's were the golden age, boris yeltsin, capitalism. everything was being auctioned off and privatized, and that is how we saw it. but i went to russia a lot in the early 1990's, and it was a period for most russians of deprivation and chaos. you could walk down and see mobs of men with machine guns and know that there were drive-by shootings on the main drag. so when vladimir putin came to power, he said to the russians we will give you respect, prosperity, and we will give you order.

unfortunately, what started out i think to build order swung through to authoritarianism. now i think russia is beginning to see that for russia to continue to be an extracted industrious ineconomy, where they have some of the best software engineers but they're working in israel and the united states, that russia has to do something differently. perhaps given the pressure on russia from the global economic crisis, which is not good, perhaps there will be an opening again for the softening of the politics and coming to terms with what should be a european state -- a european style state given to democracy. >> how do you assess the tea party and its impact on the gop? >> well, i have been saying to a

number of people the tea party is a grassroots movement. i also think it reflects people in the country who do not know what is happening and why it is happening to them. and there are people who thought that they had done all the right things in raising their families and buying their homes and sending their kids to college, and they see the deficit and they see in america that -- they recognize and they think most importantly, they are saying that the conversation in washington and the rest of the country is not the same conversation. i think that is the major message here. so, while i may not certainly associate myself with everything that is said on behalf of the tea party -- and, you know, i am a free trader, very pro- immigration -- i do understand the impetus that brought it into being. rather than be fearful of grass-

roots movements, it behooves us in a democracy to understand them. it behooves us in a democracy not to mock them. and it behooves us in a democracy to figure out how to answer the anxiety, and also to answer the hard questions that they are asking about where we are going. [applause] >> in light of the recent debates in court rulings, do you favor repeal of don't ask, don't tell? >> first of all, i think it will be appealed. i leave this in the hands of bob gates and joint chiefs of staff. it is absolutely the case the military effectiveness and efficiency has to be the first concern of the secretary of defense and of the military leadership. i believe that if given time to work through this particular issue, they will be able to

achieve the repealed without damage to military effectiveness and military efficiency. but again, this is something that by have very strong faith in the people because i know them, who are charged with trying to get this done. let's get them the time to get it done. >> what do you have to say to president obama? >> it is not all that unusual that the president of the united states might invite back a former cabinet official, particularly somebody in the foreign-policy side, just to talk. so we are just going to talk about foreign policy, and whatever the president wants to talk about. but i am very much looking forward to that conversation. >> you state in your book that you do not have the fire in the belly to seek elective office. is there any circumstance under which could change? >> not that i can see.

[laughter] pretty soon if you're asked a thousand times will you run for this, will you run for that and you say the time is not right, pretty soon you see that the time will probably never be right. i am very committed to k through 12 education reform. that is probably our biggest national security priority right now, because if we do not do that, we will not be a strong and confident country. i got to be secretary of state. that is quite enough. >> are almost out of time. before asking the final question, we have a couple of important matters to take care of. first, to remind our members and guests of our future speakers -- on monday, october 21, herse ali will be talking. on november 10, jeff bridges

will be talking about child nutrition in our ongoing series of -- we'll have the chairman and ceo of the coca-cola co., who will be undoubtably be talking about coca-cola. our second order of business is, i would like to present our guest with the traditional and coveted national press club mud. >> you had better believe it. thank you. [applause] >> our final question, we turn to the topic of your memoir, the influence of your parents. my own parents are in the audience today. i think there is nothing more true than to say that none of us would be here today if we did not have parents. of course your memoir ends with the passing of her father 10 years ago, just as you were coming to washington.

my question -- and this is in light of your own faith but also ongoing influence. how do your parents guide you today? >> first, my parents' guide me by reminding me to be enormously grateful to god that he gave me the parents that he did. i start my prayers every night, "i can never think you enough for the parents that you gave me." my parents also guide me by reminding me to try and look beyond myself, as they did, not just a family but to people all around, and to try to be for others a mentor and friend in the way that -- even today, many students say, without my parents, i would not have -- fill in the blank. you go into the classroom as a university professor and have a

chance you otherwise would not have seen. but most importantly, my parents' guide me because i very much feel their presence. i say in the book that a few days after my father had died, i ache for having to sit on that mall and having george w. bush inaugurated and escorted into the white house. i ached when i would see a united states of america plane behind the . i wanted to see that. but with anything, i felt the presence. [laughter] >> i thank you for coming today dr. rice. we would like to thank the national press club staff. for organizing today's event.

for more information about joining the national press club and how to acquire a copy of today's program, please go to our website,www.press.org. this meeting is adjourned, thank you for coming. [laughter] [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] [general crowd noise]

[general chatter] >> with the supreme court back in session, watch our exclusive interviews with current and former justices. search and watch more than 25 years of our coverage of the judicial branch online, all free at the cspan video library. it is washington your way.

>> saturdays, landmark supreme court cases on cspan radio theme this case presents his -- presents weather cat dying citizens at the threshold of death due to a terminal at colmes have the liberty to choose to cross that threshold in a humane and dignified manner. >> in washington state, a doctor counsel patience on self induced suicide. listen to the case at 6:00 p.m. on cspan radio, in washington d.c. at 90.1. q &a sunday, justice stephen briar. >> is hard to avoid for basic values and how you see the country, and you see the relationship between law and the average person in this country, what you think lott is about. those basic fundamental legal

and political values i think are part of view and they will sometimes influence and approach where the question is very open and where it admits to the kind of thing. >> supreme court justice stephen breyer and his new book sunday night on c-span. >> senate majority leader harry reid and republican challenger sharon angle faced often their only scheduled debate. we will bring that to you in just a moment. first a look at the cspan 2010 campaign coverage continuing tonight with debates and rallies. at 8:00 tonight, candidates for the missouri open senate debate from kansas city and we will have south to arkansas for another senate debate between the incumbent democrat blanche lincoln and the republican congressman and two other candidates. later in the evening, president barack obama and vice president joe biden attend a campaign

rally in delaware for chris coons. then, the bernama gubernatorial -- the vermont gubernatorial campaign. >> you can watch all these events tonight on c-span. last night, senator harry reid and sharon angle faced off in their only scheduled debate. the senator is running for a fifth term after being first elected in 1986. sharon angle is a former member of the nevada state assembly and she is supported by the tea party express. from the pbs station in las vegas, this is one hour. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] ♪ >> good evening and welcome to

the 2010 nevada senate debate, sponsored by the nevada broadcasters foundation. i am mitch fox, and i will serve as your moderator for this important political event. joining me this evening is the republican candidate for the united states senate sharron angle and senate majority leader harry reid. welcome to both of you. we want to thank each of the participating 60 nevada television and radio stations who are providing this important one hour block of time as a public service. but it goes beyond that, the broadcasters feel an obligation to engage the electorate. the format we will follow has been accepted and agreed to by both campaigns. each candidate will give a two minute opening statement. the candidates will then be passed a series of questions, some of which were submitted by

youtube and beit tv viewers and radio listeners in the state of nevada -- and by tv to yours and radio listeners in the state of nevada. the program concludes with one minute closing statements from each candidate. it was determined by a flip of the nevada quarter that the first opening statement would be offered by senator harry reid. >> thank you. thanks to the nevada broadcasters for or arranging this. growing up in searchlight, i had some interesting times. my dad was a big man, broad shoulders, weightlifter arms, but times were tough. the mines were not doing well at all. when he worked, sometimes he did not get paid. my mom took in wash from the

brothels. so i have some idea what it is like to struggle. we work at the top of the economic food chain in nevada for 20 years. when wall street collapse, we felt really hard. there was a big hole there. we've struggled. i believe my number one job is to create jobs as the united states senator. i worked hard to do just that. we reduced taxes for 95% of nevadans and all americans. we did tax reform for small businesses. 75% of all jobs are small businesses. we reduced tax for small business a eight times. wall street reform. we changed the law. mortgages.

i understand houses are under water. i have three boys that have houses in of the. i have a home in nevada. that is why it worked hard to $200 million into the state to help homeowners. we know about energy. we have a lot of jobs for renewable energy and i am glad we did. the economy. everything we talk about tonight is related to the economy, everything. social security, energy. i want you to look at my facebook, twitter to make sure that you check all the facts, because we will fact check them. >> thank you. >> good evening. thank you nevada broadcasters for sponsoring this event. tonight, we will see a contrast between me, sharron angle, and senator harry reid. the contrast will be what you will make your choice on when you are voting.

the contrast begins. i am not a career politician. i am a mother and a grandmother. i was a teacher for 25 years. senator reid has been a politician for 30 years. i live in a middle-class neighborhood. senator reid lives in the ritz carlton in washington. i voted over 100 times against tax increases. senator reid has voted over 300 times to raise taxes. he voted for stimulus and bailout. and he voted for unconstitutional bills like obama-care. these are not just policies. these are policies that have heard nevada. we have the highest rate of unemployment in the nation, the highest rate of foreclosure and

the nation, the highest rate of bankruptcies in the nation, and these are not just numbers. these are real people. when i call my grown children and i say, how are doing, what i am asking is, are you still able to make that mortgage payment and do you still have your job? our founding fathers knew that the best government was of limited government of the people, by the people and for the people. tonight, you'll see the difference between senator harry reid and the government and sharron angle and limited constitutional government. >> the next series of questions will focus on immigration. in the minds of many nevadans, your policies have allowed thousands of illegal immigrants to stream across the border because you have not made border security of priority. why is it only this year you have talked about securing the

border when this problem has been going on for years, if not decades? >> immigration is a problem. we have a system in america that is broken and needs to be fixed. that is why, in august, of this year, i introduced legislation that was finally passed to do something about our borders. we now have on our border predator is flying over 24 hours a day. we have 45 for hundred border patrol agents. we have the national guard there. -- we have 4500 border patrol agents. i am frustrated. i believe we have to do comprehensive immigration reform. we cannot ignore. that is the reason we have to do something about the people that are here that are undocumented. have them pay taxes, pay penalties, and of course, by doing that, we will be able to not demagogue this but do

something about it. we have to work together on the issue. >> thank you. ms. angle, your response? >> what we have is an illegal alien problem. the solution is simple -- secure the borders. i think everyone should have a sharing like joe, and we should be supporting arizona instead of suing arizona light senator reid and the president have done. foreignllowed 11 countries to be included in that suit. they are dictating our immigration law. that is nuts. we need to get back to simple solutions to these problems. once we secure the borders, then we can deal with internal problems, but we have to stop incentivizing those folks that are coming here for jobs, for medical and for education free

and also for social security benefits. those are for citizens. >> you can respond. >> thank you. the number one issue here is a comprehensive immigration reform. we have to do something to solve the issue. we cannot keep talking about it. that is why our worked very hard in the last congress to work with john mccain. it was his legislation. it is the same legislation we are working on now. >> our next question, ms. angle, is on immigration. in a television advertisement you claimed that senator reid , voted to give tax breaks to illegal aliens and to give it illegal sources security benefits. most fact checkers have said this it is false, especially the line of all social security benefits. the advertisement was criticized by the chair of the republican caucus.

would you like to denounce the advertisement or give voters a documented evidence about its accuracy? >> not at all. i am glad to give voters the opportunity to see that senator harry reid has voted to give social security to immigrants. he voted to give it to them before they were citizens. he voted to give them the benefits of our social security. our social security system is one that needs to be addressed, and we are not addressing it. in fact, what we need to do is make sure that we keep our promise to our senior citizens and make sure that our younger folks have a personalized social security retirement account similar to the thrift plan that senator reid has. >> senator reid? >> mitch, my opponent did not answer the question.

ever since she said in an advertisement -- everything she said in an advertisement was false. i never voted for social security benefits. that is not the law. she needs to stop saying it. that is why she moved toward social security that had nothing to do with the question you asked. >> i think the question has everything to do with social security and what has gone wrong in our system because we have not secured the borders and enforced the laws. senator reid talks about comprehensive immigration law, but what he is talking about is something that did not work in 1986. i am a great fan of ronald reagan, but he had it wrong when he gave amnesty. we need to first to secure the border. >> on this next question i will ask for a simple yes or no and response. would you be in favor of a

constitutional amendment establishing english as the official language of the united states? >> yes. >> english is already the official language. >> we will go on to the next category and that has to do with health care reform. youtube has partnered with the nevada broadcasters' association. so far there have been 50,000 hits on youtube. by far, the biggest issue is our next one, which is health care. senator reid, you'll get this question. according to the medicare's catchword, the health care reform bill will increase costs, including $100 million to nevada's medicaid budget. in light of the backlash, why didn't you and president obama focus on jobs and the foreclosure crisis first, knowing how nevada has suffered

more than any other state? >> for a long time in this country, insurance companies have dominated the health care delivery system. you pay your premiums, you get sick or hurt and they walk away from you. we passed health insurance reform because we had no choice. i do not know where you got a question, but the facts are wrong. according to the congressional budget office, independent, we have been told that we will reduce the debt by $1.30 trillion. we allow people to have children who have pre-existing disabilities like diabetes to no longer be denied insurance by those folks. it is something that we had to do, including extend the life of medicare for 12 years,, fill the doughnut hole. we had to do health insurance reform to maintain competitiveness in the world economy. it creates thousands and thousands of jobs. presidentdn't you and

obama focus on jobs and the foreclosure crisis first, knowing how nevada has suffered more than any other state? >> we did focus on foreclosure first. one of the first bill we passed was mortgage fraud. we moved into that quickly to prevent this people who are taking advantage of folks in trouble with their homes. remember what i said earlier -- health insurance reform creates jobs. 500 new bringing alon people. as a result of what we have done, they will bring more people there. >> ms. angle? >> obama-care cut a half a trillion dollars out of medicare, right at the point where senior citizens in need to have that medicare advantage. that is where their choices are.

it also cost as half a trillion dollars in new taxes. the solutions to the health care insurance cost problems are simple, and they reside with in the free market. we need to get the government out so we can go across state lines to choose insurance companies. we need to get the government out of the process so that we can take off the mandated process these. we need to have tort reform. the solution to the health care cost of insurance are free market. >> senator reid? >> the facts are wronog. g. i read a letter from secretary sebelius, medicare recipients from the state of nevada will pay less rather than more. there'll be more medicare advantage people on the rolls daes now.

she is against mammograms -- my opponent is against mammograms,call in of the colon. that is extreme. >> senator reid paraphrased my question. you voted in the state assembly to do away with mandated coverage of mammograms and colon cancer tests. you can out in favor of eliminating coverage for autism. is there anything you think the insurance companies should be forced to cover? >> america is a country of choices, not forcing people to buy something they do not need. what we want is a basic policy where we can and the coverage that we need. children.utisitic i know this is a biomedical

disorder, and it needs to have its own insurance card so that families can get the right treatment and be covered. but the insurance mandate we passed in this state only cares for 25% of the one out of 110 children that have autism. we need to stop making band-aid applications and look at real solutions when we talk about health care, and really, forcing someone to buy something they do not need is not the way to solve a problem. >> let me refreeze that question again. is there anything at all that you think the insurance companies should be mandated to cover, anything? >> anything at all? >> yes. >> what we have here is a choice between the free markets and americanism. america is about choices.

the free market will weed out those companies that do not offer as many choices and do not have a cost-effective system. let the people decide where they want to buy their insurance. you do not have to force them to buy anything or force anyone to offer a product no one wants. >> ok, so no insurance mandates. senator reid? >> mitch, insurance companies. insurance companies do not do things out of the goodness of their hearts. they do it all of the profit motive and they have almost destroyed our economy. 20% of all costs prior to health insurance reform was because of health care costs. if we did not change it, it would go up in less than 15 years to 36 cents of every dollar. it would break us. we needed them to be forced to do mammograms. that is why you see breast cancer awareness month. you see the baseball players wearing pink shoes and football

players have aing pink helmets. people dread breast cancer. you detected if you do it mammograms. colonoscopies. if you do them, then colon cancer does not come. it will save money and all long run to do this. >> pink ribbons are not going to make people have a better insurance plan. what makes them a better insurance plans is competition, and that is what high i have ben saying. they will cover the things that we want them to cover. that is all the free markets work. that is why our solutions reside in the free market. when we talk about what destroyed this economy, obama- care is destroying our economy. i know a company that laid off

five people because of obama care. >> do you think the health care reform act should include coverage for abortions? >> no. >> we maintained the hyde amendment. >> that would be yes or no. >> under the law, the hyde amendment is still there. >> nevada has the highest foreclosure rate in the country. las vegas has the highest unemployment rate in the country. it has soared 5 percentage points since president obama took office. at what point, will you stop blaming president bush and start blaming the current president? >> there is plenty of blame to go around. the fact is, i have worked hard

to help beleaguered nevada homeworkers. working on mortgages that are under water. 48,000 people in nevada now have houses as a result of the first- time home buyers tax credit. as a result of my pressure on bank of america, we now have no more foreclosures by them. there is a moratorium there. we have to do more, but we have to understand that they will not be able to do to us again as i indicated earlier what they did to us before, because we passed wall street reform that will stop these greedy bankers on wall street from taking advantage of home waters. >> do you think president obama shares as much blame as president bush? >> of course not. when president bush took office, he had a surplus of over 10 years of $7 trillion. we were paying down debt during the clinton years. we paid down the debt by $600

billion. we lost 8 million jobs during the bush years. we created 3.5 million. no one is satisfied where we are. let's realize where we were. that's no solace to someone who lost a job or a home. >> the housing bubble was caused a long time before the recent recession. it has to do with things that we have refused to deal with and are senate over the years. the first one is that we have a problem with the federal reserve. we need an audit of the federal reserve. secondly, freddie mae and fannie mack -- fannie mae and freddy mack, they keep sweeping that away. in this last finance reform bill, we could have dealt with

freddie mac and fannie mae, but they said it was too big to deal with. we need to start looking at these and looking at true solutions. first, we have to investigate what caused the problem in the first place. this problem has been going on ever since senator reid has been in leadership, and that was before the obama administration, but they failed to do with it in the obama administration as well. >> we do have a commission. to find out what really happened at the collapse. i called for a federal reserve audit in 1985 -- 1987. so i agree with my opponent on that. there should be an audit. we have not gotten that yet, but we have made some progress. fannie mae and freddie mac, all experts say it needs reform. but you cannot do away with

them. we would have no way of sustaining the housing market we have today. our next question goes to, ms. angle, and it is on unemployment record. t. you're quoted as saying we can make more on unemployment then getting a job. we have put in so much entitlement into our government that we really have spoiled our citizenry. two questions. do you the unemployed are spoiled? and what do you plan to do to fix the unemployment problem, especially if you believe getting jobs for nevadans is not your jobs? >> first of all, no, i do not think our unemployed are spoiled. that was mischaracterized by my opponent. he taught -- he called us you

wanted to know the answers celtuce and childrselfish child. we need to encourage the private sector to do what they do best, with policies from the government that they can do better. right now they are in a cloud of uncertainty and holding back $2 trillion that they would like to invest in jobs, , but they are holding back because of more taxation and regulation coming out of senator reid's administrative policies. follow-up.ask a do you believe that getting jobs for nevadans is not your job? >> my job is to create a policy is to encourage the private sector to create jobs. >> that would be no. >> yesterday, we had a company from china come here to create

jobs. they have been building windmills. that is a result of tax policy that i put into a bill. we now have $2 billion worth of work going on in nevada. that is a result of tax policy, incentives to have them do that. mccarren airport, as a result of tax policy, we have a $3 billion project going on there today. -- as a result of language in the bill, we save jobs at harrah's. my opponent is against that. my job is to create jobs. what she is talking about is extreme. we have to do this. we have been doing it since boulder dam was created years ago. >> once again, harry reid, it is not your job to create jobs. it is your job to create policies that create confidence for the private sector to create

jobs. they have lost confidence because of things like obama- care. there is a business in reno, where he wanted to hire 25 more employees but laid off five just because of the provisions in obama-care. we are seeing those kinds of policies crush our economy over the last 20 months. >> the next question goes to senator reid. this has to do with the supreme court. one of the most important duties and given a u.s. senator is the approval of an individual to a lifetime appointment to the u.s. supreme court. so we can get a sense on how he would vote, name are current or former supreme court justice you admire and why and name a current or former supreme court justice who should never have been approved by the senate. >> this may surprise everyone. don't agree with scalia's

opinions, but he is a masterful mind. he does good things. scalia is an example to anyone who appreciates the law. white, i like him because of his opinions and because he was an all-american football player. we can go back to the early days of the country. there were opinions written dealing with slavery that were wrong. my opponent keeps talking about obama-care. remember, 30,000 small businesses in nevada have the ability to get health insurance supplements. if they have an insurance policy that cost a certain amount of dollars, they can get reductions of 35% to 50% on that. she keeps talking about losing employment because of health care. that is not necessary. they should be able to do much better now because of health care. it does not understand the law. >> you have the supreme court

question out. >> i admire clarence thomas because he understands his constitutional boundaries. we need justices that will sit on the supreme court and to do their duty constitutionally, and not legislate from the bench. i would not have confirmed sonia sotomayor or elena kagan, because neither one understand the constitution. they said they would vote against our second amendment rights. those are things that are dear to us. our founding fathers wanted supreme court justice who would stand up for the constitution, a constitution that was created for we the people to be free. >> senator reid? >> i think we should stop running down the supreme court. i do not agree with all the opinions. take for example, and four versus bush -- gore versus

bush. i believe in our constitution, which i have in my pocket. even though i agree with -- i disagree, when they made that ruling, george bush became my president. we should leave the supreme court along and pick the best lawyers we can find. >> we will talk about don't ask don't tell. you get a first question, ms. angle. a federal judge's order to halt enforcement of the policy was hailed by gay activists as a landmark ruling in their struggle to expand their rights. don't you think it's time to end discrimination of gays and lesbians and our military? how you feel about republicans like dick cheney and laura bush coming out in favor of gay rights? >> the policies are under review right now. we should be waiting for the

review of our military to make those decisions, not jumping ahead to making those decisions as senator reid tried to do by putting a provision in the defense bill. we have been very careful to define a marriage between -- as between of man and a woman through to general elections. over 70% of the population has voted to define marriage as between a man and a woman. i support what nevada has done and i will represent our constituents on that basis. >> what do think about republicans such as the former vice president and first lady laura bush coming out in favor of dear rights? >> that is their personal opinion. every american has the freedom of speech, and they have the freedom to have an opinion. that is great. >> senator reid? >> i respectfully suggest to my apartment that she does not understand what went on in

washington. the bill that -- i respectfully suggest to my opponent that she does not understand what went on in washington. the secretary of defense signed off on that, and the president certified it would not hurt our defense. they can only do that after our report was issued as to whether or not it was good for the military. the legislation on the senate floor did not say we would get rid of don't ask don't tell. it said that a republican secretary of defense would have to certify that it would do no harm to our troops only after the report by the pentagon came down. >> ms. angle? >> i submit that is the wrong way to do legislation. just like when nancy pelosi said we should pass of bill and then read it. the review needs to come out first, and then the bill. i do know the process.

the process is read the bill first and then pass it. >> we have a question on social security. earlier in the year, they announced that the social security will pay out more in benefits this year than it receives in payroll taxes, an important threshold it was not expected to cross until 2016. your opponent blames you for the shortfall. she claims you rated the social security trust fund to offset the deficit. what is your response? >> social security is a promise we have to keep. it takes care of seniors in their golden years. that is our -- that is why our work hard to protect it. i took on a president of the united states when he tried to privatize it. social security is an important program. the actuarials of social security and cbo said social security will pay out 100% of

benefits for the next 30-40 years. even after that, there'll be a shortfall of 15% to 20%. we need to take care of that in 35 or 40 years from now. do not frighten people about social security. the deal was made -- that was made by president reagan and tip o'neill is holding strong. it will take care of our folks for the next 35 years. >> man up, harry reid. you need to understand that we have a problem with social security. the problem was created because of government taking that money out of the social security trust fund. in 1990, you said it was stealing her to use social security for anything but social security, and then you voted to put that money into the general fund where it could be used for anything. when you did that, you left i.o.u's, that are fat -- kept in

a filing cabinet in west virginia. what we need to do is keep our promises to our senior citizens by putting the money back and a trust fund and allowing our workers to have the option of a personalized social security retirement plan and that becomes an asset to them, just like your savings plan is an asset to you. if it is good enough for you, it should be good enough for the rest of the. >> these ideas are really extreme. i said cob. bo. there is plenty of money and that trust fund account. during the clinton years, we did not use the trust fund money to offset the deficit. we were strengthening it by not using it to offset the deficit. >> you said during a primary election debate, " we need to phase social security and

medicare out in favor of something privatized." before the primary, you used the word privatize. now you use crystalize. and why did you change your position? >> because of the idea that personalized covers of both private and public. as i stated, harry reid and many government employees have a personalized retirement account. it is called the thrift savings plan. that is an account that is their personalized account. if it is good enough for harry reid, it should be good enough for the rest of us. when we talk about social security -- remember that the we'dsaid that by 2016 be in the red. if we do not do something to fix

this by 2037, anyone under 40 will not receive the benefits of the money they paid in. >> senator reid? >> cbo, i repeat for the third time, i said for the next 35 years, everyone will get all the money they want. even after that, it takes minor tinkering to take care of it. the arrangement that was made by president reagan and speaker of the house tip o'neill looked forward to today, recognizing that amount of money came in initially and as time went on, we would have to pay out more. she has talked about for years talked about getting rid of social security. this is not something just during the primary. i have heard her say, why don't we have a program like they had in chile or england. those countries went broke. you cannot put that money into the stock market. look what would have happened if you put the money into the stock

market as was suggested by president bush. this is an extreme idea that would destroy it social security. >> there you go again trying to hedge on this idea that what is going on is that our social security system has 2.5 trillion dollars, -- had $2.5 trillion and now it has i.o.u's. we need to keep the promise to our senior citizens to put that money back. >> our next question is on yuca mountain. last week, they directed agency scientists to stop work there. this is what ms. angle said. "harry reid has demonize the nuclear industry. there is a pot of money out there. we have potential for job

creation and diversification. did we miss a golden opportunity to create jobs and receive benefits from the federal government during a time when we needed it?" >> we tried for 28 years to get something from the federal government. nothing. yuca mountain is bad for nevada. the most poisonous substance known to man a few miles out of las vegas, no. we need to use it for something else. my opponents suggest using it for a nuclear reactor. there is not enough water and the state of nevada to build a nuclear reactor. the only nuclear generate -- that uses more water than coal is nuclear. i am not against nuclear power. i am opposed to try to bring all the garbage from it to our

state. >> i always voted to making nevada the nuclear waste dump of the nation. but the science has outpaced the need for a dump in nevada. we do not want a dump in nevada, but we need to quit demonizing the nuclear energy industry. what we have our submarines that use liquid metal to cool. it is not always water that is required for nuclear energy. we should look into the potential for nuclear energy. we should not be dependent upon foreign oil. we should develop all our resources. we should also allow coal-fired plants to be built in nevada, which harry reid killed. we need to stop with this extreme environmental out. look. we need to use those things to create jobs in nevada.

>> i heard my opponent talk about these coal-fired plants. we have something much better. we have a power line that has worked out between the owner of the power plants from north to south, all using renewable energy, except one in this heat -- in mesquite, that will use -- solar. we have made great progress. i appreciate what the energy company has done backing off the coal plants that have not worked. we have created a lot of jobs with renewable energy. >> the next topic is education. you said on multiple occasions, ms. angle, that you wanted to eliminate the department of education, which means, you favor eliminating funding to schools with low income students. you favor eliminating pell grants.

you favor of limiting head start -- eliminating head start. and you want to zero out funding for three-year-old children with disabilities. is that correct? >> totally incorrect. i was a teacher for 25 years. i served on a school board in my county and was on the education committee for eight years in the state assembly. what i know of the department of education at the federal level is that it is an agency that makes one size fits size policies that fits no one, like no child left behind. we send our money to washington to be skimmed off by bureaucrats. they sent it back to use in the form of underfunded mandates.

and we need to keep that in the state, where parents and teachers are making policies. that is our 10th amendment right. >> mitch, the department of energy does wonderful things for the states, to programs they have initiated. we've reduced the amount of interest that parents have to pay for their children's l oans. we have been able to do something with pell grants, $550 a year more. we have brought $400 million to the state to help k-12. this is initiated through the department of education, and we need to protect the department of education. ronald reagan had the idea -- maybe we should try to get rid of that. when he left, she knew it was the wrong thing to do. some of the best programs that we have were initiated by ronald reagan.

>> the department of education has been around since the early and sinceate 1970's, then, the quality of our education has diminished. we would be so much better off taking our 10th amendment rights, just the way that arizona did with illegal aliens and the way that missouri did with obama-care. we need to put at education as close to local level as possible where parents and teachers make the policies. >> our next question is on iraq. senator reid, you're quoted as saying the following "the war is lost and the surge is not accomplishing anything as indicated by the extremist violence." do you believe that your statement demoralize the troops and that you were an accurate concerning the success of the surge? >> this statement i made was

following the words from general petraeus that said the war could not be won militarily. he said that the war could only be one of militarily, economically, and diplomatically. that is why after we made our statements, we did the surge then, not late. it was the right thing to do. it worked because we brought in the economy working with the sunni. the sunni awakening, so they started fighting the people causing the problem. general petraeus is my friend. i am supported the troops with wounded warrior legislation. i have been to afghanistan and iraq and see how courageous they are. that is why i have been in a vote -- endorsed by the veterans of foreign wars for they know what i have done for the trip. >> i do not have the access to special security briefings like the senator does, and i did not get to vote for either one of

those wars, like the senator did, but i do know this -- that we needed to support our military with all our resources, not only our military service right now but veterans and their families as well. that is one of the priorities in the enumerated powers of our constitution. we should be setting our priorities on our military. when you said this war was lost and that and general petraeus was a dishonest, that emboldened our enemies, demoralize our troops and endangered them. and you need to apologize to them, senator. >> i have been endorsed by the largest military organization in the country, the veterans of foreign wars. my opponent -- listen to this idea -- if she wants to privatize the veterans administration. think about that. i have worked hard.

we have the veterans hospital that will be the finest in the world. it is a prototype for other hospitals. we had not had a new one in 15 years. i am glad i worked on that. i am glad i worked on the g.i. bill of rights. >> on saturday, you have a political rally and referred to "favor-buying politicians, " referring to senator reid. people want to know that if you engage in favor-buying, would you provide political juice if scott -- dropped out of the race? >> they want to know that when they come to washington, d.c.,

they will be heard. when a request a town hall meeting, that they will be heard. i want to go back to the veterans administration. my father is a veteran of world war ii and the korean war. he has an injury related to that. she is 88. he has social security cut medicare and the -- social security, medicare and the v.a., but he pays a lot. we need to do better. that's to be our top priority occurred . >> her dad should come to our office. he should nioot be doing this. my friend has berated healthcare, health-insurance reform. i have health insurance like 6 million other federal employees. i want others to have that same

health insurance that i have, and that is one of the reasons we worked hard to get health insurance reform passed. .y opponent's husband they have a pension from the federal government. they have health care just like i have. i want to help others to do not have what i have. that is where setting up exchanges with entry. five years, they will have that. >> 32nd. >> certainly, obama-care is nothing like the insurance policy that my husband and i have. every year there is a window and we make a choice. obama-care offers no choices, so it is not at all like what senator reid has. and what we really do need is something like what senator reid has, which is that we should all of the choices that we can pick our own insurance companies and insurance policy rather than having the government dictate and mandate the coverage we by.

>-- we buy. >> the bush-era tax cuts are set to expire. without congressional action, the taxes americans pay will rise. why do you want to raise taxes, even on the wealthy, in the midst of a recession? >> mitch mcconnell -- we agree on one thing. that we have to wait until after the election to find out what the economy will be. i guarantee there will be no increase for middle class people, no tax increase for middle-class america. we have to see what we are told by the experts, what we should do with the people that make more than that. i personally am not in favor of giving billionaire tax cuts right now. we will do that when we get back. my time is not up. i also want to say it. . my friend is talking about

exchanges. exchanges, every year we had exchanges dislike people who will have it under the health care insurance that we pass. they will get choices just like we have. i repeat, i want everyone to have the same choice as i have. she does not. she can pick and choose. i want 50 million other people to be able to do that, also. >> could you repeat the question? >> the bush tax cuts are set to expire at the end of the year. i asked senator reid why he would want to raise taxes even on the wealthy in the midst of a recession. >> the tax cuts need to be made permanent. if they are not, we will experience the largest tax increase in the history of america. and with a voting for over 300 tax increases, senator, we

cannot trust you with our taxes. you came to the senate with very little. now you are one of the richest men in the senate. on behalf of the taxpayers, we would like to know, how did you become so wealthy on the government payroll? >> that is a low blow. i think most everyone knows i was a very successful lawyer. i did a good job in investing. i have been on a fixed income since i went to washington. i lived off of what i made in the private sector. i trip -- i put my five kids through school and paid for every penny of it. her suggestion that i made money being a senator is false and i am disappointed she suggests that. i would further say that if she wants the tax cuts made permanent, we have a deficit problem to worry about, also. $4 trillion it would cost to have these tax cuts extended to the future. that's quite a load.

>> continue along those line. we are talking about the bush tax cuts. it would cost the federal government $4 trillion over the next decade and almost double the deficit. are you concerned that these tax cuts place an unfair burden on our children and grandchildren? >> first of all, let's really talk about whose money that is. it is not the federal government money. it is our money. when he says we are squandering the federal government's money, it is really squandering our money. those tax cuts will create that confidence that businesses need to go forward and provide those jobs. right now, as i said before, they are holding back because they can only see a climate of taxation and regulation. we needed to give them that confidence by making those tax cuts permanent. if we do, then a business like

the one in reno, where the senior partner is 82. if he should die, 55% of their business will go away and 33 employees will lose their jobs. we need to make the tax cuts permanent. >> we reduced the load of debt on the american people during the clinton years. we had a pay-go system. as a result of that, we had the most successful economic splurge and the history of this country. we created 22 million jobs and reduce the debt by going on -- $1 trillion. we can do this. when president bush came into office, he had a surplus. that was squandered with two wars, taxes on paid for, and now we have an $11 trillion debt.

we have to meet the demands of this country and pay down that debt. we need to reestablish the pay- ago rules and we have done that. we did that together. >> we are going to go to closing statements. senator reid, you will have about 45 seconds. >> got to find my notes. a lot of paper here. thank you very much, mitch, for what you have done here. first of all, i think we found tonight that my opponent favors big banks. she is against wall street reform, oil companies, she said bp had too much regulation. insurance companies -- it is obvious from the discussion on health care how much she cares for them. i am for the middle class. what we talk about tonight is jobs. we need to create more jobs. renewable energy jobs? she mocks them.

i am a fighter. i will continue to fight for what i believe is best for the american people. we have a long ways to go, but i will continue to do everything i can for the people of nevada. >> people often ask me why i smile so much. it is because i am an optimist. like ronald reagan, i believe in american essentialism. i believe that with god's help we have the solution for economic problems. they are as simple as cut back spending, payback the dead, and take back our economy by repealing obama-care. we have the right contract with america. that is our constitution and bill of rights. we have the right message -- lower taxes, less government regulation, more individual freedom, and stop the spending. we have the right angle for the u.s. senate. i am asking for your vote. >> once again, thank you to senator reid and ms. angle.

thank you for being part of this event. do not forget to vote occurred early voting begins this saturday and election day is november 2. >> tonight, political candidates and rallies. there'll be a debate from kansas city, then we head south to arkansas for another debate between blanche lincoln and three other candidates. later, president obama and vice president by then attend a rally for chris coons. six candidates competing for the

job of vermont governor. that is open after jim douglas announced he is retiring. you can watch these events tonight hear on c-span. in campaign news, the alaska senate race is a statistical tie. "the washington post" reports a poll shows the incumbent with 31% of the vote and republican joe miller with 33%. after losing the primary, murkowski is running as a write- in candidate. mcadams is now as close to the start of a leader at this -- since the start of the race. dino rossi and patty murray faced off in the washington senate debate. from ksps public television in

spokane, this is an hour. >> ksps public television and the broadcasters present this election 2010 special, the race for u.s. senate. >> and good evening and welcome to the first of only two scheduled debate between the candidates running for u.s. senate. i am the moderator for this debate. we're coming to live from a studio in spokane, washington. the debate is being seen locally. we are being heard on news radio 920.

why will introduce to now. jim camden, political reporter michelle dupler, and news anchor nadine woodward. we're joined by a studio audience. we want to get as many questions as we can in the next hour. the audience will hold applause until the end of the debate. let's get started. the candidates have one minute for opening statements. a coin flip determined mr. rossi will go first. >> america is in trouble. that is why i am running for the u.s. senate. if we don't have a course correction, i think we will wake up 24 months from now in a country we don't recognize. we have uncontrolled spending and government health care. we are moving down a path that

is very dangerous. so, the problem with washington, many people believe, is that they cannot admit when they're wrong. they cannot change course. that is what we are seeing here. we will have a spirited debate tonight, a debate between two candidates. i have a lot of respect for senator murray. this is not personal. i believe she is heading in the wrong direction. the extreme partisanship in washington, d.c., has taken its course and take us down the wrong path. i want to say thank you to ksps for putting on this debate. i want to say thank you to senator murray for joining me today. i hope to air all of the issues out here tonight. thank you. >> thank you for joining us this evening about who will be your voice and advocate in the united states senate. so many families are struggling today, not for anything they

did, but because of the mistakes on wall street. this state is my family. my family is hurting. that is why i am working hard to work with your leaders to get you jobs and get this country back on track again. i will take on even the most powerful to make sure that you have a voice at the table when these decisions are made. i grew up in washington, a small town, big family. my dad ran a store on main street. i learned those main street values of hard work and fighting for what you believe in. those are the values i take back to be your voice in the united states senate. i believe that by working together, we can solve the problems that come in front of us if we have the courage and take the responsibility. >> our first question comes from jim camden. >> the war in afghanistan is becoming one of the longest wars

this country has ever raised. the casualty count is rising as the search strategy is deployed, similar to what was used in iraq. i am wondering if you two could bolt tell us, how long should we be willing to stay in afghanistan, and under what circumstances should we be ripped -- should we be willing to leave? >> first, i want to say thank- you to the military families, especially in our state, and the men and women serving right now. take a step back and look at pre-9/11. in afghanistan, you had terrorist training camps. you had people who hate americans. they want to kill you and your grandchildren. we cannot let that happen again. we have had -- you see what has happened with the surge. it has taken six months for the troops to show up. they have only been there a

couple of months. i agree with president obama, with his choice in general petraeus. i do not agree with having a date certain as to when we will withdraw our troops. i think they will hide in the caves and wait until we leave, and come back down, and we could end up with more terrorist camps training people who want to kill us. we cannot allow that to happen. we have to give our military every tool possible so they can achieve their objective and come home as soon as possible. i want to give general petraeus a chance to move forward and make this work. >> senator murray? >> i will not forget september 11. i was in the nation's capital, happened to be looking out the window. i saw the smoke rising from the pentagon. i was proud of us because even though it was a divisive time, we came together, republicans

and democrats, and voted together to go to war on terrorists, wherever they exist. we have a number of military families now who have sacrificed so much for our nation. they have gone to iraq and afghanistan, three, four, even five times. we owe it to them to know where and how long they will be there and how much more sacrifice they have to give. we have been in afghanistan for nine years now to the tune of billions of dollars. i am one of a few senators who voted to tell this president that he does need to tell the american people how we can show that we're winning a war on terrorists wherever they exist. i don't believe we have a willing partner in president karzai right now that we can count on. at this time in our nation's history, when we are struggling with our economy and our precious resources, i think we owe it to the men and women who have been fighting for us and to

all of us as americans to ask the tough questions about whether or not a war on terror is, wherever they exist, and making sure that we take care of our military in a tough economic time, having boots on the ground in afghanistan, is the right policy. right questions to ask. >> you have 30 seconds to r ebut. >> we read that president cars a was meeting with the afghani taliban. they were meeting -- president karzai was meeting with the afghani taliban. they were meeting about a resolution. karzai fired his interior minister and people were very concerned about that. they put a new minister in who brought in 27 new police chiefs, who started making progress. we have to have progress on the ground if we expect to have any lasting effort in afghanistan.

>> senator marie? >> -- senator murray? >> one question is how we will pay for this. our country's in trouble today because we went to two wars without paying for it. mr. rossi supports extending tax cuts to the wealthiest americans. how do you tell our troops, the men and women who have fought so hard for us and come home with mental and as a "wounds of war, that we are going to be responsible for the decisions we make? we have to fight the war on terrorists wherever they exist. we have to say how we will pay for it. >> our next question is from a viewer. here is what is on his mind. >> my name is robert. i am from spokane. my question to the candidates is this. what will you do to create more jobs for washington state? thank you. >> senator murray?

>> that is a very important question. i talk about it all the time because so many families are hurting because they have lost their jobs, homes, mortgages. we have to make sure they do get back on the job. i come home every weekend and i talked to community leaders about what the needs are in their communities. i go back to washington, d.c., and fight for those investments so we can get people back on the job. here in spokane, i talked to your community leaders about the university district and creating the river point campus so we can start creating jobs, and health care is a very important economic sector. i got investment to help them get that off the ground. mr. rossi says he will not fight for those targeted investments. i say it is my job to fight for investment to help you in your

community to get back to work again. it is why i talked to so many mainstream businesses, who said they could not get the capital they needed to keep their doors open or put goods on their shelves. we passed the main street lending bill. the president signed it into law so that we can now have capital flowing to those businesses, so they can keep doors open. mr. rossi says he does not support that. my job is to make sure that your job is secure. >> mr. rossi? >> we have a functional unemployment rate in the state of washington of 17.4%. almost two out of every 10 people you know are not beating their families. i have been part -- traveling the state talking to business owners. i'm a small businessman myself. i'm on the dean's advisory board for the small business -- for small business at the university

of washington. they say there will not expand businesses. why? because they do not know what the government will do to them next week. they don't know what health care will cost. they don't know about the tax cuts that should have been real authorized. senator murray voted to adjourn before that happened. they are not going to expand businesses. senator murrah decided to adjourn before authorizing the tax cut. we will have the biggest increase in american history. her answer to jobs was more spending. barrault money from the saudis and others. the stimulus failed. they said unemployment would not go above 8%, but that did not happen. we have a very large deficit. it did not work.

federal government can create temporary government jobs. we need of entrepreneurs to create jobs. >> senator murray? >> i did not hear any jobs created in that cancer. i work with your of local community leaders to ask where the jobs will be in your community, and work with them to get investments. i work to make sure our main street businesses, like my dad's business when i was growing up, have the credit they need. it is why i fought so hard to make sure those tankers had a contract made by american workers at boeing, -- at boeing. this is one of my priorities and one i will keep working on. >> mr.mr rossi? >> they need certainty. they need modest taxation, predictable regulation, let them

chase the american dream. you do not punish them for succeeding with high tax rates. our government solution has failed. it is clear. it has failed. people know it has failed. she wants to do more of it. >> now to michelle. >> if you were to vote to increase spending for nuclear waste cleanup, the department of ecology has suggested it might be necessary to meet targets in a five-year plan. would you cut other parts of the budget to avoid increasing overall federal spending? if so, what would you cut? >> we will have to cut -- make reductions in this budget. as a senator, i was chairman of the senate ways and means committee during the largest dollar deficit in the staples of history. i worked to balance the biggest deficit without raising taxes.

we went line by line through the budget. that is what we will have to do. i have done it here in the state of washington. i have done it in a bipartisan fashion. it does not look like there's a lot of bipartisan effort going on in washington, d.c. there are a lot of things you can do. sitting here, you see there are things to be done. there's $275 billion available in the stimulus. why should federal employees have a better deal than the people footing the bill? you are talking about $30 billion. reducing the federal workforce by hiring back only one person for every two leave, you don't have to fire anybody. i have written the state budget before. you can make reductions. my framework in olympia was i was not going to raise taxes, but i would protect the most vulnerable people in society.

received the defender of liberty award for being the architect of the most fiscally conservative budget ever written in our state. i received six different awards from the this of -- from the developmentally disabled community. also, i received a senior star award from aarp. you can be fiscally conservative and still have a social conscience, and create room in the budget for the things you're talking about. >> senator murray? >> i did not hear an answer to question about the nuclear reservation. my grandfather came here in 1916. my father was in the tri-city when the reservation was built. i know we have a moral and a legal obligation in this country to clean up the nuclear waste that is seeping in the ground water toward the columbia river today. millions of gallons. i have fought republican

presidents and democratic presidents and numerous secretaries of energy to make sure that we meet that obligation. today, we do have tremendous challenges with our budget. the president has told us he is going to reduce our budget by 5% next year. we have to hold the to that. i have told them that the hanford nuclear reservation as part of our defense. he has told us we will not cut defense. i want to make sure hanford nuclear reservation does not get cut. we cannot afford to have that waste seeping toward the river. i heard in mr. rossi's winter that he would repeal the stimulus money. maybe he doesn't know this, but there are almost 3000 people employed by that stimulus money cleaning up that waste at hanford nuclear reservation right now. he said he would give them a pink slip and continue to let that waistcoat toward the river. >> mr. rossi?

>> what senator murray is not telling you is when president obama was a candidate, he said he would shut down yucca mountain in nevada, where nuclear waste is supposed to go. we're turning radioactive sludge into glass box. she remained silent when that happened. three red coat -- regulatory commissioners said they would not stop the president. she remained silent again. the nuclear waste will be all dressed up with nowhere to go. we have to get nuclear waste out of washington state. senator harry reid made that a platform in his campaign. it seems like senator murray is more concerned about his reelection then getting a clear waste out of the state of washington. >> i did not hear an answer to the question. that is about the priority of making sure we clean up hanford. it is one of the most important things i do.

i take it on with a president and they know it. mr. rossi is wrong. i have fought to make sure york amount and stays on our nuclear waste -- yucca mountain stays on our nuclear waste sites. the most serious threat to hanford is a budget cut. we cannot stop the waste -- we cannot let the waste continue going to the river. >> my name is brian. >> given that it seems social security and other entitlement programs are underfunded, how would you recommend these issues be resolved for those already retired and for those eligible in the next 20 years? senator murray? >> social security and medicare are two of the most important programs we have four seniors and for many disabled in this country. we know from the meltdown on the market and from what happened to

many people that making sure that social security is never privatized is absolutely critical. i have fought hard against the previous administration, who did try to privatize it. medicare is an important program. within the health care reform that mr. rossi want to repeal, we made important provisions that will now extend the life of medicare, making sure that we cut fraud and abuse, making sure that our senior citizens; donut hole is filled. it is part of the bill he wants to repeal. we need to make sure those programs are there for the future. we need to do it within the budget and the challenges we have today. the president has a commission that will make recommendations to us by the end of this year. everything is on the table. we have to be responsible and look at every area of our budget. i know, because my own parents lived through medicare. my dad had multiple sclerosis

and my mom had heart problems. i know how important it was that medicare was there for them. i want to make sure it is there for you. in order to do that, we have to make some very tough decisions in the future. you can count on me that we will make those decisions good for you. >> mr. rossi? >> we have to make sure we come through with what we promised seniors. senator murray and others have used the social security as a piggy bank. there is no trust fund. it is. just iou's. is all you know, right now, we're borrowing money rather cheaply. when interest rates go up, you will talk about 80 cents on every dollar that you send back to d.c. will be gone. we cannot pay back the iou's.

senator murray voted to raise taxes on social security. i don't think that is the right way to go. i think what we have here is you have a senator that says one thing in washington state and does another in washington, d.c. we have to be careful. senator murray voted to cut medicare by $500 billion with that health care bill. half the seniors recapped the people in medicare advantage will lose medicare advantage because of senator murray's vote on that legislation. we have some serious issues to deal with. that is one. we have to make sure we come through with what we promised our seniors. >> senator murray? >> i did not hear an answer again. if mr. rossi gets his way and we extend the tax cuts to the wealthiest americans, the top 2% in the country, to the tune of almost $1 trillion, there is no

way we can sustain the programs in front of us. i want to make sure that we do cut our budget. i'm a tough mom when it comes to our budget. i want to make sure we preserve the program to provide stability for families in every community. i will make sure that medicare and social security are there for you. >> rebuttal? >> once again, senator murray voted to raise taxes on social security. with the health care vote, senator murray actually voted to actually reduce spending on medicare by $500 billion. this is going to impair the programs we have four seniors when it comes to health care. i don't think her spending is going to help us preserve separate -- social security for the future. things we promised seniors that we should come through with. >> our next question is fromnadine. -- from nadine.

>> my question is two parts. the order works perfectly because the first one goes to mr. rossi. the republicans want to repeal health care reform. what would you replace the plan with? >> let's talk about the health care plan senator murray voted for. you will get a $695 fine if you do not buy health care. you are talking about a $500 billion cut to medicare. it goes to partially pay for a new entitlement when medicare is in trouble. $500 billion tax increase is what you're talking about. that will cost the boeing company $150 million. you are talking about tens of thousands of jobs in the state of washington being lost or not created because of senator murray's vote on this piece of legislation. it is really a problem, this health care bill. you're losing your freedoms. you lose your choices.

there are solutions. there are things you can do. there are a number of things you can do. you can allow individuals to buy health insurance from across state lines. lawsuit reform has helped reduce costs in some states. you can have health savings accounts. become a customer again. it is your money. allow individuals to band together and buy health insurance like the big boys do. those are four ideas. it will not bankrupt america. it will not add $2 trillion to the deficit. it can be done. there are answers. unfortunately, senator murray is marching down the wrong path. this could bankrupt america. it could also impair medicare. >> senator murray, how much of the legislation did you actually read before voting on the plan? are you concerned about its costs? >> not only did i read it, but i

helped to write it. let's remember that the only group of people that health care in this country was working for was our health insurance companies. every family, every business, every community was struggling with a double-digit increases. i believe that you should be able to pick a health care plan that works for you and your family. you should be able to choose your doctor. i want to make sure that we do control costs and increase access, and put the decisions of your health care back into your hands, and not into insurance companies' hand. spoke to a woman in spokane who came into me with a stack of papers. she told me that was the correspondence that she went back and forth with her insurance company for the last year. her husband was diagnosed with cancer and every single procedure and every single bill that she got, since the company

refused to pay it, she had to fight back. i believe that our health care bill will move us to a place where you have control once again, and your insurance company cannot deny you coverage or discriminate against you for the coverage that you deserve. i believe it is important that we move forward to deal with the cost. businesses were going under. they could not compete. we were not competitive globally. this plan, although not perfect, and we have to make sure it works, is a step in the right direction, and will finally give you control of your health care instead of an insurance company. >> mr. rossi, 30 seconds. >> we have some serious problems with this because we were sold a plan that somehow will reduce costs and increase access. clearly, most businesses i'm talking to individuals are saying it is as much as any% increase because of this piece

of legislation. we're told that we get to keep our health care. that is not the case. senator murray voted against an amendment that would have insured you get to keep your health care if you like it. breaking a promise. once again, saying one thing in washington state and doing another in washington, d.c. >> senator murray? >> i just for the talking points from the insurance company. mr. rossi want to repeal health care reform. tell that to the woman who just told me that for the first time, she can sleep at night because her daughter with cystic fibrosis will not be denied coverage for her health care. tell that to the senior citizen who is now, because of health care reform, going to not fall into the donut hole and have prescription drug coverage. tell that to the thousands of people in bankruptcy today because their insurance denied them coverage after they paid their bills. >> our next coverage is from adam.

this is an e-mail question. senator murray? >> this is a very important question, and when i have faced many times. our rivers system is extremely important to the economy of this region and to our entire state. we need to make sure that our farmers can ship their wheat to markets overseas. we need to make sure that the barges can go up and down the river. we need to make sure the fish get passage through the columbia river, out to the ocean. we need to make sure that those people who rely on the hydropower system have that securely in place. i have been very consistent in saying we will not remove the dams in eastern washington. we have to make sure that this region works for everyone. it does not mean we don't have

to work hard to make sure fisher of passage. we need to make sure our farmers have irrigation. we need to make sure that everyone comes together to solve the tough problems of the future. i can tell you, as someone who grew up in the tri-city, i know the importance of the columbia river. >> mr. rossi? >> i actually flew over when they have the save the dams rally. i was on that bridge that night, that very cold night. we had a number of elected officials in the city of seattle that thought it would be a good idea. it would have been the worst things you could have done for the state of washington. hydroelectric power is quite a blessing. it is a blessing for the state. it is a low cost of power and it is renewable energy. as far as i know, it will keep on raining. as long as it keeps on training,

we will have power. that is the good news. we have to make sure we protect these bands. these dams are vital to our economy and vital to eastern washington. i have already been there in this battle. i was a western washington state senator at the time when i flew over to stand on that bridge. i am here with you today. >> senator murray, 30 seconds. >> there is more to this issue than just dam removal. we must have the resources in place to fix the dams and work with the communities to make sure that we maintain them. mr. rossi wants to give away a huge tax increase. we will not have the resources to do that if he gets his way. >> mr. rossi? >> i might as well talk about the tax increase. senator murray is talking about giving us the biggest tax increase in american history because she decided to vote to

adjourn before they reauthorized the tax cut. she's playing class warfare. we're talking about small business owners who would invest in their business to hire people. that is how we will get out of the problem we have with unemployment. we have to help small businesses be successful. senator murray does not understand that. >> our next question is from jim camden once again. >> a federal judge ordered the reinstatement of a spokane nurse back into her ear for resorts unit after she was discharged under "don't ask, don't tell. the judge said that her discharge was disruptive to tribunate. if this is to be applied across the military, the military will

have to show that an individual soldier's discharges better for the units than the military -- the entire military branch. should congress repealed "don't ask, don't tell," or let it stand even in the face of the standards in a separate federal court ruling that says it is unconstitutional? >> it appears to have been working up until now. there will be a report that will come out and i want to see what it says. i want to see what the commanders and the military men and women have to say about this. what does it mean to the military? how will it work? i will listen to what i have to say. i will listen to what this report has to say and thoroughly investigated before making a decision. the way i look at this thing, my reasonable, rational, responsible. that is the lens i will look for when i make this decision as a

u.s. senator. >> senator murray? >> i am not only going to completely respect that major, but i'm a sponsor of the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell." i speak to so many veterans who have come home from iraq and afghanistan, who served their country honorably. i talked to men and women on the ground and they know that everyone who wants to give back to this country by serving in the military ought to be able to do it. the major is a hero and i hope that she and many other men and women who are gay or lesbian are able to serve our military just like of appeals. i talked to a young woman here in spokane who is a senior in high school, who told me that her dream, when she gentry -- went to graduate in june, is to serve our country in the military. she told me the honor code she has to take is going to keep your from serving in the military because she is gay.

i think that is wrong. she should be able to pursue her dream. >> would you like to respond? >> we will see what the report has to say. we have to make sure that it actually works and makes sense. i will look of the report and i will make a decision based upon that, and also further investigation, talking to men and women of the military. they're the ones who will be affected as well. all this has to be done in a rational way. >> senator murray? >> i do not know how you look someone in the eye and tell them after they served 20 years for our country and on the -- done amazing work that all the sudden, they are second-class citizen. >> we will share another taped question with you. >> my name is ryan. i'm a senior at eastern washington university. i question has to do with college tuition. i encourage the going to school full time and working part time. i'm in the process of getting a

second job and i just took out another student loan to help pay bills. unfortunately, my parents' combined income is just over the line that would make me eligible for financial assistance. what would be a candidate do to bring relief to middle-class families like mine that are not poor enough to receive assistance from the government, but not rich enough to pay for everything, either? >> senator murray? >> thank you for asking that question. i know exactly how you feel. i grew up in a family with seven kids and my dad got sick right before a graduated from high school, diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. of a sudden, we did not know if we would be able to go on to college. my family struggled, but they made the decision they would work very hard to make sure all of us were able to go to college. because we had a country at our backs, all seven of us were able to go to college through pell grants and student loans. that is exactly why i just voted to make sure that the banks got

out of the business of providing student loans to a profit for the banks, and put that money back into student loans, students like you, so you can go to college. we are increasing the number of students who get federal help because of that decision. i think it is imperative that we worked in every way we can to help our young people get through college. i know our state legislators are struggling because of budget cuts. tuitions are rising. the federal government's responsibility is to make sure any students, no matter who they are or where they come from, whether it is a family like mine or yours, has the ability to go to college. it is important for our country, our future, and our competitiveness. i will do everything i can to make sure you and anyone like you can go to college. >> mr. rossi? >> i am the youngest of seven kids raised on the seattle public schoolteacher's salary. i want to go to college. i worked a number of different

jobs to make my way through the school of business. i work construction, but mainly as a janitor. i received need grants and other help through student loans, which is why, when i was writing the budget as chairman of the ways and means committee, where we have the biggest deficit in state history, i make sure the need grant was available. there were trying to funnel it into a couple of different areas and i said no. i was willing to lay down a railroad track to make sure it was available for kids like me. i ended up receiving this stan m leecnotten award -- stanley mcnotten award for providing that funding. our oldest is a sophomore in college. i know what it is like to fill out a fafsa form. we need to make sure that there are loans available. we need to make sure that need

grants are available for children who cannot afford it. the education will be the key to their future. it certainly helped me. i am well aware of that. >> senator murray? >> what i did not hear now that cancer is whether or not he would agree with me that we should not be giving the banks the responsibility to give student loans to a profit while of them. i have consistently voted that that money go directly to students so more students are served and our banks do not get a profit. >> mr. rossi? >> the part of the tape of government has been part of the student loans. now you have to go to government. having more banks and more options makes sense. i would like to see every student have options in front of them. i had options. students should have options. parents need to have options. unfortunately, the options are getting limited because of

government control. >> our next question comes from michelle once again. >> would you support providing amnesty to the undocumented workers currently living in the united states? if so, how you determine who gets amnesty? if you would not, how you address the resulting shortage of seasonal agricultural labor if the workers are deported? >> mr. rossi? >> this is a big issue and a complete and utter failure on the part of the federal government to control borders. i do not support amnesty. we have to get control of our borders. we have had people who have come across an been deported, come across, and been deported, and committed violent crimes. we have to make sure we have a tall fence with a high gate. that means a physical barrier so people cannot just come across. we need to know who's coming to america. the high gate, why do i say

that? it has been a complete failure on the federal parliament's part to allow people to come to chase that american dream. my grandparents came from italy. they came through ellis island. the came to america because they believed it would be a better place for themselves and their grandchildren. we want people to come here to chase the dream. we have to know who they are. we have to know if they have a criminal background. we have to have a system that allows people to come to work temporarily, whether it is in agriculture or in the high-tech industry. we have to know who they are. we have to know if they can come here legally. we have a serious challenge ahead of us. unfortunately, the federal government has failed us. we have to do something about this. it needs to be done because our agricultural community need help. high-tech need help. we need people to come here. the lifeblood of america is the people who come here to chase the american dream. >> senator murray? >> i agree we need

comprehensive immigration reform. affect our economy, our way of life, and our competitiveness. i talked to some farmers recently who told me that because we don't have clear laws in this country, they don't know if they can get their crops picked that are on the trees right now. they say their businesses are in jeopardy. that is why i do support ag jobs being part of a comprehensive immigration reform. we do need to protect our borders. we need to make sure those people who come here come here legally. that includes our northern border. i have fought administration's tooth and nail to make sure that our northern border is protected just as our southern border is. we have to make sure that those young people who have come here at a very early age and go for our schools, and get good grades, have a place to go when they graduate. i talked to a young woman who said she lives in the shadows today because she came here when she was 3.

now she has no place in our country. we have to have a clear, concise pathway to citizenship that does include learning english, that does include a fine, that does include some direction. what i did not hear out of mr. rossi was what he would include in a package that he says we failed to pass so far. >> mr. rossi? >> senator murray does approve of amnesty. what needs to happen is, we need to secure the border. all the arguments are academic if we don't secure the border. we have to know who is coming. we have to know the background. we have to have a system in place, may be a virtual ellis island. we can bring people here temporarily if they want to work temporarily. >> senator murray?

>> mr. rossi forgot that he did vote for a form of an amnesty when he was in the senate. he did. i will tell you that what i believe this we need a comprehensive immigration reform system that includes ag jobs, make sure high-tech companies can bring workers here, have a clear practices as a region citizenship, and make sure those farmers -- have a clear path to citizenship, and make sure those farmers can get temporary workers. i will work with anybody to come to a reasonable compromise on this because it is important. >> another question from nadine. >> our audience will like this question. it was inspired by one of our viewers. clearly frustrated with the mudslinging that has been going on in this race. both of you are running ads that depict your opponents as someone who has made poor decisions in

the past. is there anything your opponent has done for the state of washington that you approve of? >> senator murray, that is yours to start with. >> that is a great question. i do admire mr. rossi for getting into this race. i know how difficult it is and how much time it takes. it is hard on your family. i know when he got into the race, he asked his family because it is a huge sacrifice. i appreciate that. i know he comes here with our compassion. i respect that. i will tell your viewers that one of the things i am deeply concerned about is the supreme court ruling on a 5-4 decision by one vote that allows these ads to come into our state. you don't know who has paid for them. it could be a multinational corporation or form company. millions of dollars. i voted to have them tell you who is paying for that. i know mr. rossi opposes that.

that i don't agree with him on. mr. rossi >> . -- >> mr. rossi. >> senator murray and her staff have done good work with veterans. i will be a senator and i will devote -- i will do great work with veterans as well. talk about the ads as if there is some equivalent figure. we are both running ads. mine have the added advantage of being the truth. senator murray's ads have been called false and dishonest, and grossly malicious. those are not just casual words. they take half a sentence and throw it into a whole commercial. that is a problem with what is going on right now with politics. you're seeing things that are taken out of context and put it on tv. you're seeing an incumbent desperate to have six more years. that is what this is about. she does not want to talk about

things such as the stimulus for the bailout she voted for for the banks and others. she was trying to change the subject. that is what you're seeing going on a inad ag -- going on in ad after ad. the newspapers have been saying her ads are false, do not pass the smell test. this is a problem. we have come a long way from the good intentions that senator murray had when she started as a senator 18 years ago. senator murray >> -- >> senator murray? >> i appreciate the endorsements of those newspapers that mr. rossi site. i'm proud of the work i do for washington state, for veterans, making sure our local communities have the strongest advocate ever to fight for them and make sure they have what they need in this economy,

making sure that we do protect everyone here, and that they feel strong again. that is what i do. i think the fact that the if you have to say who you are and who paid for the at. i do on my aunt. i don't understand why mr. rossi does not want hedge fund'' managers -- >> we are out of time. mr. rossi? >> if we have full disclosure, we talk about the fact that after the bailout of the big banks, senator murray has half a million dollars in contributions from the big banks. the health care bill, she has $1 million worth of contributions. that is part of the disclosure. you have a senator that says one thing in the washington, does another thing in washington, d.c., and which washington do you represent? >> we move to another question from a viewer. mr. rossi will go first.

>> my name is sean. my questions are, with politics becoming more and more partisan, what are your plans on bridging that gap, even if it means going against party leadership? are you willing to risk alienating your party membership for the best of the american people and not for your career? >> mr. rossi? >> that is the hallmark of what i did as a state senator. when i was chairman of the senate ways and means committee, we have the biggest deficit in state of history. the democrats controlled the house. a democrat was governor at the time. i put together a bipartisan budget to balance the biggest deficit in state history without raising taxes. i had 51 different bills that were necessary to implement the budget.

not a single one of the bills or the budget passed on a party- line vote. why? the well looked at it, the problem was too big for one party to solve. that is how i look at it in the washington, d.c. it is too big for one party to solve. senator murray has been working with the majority. she is number four in leadership. she has been working with the majority who has been ramming through pieces of legislation, such as the health care bill. it is a highly partisan bill. she has been at the epicenter of partisanship in d.c. this is what has to end. in washington, d.c., the problems we have are too big for one party to solve. you have to open yourself up to do that. i drove around the state and i said, look, i need your help. i cannot do this by myself. many democratic senators came forward to help me. worked out for the state. without that budget -- two years

later, we ended up with the biggest surplus the state had ever seen. >> senator murray? >> i will start with the premise that my state, my community, and the families of represent come first. i will take on anyone to make sure we take care of our state. when president bush tried to prose -- to close veterans hospitals, i opposed it. i went after president obama and reinstated hospitals serve veterans for taken care of. when it comes to hanford nuclear reservation, i have taken on democrats and republicans because -- democrats and republicans and i will continue to do so. my colleague from maine and i worked together to pass the port security act to make sure the containers coming in and out of

airports after september 11 did not have any kind of terrorist materials that could hurt all of us and our communities. it is why worked with john mccain when three young kids lost their lives in a pipeline accident in washington nine or 10 years ago to pass the nation's pipeline safety laws. when it comes to immigration policy we have talked about, or health care, or the challenge of creating jobs, i will work with our communities and community leaders and anyone to try and solve the problems that come before this nation. >> mr. rossi? >> we did not hear anything about how the health care bill was bipartisan. it wasn't. it was the very partisan piece of legislation. senator murray being number four in leadership in washington, d.c., she did not reach across the aisle to bring republicans on. we have a very serious problem

here with a very partisan u.s. senator. one issue after another, financial reform was another one. you go through the issues, and it has been highly partisan. i will mark -- i will work with anybody to turn this country around. we need to do this. >> senator? >> what i did not hear in all of that is how mr. rossi is going to work on the real challenges in front of us. our debt, making sure people get jobs, making sure that our veterans are taken care of, these are issues that are bipartisan. i have a strong history of working a senator on the work force investment act so young people have the skills they need to get the jobs in their communities. i have worked with centers across the aisle many times. i do find the partisan rhetoric right now is troubling. i am hoping that after the election, the tax cuts he keeps referring to, we will come to an agreement on that. it is important that are middle-

class families to have tax cuts. i will work to make that happen. >> we're to the point where our last question of the debate is here. you will each have 30 seconds. the question comes from jim camden. >> you talk about replacing the air force's tanker. both of you say you support boeing building that tanker. you also say that illegal subsidies should be taken into account, but not for boeing. i'm wondering, if it can demonstrate it can build a better plan for less money in the u.s., why shouldn't the pentagon give them the bid and start replacing the tankers? >> that is exactly what i've been fighting for for a long time. if we have a level flit -- level playing field and illegal subsidies are taken into account so airbus cannot have a lower price, and have a fair playing field, then i believe that we

will win that contract and the boeing workers will be building those airplanes that our military are going to fly. it is important to remember that this is a security issue for our country. i believe those tankers should be built by americans and paid for by american tax dollars. >> mr. rossi? >> airbus has an outrageous level of subsidies and they have cost the aerospace industry and america 50,000 jobs so far. we need to take all of that into account. i really believe the boeing employees will be able to put a better product out there. i have had a family member working continuously for the boeing company since world war ii. this is something that is near and dear to my heart. senator murray like to be thought of as the senator from boeing. i say, where you from, chicago or south carolina? the headquarters move to chicago

and the new plant moved to south carolina. >> senator murray? >> i take a backseat to no one in fighting to make sure people in our community have jobs. boeing is an important employer. here in spokane, boeing is extremely important. we have a lot of aerospace industry here. i have a bipartisan effort going with senator bond to make sure we do find the aerospace industry, what we did not do for the auto industry, and make sure we start talking today about being a work force for them, making sure defense contracts are there, making sure we have the right kind of trade policies so we have a strong aerospace sector in the future. i take a backseat to nobody on that. mr. rossi, 30 seconds. >> we need to make sure boeing is healthy. we need to make sure that all businesses in the state of washington are healthy. we need to go in a different direction than where we are going right now. the boeing company does not like the tax increase that senator

murray gave them with the health care bill. they do not like hard check, which is taking away secret balloting in union organizations. senator murray is a sponsor of this. there are things senator murray is doing that is detrimental to them. >> time for the closing statements. each candidate will have one minute. mr. rossi will start. . for putting this on today. thank you senator murra i truly appreciate the debate. we have some serious issues ahead of us in this country. we will have to make a decision. which direction do you really want to go? you have an 18-year incumbent that has voted for bailing out banks and the stimulus, which has added $1 trillion to the deficit. we have an 18-year incumbent that has killed in jos in the state of washington on vote

after vote after vote on heah care and financial reform and others. you can go with senator murray or you can come with me. i am lookingt a very different direction. i will allow entrepreneurs to be successful. i want washington ste to get back to work again. come with me because we can do this. as americans, we do not sit when we see something wrong. we want to fix it. that is what i plan on doing as your next united states senator. i would be happy to have your support. >> there is a very clear choice in this election. i want to thank mr. rosset for participating as well. but what mr. rossi did not tell you tonight is that he wants to repeal wall street reform. i believe we have to keep those protections in place so that your mortgage and your finances are never in the hands of the wall street baers again. mr. rossi has told to throw this election he will fight for you for locally targeted investments. he will leave that to a d.c.

bureaucrat. i will fight for you every time. he did not tell you tonight that he wants to go back to the bush economic policies that got us into this mess, goi to two wars without paying for it, passing tax cuts that are not paid for, and leaving past decisions today that hurt all this. i want to make sure that we pay for what we responsibly u.s. leaders. those are the decisions we need to make. when my dad got sick and my family had to be frugal, i knew that you made tough choices, but you invested in the future. those are the kinds of decisions i will make as your senator. >> thank you to the candidates and to you, the panel. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] >

>> starting at 8:00, and it's a fighting for the missouri senate seat debate. then we will head south to arkansas for another debate between blanche lincoln, john bozeman, and two other candidates. later, president obama and vice president biden attend a campaign rally for chris coons. then the vermont governors debate. the west virginia senate race, the democrat governor who is 10 points ahead of his republican challenger. this is in the race to succeed the late robert byrd. the 10 point lead is one of the largest in any of the races.

next, we had to tennessee where the candidates for governor met in the final debate before the midterm election. the candidates discussed how to fix the budget deficit and ways to improve education. they are not replacing the governor who it is stepping down due to term limits. >> your voice, your vote. in just days, the polls vote -- open for early voting. >> we are letting you know where they stand on the issues most important to you. thank you for joining us. tand on issues important to you. >> you will hear from the two leading candidates for the race for governor. bill haslam is involved with a

chain of truck stops and mcwherter.o mike >> we have two panelists who will be asking the majority of the questions. norm brewer and otis sanford. >> we want to thank our partners for this debate. the commercial appeal and the organization impact memphis. prior to the meeting, there were briefed on the format for this debate. we will begin with opening statements from each candidate. >> each will have one minute. the order was selected by a drawing prior to tonight. we will move to the question and answer portion of our debate. >> we will move to the opening

statements. >> i want to thank you. i am a native of west tennessee. i understand the important role that memphis plays not only in the state but also in this region. west tennessee is not a campaign stop. it is home. i am a businessman, not a career politician. a businessman with a plan to bring jobs through the tennis last true tennessee. create a job, get a tax break. bill says there is not much we can do to help in that regard. he has run millions of dollars worth of ads that he has not told us anything. he will not reveal his income taxes. he will not detail his assets and he does not want anyone to know about the price gouging lawsuits that have been filed against pilot. these are

>> if you are going to be the governor of tennessee and in what tennessee to do well, west tennessee and memphis have to do well. the governor has to spend a lot of time here in the campaign. we spent 55 days during the campaign in shelby county and the other 15 in west tennessee. the university of memphis and met this city schools or the largest employers. we have to understand the potential impact around the issues. the challenges facing our next

governor are huge. it may be the biggest of any time in the history of our state. we need a governor that has done his homework and is prepared to lead. >> we would now move to the question and answer portion of our debate. >> are moderators will be asking questions this evening. the candidate will have one minute to answer. after that, the other cadet will be allowed one minute for rebuttal. we'll ask as many questions as possible. we asked the candidates to stay within their allotted time. we will cut you off if we have to. >> good evening to you both. mr. mcwherter, i will start with you. many of our viewers and readers say that lack of jobs is their number-one issue. both you and your opponent have talked a lot about job growth during the campaign, but i would like to ask you specifically what part of your job plan focuses on older workers, people

in their 50s and early 60s who are increasingly being unemployed but are not ready for retirement? >> my job plan is across the board picked its effects every -- it affects every city and community across tennessee. i have talked about giving a -- providing a plan of tax incentives and tax credits for small businesses. that is where you see a lot of older employees who are employed across the state of tennessee. it is a plan modeled after what they did in illinois. the gaping tax credit for every additional job was created. i believe it can be used in tennessee. it will impact everyone involved. it is something we have to develop here in the state of tennessee because older people, and i hate to use that phrase, the older people are the ones most impacted by this economy.

i have a solid plan that will help them to find employment. >> i spent yesterday talking to people from the aarp. we talked about that issue a lot. it is critical. the number of people in that age group is going to almost be up 40% 15 years from now. there is a huge value in understanding the experience of our workers. i have seen this as a americas and in business. i was surprised and many of our

workers were further up in their years. that experience tell me when i was mayor and i look forward to that when i'm governor. >> i have heard you say several times in the course of this campaign that you do not like the question about ask because in your opinion and does not reflect a legitimate issue before the people in the state. the question is about transparency in government. i can assure you that in this part of the state in particular, transparency is a nation of more than passing interest to a lot of people. you have refused to open your tax returns on the grounds that they reveal nothing that people don't already know about your personal finances are any possible conflict of interest should use it in the governor's office. returns or sealed, all you and your accountants can do that.

why not let the people make that judgment for themselves? why not trust the judgment of the people? >> first of all, i do not dislike the question. i think it is a fair question. i understand what people ask it. i think it is important. you can project might record out for transparency for what the city did and what i have done as mayor. everybody knows every investment i have made, every asset that i own. there is no secret. the truth is i am not just a candidate. i am a son, i am a brother, i am and uncle. i honestly believe that everything the people of tennessee want to note they do know. the best thing to do is to judge someone on the record. i have been mayor for seven years. i have lived up to the highest ethical standards. the people of knoxville

reelected me with a% of the vote. >> i had a real problem with this. i have fully disclosed my income taxes for the last three years. i have a fully detailed every asset that i possibly own. i disagree with bill haslam on this issue entirely. i think the voters do have a right to know if you have a conflict of interest. he has not been forthcoming with all of his assets or his income taxes. it presents a real quandary. transparency is very important in the state of tennessee because we need to know if our elected officials are benefiting themselves to the extent of using tennessee taxpayer dollars. on what the people in tennessee to understand exactly where any conflicts of interest i might possibly have -- i think that is a ground war we have worked for

in this state. i have never known a major candidate for state office who has one and not shared their information with the vote -- with the voters of tennessee. >> do the rules allow me to have a response? >> if you want to take some time from your answer to the next question that would be fine. >> not to a question submitted to wreg.com. i am a state employee. we have not had a raise in three years. health insurance has gone up. mr. mcwherter? >> it is clear we have been in a tight budget picture. state employees have been very patient with this situation. it needs to be addressed. there is no question about it. we are asking many of them to do more with much less in the way of support and resources. i definitely want to look at

that situation as the opportunity presents itself. if i can get my job plan passed in the legislature, you will have more people at work. when you have more people at work, you have consumers. with consumers, you have a revenue to help move forward and help to move the state board in many ways. i think that should be a priority of the state of tennessee is to look at their workers because we have a huge amount of institutional knowledge that we are going to lose to the private sector. there is no question about it. i do think that is to be a focus for the next governor of the state of tennessee. how'd you address the needs of our state workers. >> might said something that is not right. every one of my assets have been laid out. a reporter from the commercial appeal has gone through all my investments.

there's been a detail list of where my chair took object -- charitable contributions have gone too. it is not fair to say that people do not know what my assets or. i have released all of that. the question is a very important one. the tennessee employees have not had a raise in three years. the blueprint governor bredesen put out does not show another race for two more years. it is too long for a -- for working families to go without a race. as mayor over the last three difficult years, we have averaged pay raises of over 3%. in hard times --

a strengthening sentencing laws will do more to cut back on that than anything else. do we pay more now or pay more later? we can actually strengthen the sentences. everyone will tell you that the bad guys know what the consequences are for their crimes and at times they're willing to make a gamble on committing a crime because they

know that this sentence might not be that long. the need for jail time will diminish. >> you have not disclosed what assets the company has that you are invested in. the legislature addressed this issue in large part this year and they diddling them some sentences but they did is that it in the case it will be revenue neutral. at the same time that they have lengthened the sentences for violent criminals, they have provided for some alternatives as well. i think getting he's find the criminals off the streets is exactly what we need to do. -- i think of getting these violent criminals off the

streets is exactly what we need to do. >> speaking of television advertisements, one of your new television spots of finance fault with your opponents because one of his company's has bought or is buying oil from what the spot describes as socialist venezuela. you own a budweiser distributor ship. budweiser is sound bite in that -- is owned by inbev. did you know that they are the third largest seller of beer in venezuela? >> i am a customer of anheuser- busch. there is a huge difference between my relationship with them and his relationship with

the company in luxembourg. i am aware of what you are referring to. no one else from anheuser-busch serves on my board of directors and i'm not on there is. there is a huge difference. my opponent's family owned 100% of pilot but i think that this is misleading. clearly he has a partner in luxembourg who is a full equity partner and has a great deal to say about what is going on. >> isn't selling and will end as

well the same thing as selling beer in venezuela? >> i am not doing that. there is a difference. how do you reconcile this with selling oil to venezuela? >> we are actually a customer of yours. if he wanted to that kind of -- if fair question to ask is can you even sell your business without their approval? you have to sell upon their approval. to say you are just a customer of theirs is quite a stretch. the leading his importer of oil from venezuela is where the united states. othis is a silly issue to be

honest. the people of tennessee want to talk about things that matter like who can create jobs. i am disappointed that he keeps going down this path. >> we will go on to one of our questions that was submitted from one of our viewers. both of you talk about how you would support the school system in your objectives. >> i have spent a lot of time at the university of minces to understand what the unique capacity tsar. -- to understand what the unique

capacity is. there are unique research institutions like the university of memphis, with st. jude, with the logistics that memphis has, with some of the services that we have available. when you are competing for jobs, you want to compete for things that you have that other people don't. we can take the research consortium and build on that. >> memphis has always been a center for medical treatment. people travel here from literally all over the world to seek medical treatment in this city. we can do much to promote the university of memphis. this is an essential ingredient. i am pleased to know that this

is named for my father. it will be a priority for me to make sure that we have adequate funding because this serves students throughout this region. i really believe that there is a role that they can play with the medical services that are available here in memphis, tenn., that are not available anywhere else. >> memphis has been one of the most large distribution and traffic centers in the country. west governing -- west tennessee has been left out of the

charging systems for the coming wave of electronic vehicles. ithe mayor of our city who is nt happy about this. would you be prepared to support him? >> i am absolutely supportive of this. i don't know why it west tennessee would be left out. i would be an advocate for changing that policy. i know they did to the tranquil but we definitely need to be participating in that program.

>> we don't want to use our municipal stations for this. we had a good working relationship. this is an easy problem to fix. >> now the candidates will have a chance to question each other. >> each candidate will have a total of two minutes to answer the other question, however to only have 15 seconds to answer each question that they want a response. >> in a debate last month, i ask you about the to under $90

million with the cuts and higher education would suffer. you said at the time there was wrong about the cuts. i was hoping that your strutted budget more and you want to correct yourself. >> i think that you are wrong about those numbers. howard -- higher education is taking some cuts. i am committed to making sure that we prioritized higher education in this state. the governor has been very responsible in taking stimulus money and utilizing it on onetime expenses. >> do you really not understand

that we are losing touch hundred $90 million in higher ad cuts -- $290 million in higher education cuts. >> i understand that there are cuts coming but i think that your numbers are wrong. >> those are printed numbers. >> during hurricane ike, your company was price gouging your customers all the way through five states. is that to the kind of leadership you will provide in tennessee, putting your own interest first? >> i am surprised how anti-pilot to you are. during the hurricane, we were

out of product. in that process and in a handful of occasions, pricing it was made. we are a customer that -- company that is based on community service and low prices. >> you got caught price gouging. the attorney general's proof that you charged $5 a gallon. i am flabbergasted how you would not try to take responsibility.

>> mistakes were made. i know that you want to keep this going. you have a history based on low prices. we are doing the opposite. we were going along wayne. -- a long way. >> the candidates will have one minute to answer each question, the other will have a minute to offer their response. we keep hearing from a movie director that they would love to shoot their some but it tennessee does not offer adequate incentives such as new

orleans >> of river is a well- known movie maker. will you expand funding for movies? >> all of us would love to have filmmaking happen here. when you commit to expand in that, you have to be wise with taxpayer dollars.

you don't want to be making investments that are not wise for the taxpayers. this is not our money. >> this will not necessarily be the benefit that you think? >> other states give money based on what is below the line. that is what we do. i don't know if we want to be giving tax rebates on money that is going to a hollywood star. >> what is your take on that? >> we need to aggressively go after that industry. i understand that some other states provide more tax incentives and tax credits but i think that there is a real marketing aspect to tennessee

that we can promote it. mint is has a wonderful cultural heritage. we need to go after these kinds of potential of alamance where we can bring them into the state. -- potential alamancelements whe bring them into the state. >> do you support a arizona tightened immigration law? -- do you support an arizona style immigration law? have you ever hired an illegal immigrant? >> we always thoroughly check the background of anyone who applies. we have very little turnover so

this is not happen very often. i'm confident that we have not hired anyone who is not here legally in the united states. as to the arizona law, i was recently at a county and i was standing up at a construction site with someone who is in the business and he was telling you what an unfair is an issue is that because his competitors -- what an unfair disadvantage he is because his competitors are hiring illegal workers. we should penalize anyone who is not adhering to the laws. as far as arizona goes, they passed that law out of frustration because the federal government has completely failed to pass a uniform law which will provide for the states across the country.

>> the source of this problem is people coming here for jobs if that is the issue, what we need to do is cut off the problem where this is happening and make sure that those who are hiring illegally are penalized. this will solve our problems faster than everything. 50% of the illegal immigrants come through arizona. they have reacted to a very special situation. >> has this never happened as far as you know? >> it never happened. >> this is a question for both of you.

infant mortality rates in this state have been high compared to the rest of the country. they also approached third world members from time to time. there was a bill passed to keep this from happening and it was included in the budget and passed over much difficulty. would you keep this happening? >> i absolutely would. the infant mortality, obesity, these are driving the numbers high. i think that that program is a good program and i want to see it to stay in tennessee. >> it is unfortunately that we ranks so low or so high however you look at this. in many cases, and this is much

higher than in other areas of the state. i think that this is because a lot of the poverty that exists in shelby county and lack of access to health care. we need to do everything we can to support families and give them the knowledge that they need to take care of their young children. at the same time, make sure that we are giving them proper education. if you look at some other statistics, literally one in four mothers continues to smoke throughout their pregnancy. this does not do anything but contrary to a low birth weight. it was bill's party that tried to cut funding for this program and the legislature this year and i think that this is wrong. >> and do you support medical malpractice reform which

require mandatory arbitration and caps on the monetary awards that juries and judges can impose to in malpractice lawsuits? >> what you are talking about is tort reform. i am open to anything that is reasonable. any thing that comes forward. i do not want to cut off a victim's rights to seek justice when they have been hurt by someone's negligence or failure to act. in florida, when you start talking about the nursing home industry, they raise quality standards. because of that, they have had less losses. that is what we need to look at and make sure that we are not driving doctors out of the state by not making them go through all kinds of additional testing. i think it is important that we

protect victims' rights. if some 12-year-old has been hurt, they should be compensated and be able to take care of them. >> can you address this issue? >> we have a big issue in the country with health care costs. if the government provides a primary provider, we have to look at why that is. part of that is usage. we are testing ourselves too much. one of the reasons is that physicians are worried about getting sued. we must have a capt. place that will let doctors -- we must have a cap in place that will let doctors work. when they did that in texas,

doctors can running to the state. we have dr. is visiting everywhere. one of the rule consensus do we have enough doctors and specialists to take care of our needs. >> memphis has its own unique financial problems at this has come up in the past, the issue of the payroll tax. would you be in favor of this? i would not. as the mayor, it bothered me that we had the state telling us what to do.

>> i don't think that there are going to create jobs by adding additional taxes. as you get people back to work, you have consumers. >> is three years ago when we had pretty much full employment in the state of tennessee, the legislature's stayed in session four weeks. they have not done that the last two years because we have been in a recessionary economy but i don't think adding taxes at this point and time is any kind of solution towards adding jobs in mantis or anywhere else in

tennessee. >> and the latest national education testing, tennessee public-school students rank at or near the very bottom. what if anything can the next governor do to help these kids catch up? >> the first thing we should do is to improve our efficiency. if you raise the bar, kids will react to that. the governor can do a lot. the second thing we can do is make sure we have great teachers in the classroom.

we should make certain we have great principles. a great teacher, state, there is a great principle. we have this great taint in tennessee. we are not using all that data to intervene the way we should. parents and teachers will have a more realistic plays for where we are. >> i am pleased to say that tennessee teachers have endorsed the campaign. i also happen to be a member of the tennessee business roundtable and i am not taking credit for doing this but it was their initiative was helped to raise the standards of graduation for all of our students. the students will be very disappointed with the test

scores. we are not condemning them to failure. what we're trying to do is to us raise the standards so that they can fulfill the jobs of today's and tomorrow's workplace. i applause many of these efforts that were made. we are finally headed and the right direction. i'm excited to be the first governor who will implement the fund. >> one thing that this campaign has shown that you endure candidate are pretty wealthy individuals. what in your background makes you more capable of understanding the issues of the

average person in tennessee, particularly people who have low incomes or who are in poverty? >> this is a fair question. one of the wonderful things about being a mayor is that there's nothing as hands on. you have a unique ability to understand the situation that families are in. how do we help those who are economically disadvantaged? we have made some remarkable progress there.

there is no job that repairs you for dealing with all the varieties of situations that peoplehood like as much as a mayor. >> i am a product of public schools. i understand the role that the public schools need to play. a lot of people think that i went right into a family business. i borrowed the money, i ate open to the business. i have met a payroll, i have built a budget, i know what it is to provide health-care benefits for the people that you work with. i am much more main street. it was a main street that led us out of the recession out of 1981

and 1991. that is why i think that my japs -- might jobs platform is important. >> each candidate will have a total of two minutes to answer the questions but they only have 45 seconds to ask each other each individual question. they're responding candidate will have 45 seconds to respond. >> we have contracted what our program is but i have heard you talking about additional offices. there are 8 offices across the state working for economic development. how many more do you think we

need? >> my plan is about taking the assets that we have now and decentralizing. we will have regional efforts that focus on a specific strategy. the job program for meant as will look very different then jackson county and the southwest counties. we will use programs like memphis fast forward which is developed by local officials for a very specific strategy. this is decentralizing the power and natural so we can make better decisions. >> don't you believe that it would be less responsive? i know from watching my father is an example that when you start recruiting industries, you

have to be able to move quickly. what you're talking about is decentralizing. i am confused how you would think that this and move the state board. if i am governor, i will take the personal lead. there is nothing that matters as much as the chief salesperson when sailing something. we're not always talking about hitting home runs. there are a lot of 50-60 employees. one of the things i've learned is at some decisions were better made at headquarters but of lot more were made and our regional offices because they understood the issues better. as important as memphis and shelby county are, i've spent

over 55 days and shelter -- shelby county. i am curious why you don't have an office in memphis and shelby county. >> i do have an office. it is in white haven. >> democrat so we don't have as much money as you do so we have to learn to get along. >> is important that has -- it is important to have a statewide campaign. we spent 55 days in spencer

county. what have you been doing? >> i have been coming here my whole life. i bought my suit here. i'd tell needed gps to get me around. i have been reading the "commercial appeal," all my life. i am very familiar with the need issues that memphis faces. >> since convincing a big employer to expand or relocate here in tennessee required state involvement, and then this would like to be a part of this. and do you agree that consolidation of the memphis and shelby county governments would be very helpful in getting these

companies that might be considering relocating to memphis and bringing more jobs if these two governments would consolidate? >> that is a big issue down here and i am well aware that. this is a local issue. this is something that the local people here will have to decide. as governor, i will respect whatever that decision is. >> do you believe it would help your efforts as the government to have less layers the government to work through? >> i can sell mint is anywhere in the u.s. and in the world. i don't know if that will be a critical issue for being able to

recruit. >> i am very sensitive about the state telling local governments what to do. the recent suggest you just -- success you had with. but airlines -- the recent success that we had with a local airlines, this shows that i can have a good working relationship. as governor, i look forward to being here and creating jobs either way. >> i went to get back to the expansion of pre-k. you have said we don't have the

money. when your opponent was meeting with the editorial board, he accused you of being dismissive of the need to expand pre-k. how do you respond? what we do to try to find money to expand pre-k? >> nothing could be further from the truth. when this was announced several years ago, i of said that i support having pre-k in the the schools. it is not realistic to say that we have the money to spread this out. when the revenue picture of the state changes, i think that we put it this in line with other needs. it is not honest to tell people that we will put a pre-came in.

we have a very large hole to climb out of. this will be very difficult. if we prioritize things, i cannot promise you anything in the carriers. -- in two years. >> what to the governor has done in his plan is to put it into reoccurring expenses. the i have been very careful to say that i want to expand that program as revenue allows. we are spending south of $100 million on that program. even if you completely max this out, it will be north of $200 million. that will be a priority to go ahead and expand that all across the state of tennessee. i believe that this is an

investment in future events since -- i believe that this is an investment in future. you know that foster in a love of learning and students will pay dividends. every study i have seen shows that they do better in their professional lives. >> the stark difference between each of you on the size of the state budget deficit. the republicans say this is north of $1 billion, the citizens of the previous -- the officials of the previous administration say $200 million. where do you begin to cut to deal with this problem? >> i have looked at the analysis of what the budget is.

as we started to enter the recessionary economy, the governor did something that i don't think that anyone has done. he worked with the republicans as well as democratic leadership to craft a budget which would take us through a recession. if you stay close with what he has recommended, then we have reoccurring revenue matched up with reoccurring expenses. the stimulus money goes away december but he spent that money by and large on a onetime expenses. while we might have a smaller budget, we have a budget that will be funded with recurring revenue. bill is talking about a billion dollars and i don't know where he comes with those numbers. >> the governor has done us a

favor of laying out a blueprint for working out of this. making cuts on paper and making them in real life are two different things. the only cuts -- there's 50 million cups to the children's services, 46 million to mental health. it will be very difficult replacing that 1.5 billion. even with that, there is still millions left out of the recurring services. i will approach line by line, item by item. do we need to do this? are we doing this as effectively as possible? we did this in the city of knox village us from doing this. >> time to rack up with closing

remarks. >> each has one minute. >> thank you for having us be here. i think the next governor will have the hardest time to be governor. i am sure that when my closest that he will have some typical political stuff. our next governing is to deal with difficult issues. i have wrestled some heart problems. i have also done this privately. the state of tennessee is a large and complex system. we have build prisons, schools, roads, manage parks, on and on. our next governor needs the experience to deal with these difficulties. i promise that i will begin and end every day thinking about how we bring jobs to tennessee. i have a track record of doing

that. thank you very much, i would be honored to be your governor. i ask for your vote. >> i would like to thank you for hosting these debates. . .

>> we want to say thank you to both candidates for being here tonight to discuss the issues. >> go by a budweiser. >> and not while we are preparing to drive. >> thank you to our partners for help in preparing this debate. thank you to those of you at home for watching. >> we will air this again tomorrow morning and november 1st. >> good night. >> we will continue bringing you coverage of campaign 2010. in campaign news, president

biden and vice president in th campaigned for chris collins in -- chris coons in delaware today. tonight, we will bring you the missouri senate debate followed by the arkansas senate debate. then we will bring you the live coverage of the rally in delaware that president obama and vice president biden are attending. you can see all of these campaign events tonight here on c-span.

we go now to a discussion on african-american voters and candidates in 2010. the joint center for political and economic studies posted this event. they looked at the role of african-americans in the midterm elections. this is a little more than one hour. >> good morning. i am president and ceo of the center for economic studies. we would like to welcome all of you this morning. for the past 20 years, the center has been one of the nation's leading research and public policy institutions, and the only one that primarily focuses on issues of concern to african-americans and people of color. today we're here to focus on the political part of our work. we are a non partisan institution. central to our mission has been

our commitment to technical guidance. given the expense of polling and analysis we do from year to year, we have become a leading authority on the voting patterns of african-americans and their views on key policy issues. today we want to bring that to bear as americans go to the polls to vote in the midterm elections. said and written about the prospect of the democrats holding on to the majorities in the house and the senate. we will hear observations from two experts in the voting patterns that will give us some insight into how african- american and hispanic voters might affect key races as well as the overall election. we have a chair from the center

for american progress. he will offer his perspectives on how ki of voting blocs impact the outcome -- a key voting blocs will impact the outcome of the midterm election. we also have an analysis of black voters and candidates in in the 2010 midterm election which focuses on where and how african-americans have the potential to affect the election outcome. anyone who would like a copy of their analysis, there are copies in the room and you can get them at our website. i welcome you both to the room today. doctor, let us begin with you. >> good morning. before i speak about the elections, i would like to say a word about a longtime friend of

myself and and a senator who passed away, ron walters. many of you may not know ron quilters. on was a remarkable -- ru welters. he was a remarkable man. many people who attended his future did not even know how much he had accomplished in his lifetime. we did not always agree about the way things were and how things worked but we always agreed on the way things should end. we are going to miss him very much here at the joint center, and i am going to miss him very much personally. at events like this, i expect him to walk again, maybe a few minutes late, and afterwards have a spirited discussion with him about what my research men.

so, we are going to miss him very much here. ok, the upcoming elections. there is no getting around it, it is going to be a bad year for the democrats. for two election cycles in a row the democrats have won by as much as they possibly cut in federal elections. on top of that, -- possibly could in federal elections. on top of that, it is still a very bad economy. the democrats control washington, and when one party controls washington and the economy is in in the dumps, the voters usually look to throw and the ins out. it is going to be a tough year for the democrats. how tough a year is going to be is going to very much depend on their base. there is no part of their base

that is more important than the african american vote. they are the most loyal voters for the democrats. in the last election, african americans gave about 95% of their votes to democratic candidates, the second place and third-place finishers in the and the -- in the democratic side were nowhere near the close. however, this is not a national vote. the black vote is located in a little over 20 states and about a quarter of congressional districts. so the impact of the black vote in large part in any off year election cycle, especially, depends upon where the elections are and whether black voters are strategically placed to impact of the congressional elections. i want to make a couple of

observations about african- american voters at midterm elections. historically, african-american voters have turned out at lower rates vanna white voters in all elections. -- lower rates of vanna white voters in all elections. -- lower rates than white voters in all elections. 2008 was the first time they turned out in large numbers. the degree of that disparity has not been equal in all election years. i want to bring up a couple of years in particular, and relate those election years to this year, because i think that how african-americans -- the number of african-americans turn out to vote will have a considerable effect on these elections. the first election i want to

bring up is 1986. this was two years after the rev. jesse jackson's first presidential run. he showed that black voters could be mobilized and could be turned out to vote is enough effort was made. there was a collective effort made in 1986 called "operation big a vote." , black voters turned out in a significant numbers. it was record turnout for black voters in a midterm election, but that record turnout is only 43.5%. in midterm elections, the highest turnout that african- american voters have ever had is 43.5%. oftentimes midterm elections have very low turnout rates. 1986 was the record.

what happened in 1986 was the the gap -- this is the most important thing. it is not what african-american turnout is in some absolute sense. it is whether there is and what the size is of the gap between black and white turnout. when there is little or no gap between black and white turnout, it usually bodes well for the democratic party. when there is a large gap, it usually bodes well for the republican party. 1986, nationally, the gap is shrunk from 6.9%-3.8%. most particularly, in at the south, the gap shrank to 1%.

the democrats had a great year in 1986. they retook the senate and 81 many state and local offices. that was -- and they won many state and local offices. that was a great year for the democrats. we currently have a president -- that brings me to 1996. we had a president and that african americans like to very much. this was in the middle of the monaco lewinsky scandal. but african americans had clinton's back. what happened in 1998 is the black voters mobilized in support -- again, it was strategic. i should mention that there were african americans in places

where they were poised to make an impact. when you have a competitive election in south dakota, black voters do not matter. when you have a competitive a voter in north and -- in new hampshire, black voters do not matter. or in maine. or in montana. there are no black people there. there have to be a large enough number of african-american voters to impact the outcome of elections. in 1998, the gap between the black and white turnout in the midterms shrunk from 10.2%-3.7% nationally, and in the south it shrunk from 8.4%-0.3%, so it essentially there was no gap between black and white turnout in 1998. 50 years of history was

suspended and the democrats picked up seats in the sixth year of a presidency. usually in the sixth year, members of his party loses seats in the house of representatives. the democrats also won a lot of other elections that year, including a lot of governorships. it was a very good year for the democrats, in large part because of that large black turnout in 1998. subsequent to that comminuted gingrich was gone very shortly thereafter. -- subsequent to that, new gingrich was gone a very shortly thereafter. 1996, 1998, plus 12 is -- 1986, 1998, plus 12 is 2010.

there are many situations now where black voters could make the difference. there are districts that are competitive and where there is a significant black vote. black turnout in those districts could make the difference between the democrats holding those seats or losing those seats. 15 of those seats are in the south, which is of course where most african americans live, and there also are two u.s. congressional seats that have a large black populations that represent two very good pick up opportunities of the few number of seats the democrats could take away from republicans. one is delaware, and the other is new orleans. there are also forging competitive senate races where

the black vote -- 14 competitive senate races where the black vote could make a difference. there are 14 of governors races where the black vote could make a difference. those seats are split evenly between the two parties, and three are in southern states. have a president who is more popular among african-americans ban bill among african-americans began bill clinton was in 1998. i did a lot of polling in 1998. approval obama's job rating among african-americans is 80. he is even more favorable -- is

looked upon more favorably by african americans then president bill clinton, the we all know was very well-liked by african- americans. a president who is very popular with african-americans. african-americans are strategically located. there is a republican congressional leadership that has ben attacking president obama almost from the moment he took office. there are a considerable number of similarities between 1998 and 20 ton. -- 2010. the question is whether black voters turn out. if they do, the democrats' prospects are going to be a lot better than if they do not turn out. finally, a word about african- american candidates running for office. there are 12 black candidates running for statewide office,

all of them democrats, three senate candidates, a gubernatorial candidate in massachusetts. there are 58 running for house seats, three running for senate seats, 48 democrats, an all-time high, and 13 republicans which is about 50% of the all-time high for republicans. i do a lot of racially polarized voting analysis. there is only one member of the congressional black caucus who is running unopposed this year. in the past three cycles, there were on average 16 members of the congressional black caucus are running unopposed. one. year there is rapi

there are two black candidates running unopposed. one is in florida and one is in south carolina. but all of the current members of the congressional black caucus have opponents. there is not anywhere near a record of black candidates running for federal office. that opposition had to come from somewhere else. it came from white candidates. there is a record number of a white/black matchups for federal office this year. it is a 20% increase from the previous record. it is very, very unusual for

there only to be one member of the congressional black office running unopposed. thank you. >> thank you very much. we will hear from our other guest and then take questions after he concludes his remarks. >> thank you. i am delighted to be here at the joint center. i urge you to read if not memorize the analysis, because there is an enormous amount of pertinent information in it. but the expand on what david has said. as he points out, the current situation for the democrats looks pretty bleak. they do not look like they're going to have a good november election. support by demographics is pretty -- i mean, there are two

different ways to look of this. the good way is that support by african americans for democratic congressional candidates is very high. support by hispanics is also very high. younger voters were a key part of president obama coalition in 2008, and there is a large gap in favor of the democrats. white working-class voters are different. there is a huge gap. there may be support for democrats, but it is somewhat better among the white college educated. that is a favorable thing for a country that is still majority white especially for the

electorate. the one thing that makes it worse than it really is, or appears to be worse than it really is, is the issue of, when we look at the polls, likely voters versus are registered voters. you see some very scary figures with the democrats coming out of the more recent polls that feature likely voters, particularly the gallup model that has republicans ahead by roughly azilian point i think. the democrats typically have a disadvantage, but it is not that big. they may be down by a few points, some polls even show them ahead, but once you look at the likely voter pool, the leads are enormous for republicans. the reason for this is that what the pollsters do is they take

registered voters and ask them a bunch of questions and take what they believe to be is an approximation of the voters two will show up on election day. the science behind this is all based on the fact that if you ask at typical voter questions three days before the election and then compare them to the actual election, they are generally pretty close. all likely voters polled three weeks before the election or three months, it does not show you do is going to show up. they are basically asking people, what if the election was today? then they pick out the likely voters. nike is greeters to look at this may think that they know what they thought -- naive readers who look at this may think they

know what they're doing and this is what it will look like on election day, but that is not the case. what they're really finding is enthusiastic voters. what happens is, constituencies that favor democrats, filled with minorities and so on, tend to tune in late. they may get picked up in later screening, but they do not get picked up now. by and large, the electorate is a white juror, older and more hiter,vative than -- wide older, and more conservative than the president they elected. those are the people that seem

the most enthusiastic. there is considerable potential electorate to look pretty different on election day. to as we get closer to election day. i was say the democrats are down by two points on the eve of the election among likely voters, their chances are pretty dead. -- pretty good. the outcome in terms of some of the stuff david was talking about? well, to go back to what i was just saying, the job of democrats is to try to narrow the gap between registered

voters and likely voters. the democrats want to nudge that electric -- electorate so that there are more minorities, more younger voters, a less conservative and so on. turnout becomes critical because that is what will allow you to narrow the gap between registered voters and so-called likely voters. you want to push that closer to the electorate that showed up on election day in 2008. that is quite doable. right now, projections are that black turnout will be relatively low. hispanic turnout will be relatively low. young turnout will be really low. these things are not set in stone. the gap does not have to be as big as the likely vote gerbils show today. -- likely voter polls show

today. it is not at all clear that the outcome is going to be quite as gramm for the democrats as some polls show today. i do think it is within the realm of possibility, though it is a heavy left -- heavy left, as that did democrats could get out of -- heavy lift, that the democrats could get out of this election still holding onto the house. in all likelihood, democrats will probably have a poor election day. is this a rejection of the entire democratic and progressive approach to government? i do not think so.

i think this is primarily, maybe not exclusively, but primarily a performance-based assessment of what has happened since obama and his administration took office. you do not need to know much more than it to look at the poor economic statistics. cleric at unemployment and the slow growth of jobs. look at unemployment and the slow growth of jobs. many people think, hey, i've liked some of the things they have tried to do, but it looks like they have spent a gazillion dollars and not much is better. this is a likely attempt to punish incumbents for poor

economic performance. there is a lot of data out there that suggests, particularly when you get it out of the realm of what likely voters think and get back to what the people think -- [phone ringing] sorry. i thought i'd turn that off. what does this suggest? it suggests that people have not changed their tune that much and embraced k hard-line conservative approach to government as characterized by the tea party. a recent new york times poll asked if people believed that obama had expanded the role of government too much. 37% said he had. 27% said just right.

13% said not enough. that does not sound like an overwhelming opposition. 35% people say they do not believe government is the solution to our problems. 28% said the government must play an active role in regulation. some believe they would like the government to play an active role but they are not sure they can trust the government to do it well. that is what is going on. it is a performance-based assessment. it does not appear to represent a fundamental shift in what people will live -- what people believe the appropriate role of government is. is also interesting to note that independence, then you get a

group of for every election, they're leaning heavily toward the republicans at this point. but if you look at the data closely, it showed something interesting and not necessarily consistent with what we always hear about independence. more independence in view the democratic party favorably then in the republican party. more lean toward the democratic party than republican. they have a positive view of the contribution immigrants make to this country. they prefer the democrats to be the party that makes needed changes to the country. they believe the democrats most serve the needs of people like me. they support gay marriage. there is a lot of evidence that

while independents have swung toward the republicans, they do not represent the conservative ideas of republicans. looking toward 2012, what does this mean? i think yes, the democrats are going to get whacked on election day. we will see the degree. but looking toward 2012, i am not so sure if i was the republicans i would be measuring this race yet. the white house, as i was pointing out at the beginning -- this election outcome is going to be very influenced by the patterns of turnout. it looks like republicans will win that battle, but that does not mean that the views of people have changed dramatically. when you look at the electorate

that is likely to show up in 2012, it is very different than the electorate that is going to show up in 2010. there are a couple more years in which the economy can, and i think probably will recover. anything is possible. we could go into 2012 with the economy looking exactly as it does today, in which case it will be a difficult election for the democrats. but if there is a significant amount of economic improvement between now and then, i do think that based on the fact that we have not seen a fundamental shift in the views of the electric toward the government, given how different the electorate will look in turnout, i think in some ways the democrats may be in a relatively

favorable position. again, much depends on how the economy evolves in the next two years. stay tuned for that, but in the meantime, stay tuned for 2010. it is not over until it is over. blacks and other democratic groups could turn out at levels higher than some of the polls imply and we could be looking at a more favorable outcome for the democrats. i will leave it there. >> thank you very much. we will now open it up for questions. please identify yourself. >> you are seeing parallels as far as enthusiasm goes for black voters compared to 1986? >> actually, the democratic party's relationship with black voters is an interesting one.

i've followed black voters for many, many years. there are so many places where race is still an issue for people. contrary to what some people said after president obama was elected, raises is still a problem in the united states -- is still a problem in the united states. it has not gone away it simply because he was elected president. he got fewer votes in alabama and mississippi and then john kerry got in 2004, and that is when circumstances were less favorable for a democrat. race matters. the democrats need to have people in the congress from

these states. the democrats walk a fine line. oftentimes, the effort to turn out black voters is invisible to the wider white society. in 1986 and 1998, you did not see -- it is not like this is an air war where you are watching prime-time television and bill clinton comes on and says, " african americans, come on out and vote. i need your help." that is not happening. it is happening in the black churches. it is happening in black locations. i know is in past elections, the naacp has been very active in turning out black voters. the urban league, there are lots of organizations. plus, remember, president obama

is organization organizers for america -- president obama's organization, organization for america -- many of you may not know this, but in 1980 i did a failed experiment. years later, other people -- i did a field experiment. years later, other people experimented on the best way to reach people. there is a science to contacting people. today, a real science has to have formal experimentation wary randomly assigning groups to achieve the right kind of statistical analysis. there are ways to mobilize voters. the dnc said it was putting a

record amount of money into mobilizing black voters. there are campaigns in missouri, kentucky and other states about the candidates, trying to get black voters to -- actually, more getting black influential to mobilize black voters. this is not something you are going to watch in real time on the web or on television. this is something that often occurs below the radar. so, how do you know whether -- this could all be going on in a tremendous ever right now. -- effort right now. we are not necessarily going to know about it, but if it is going on, how you contact people, how often you contact people, if you show up at their house with handcuffs and drag

them to the bulls they will show up. there is a science to it. -- drag them to the polls, as they will show up. there is a science to it. i personally do not know the degree to which this effort is being made. >> could you talk about the enthusiasm this year? for months, the enthusiasm of white conservatives has been building. meanwhile, the obama base is not. >> i am not sure that is the right way to the data. there is a lot of evidence to suggest that the enthusiasm gap is not driven by the lack of enthusiasm of democrats but by

the high enthusiasm among other parts of the electorate. in a normal year, the turnout of these democratic leaning groups would be perfectly normal and adequate. the problem is, in a year in which conservative enthusiasm is sky high, that is the differential. it is not a democrat enthusiasm has gone down, but that republican leaning groups enthusiasm is high. that is part of why it has been so hard for democrats to close the enthusiasm gap. they have to be pumped up to greater than normal levels. perhaps, as david was pointing out, among african-americans that might be more feasible than among some other groups. there is a science to

mobilization. it has been slowly understood and implemented by party organizations. if you do certain kinds of things, the likelihood that a voter will turn out to vote becomes a significantly higher. >> if their mother shows up on election day and demands that they go the, that will get a lot of people there. go vote, that will get a lot of people there. >> african-americans are a group that has been most affected by the economic downturn. do you see them expressing anger at the state of the economy by not voting or not turning out?

>> first of all, president obama and the democrats have done a great deal to try to stimulate the economy. at the time the stimulus was passed, that $860 billion stimulus package was so much more than any other stimulus that had ever been packed -- and passed before. we are talking about an historic level of government effort to stimulate the economy. so a lot has been done. unemployment insurance has been extended. plus, remember something. if the black unemployment rate was the same as the quiet unemployment rate, african- americans would be -- as the white unemployment rate, african-americans would be dancing in the street. but of course, with the white

unemployment rate, and people are screaming like the country has been taken over by communists. the black unemployment rate, even in the best of times, is substantially higher. african-americans are fully aware that president obama has made epo -- has made a big effort to try to improve the economy and in particular the economy for african-americans. there is no disconnect there in terms of african-americans and president obama. >> they tried to will back on the financial reregulation bill this year on the protest that the administration was not doing enough for blacks during the economic turndown. there is a lot of unhappiness

that has been well documented. >> it is not well documented. coup de grace of data and happiness, first of all, when president obama is -- the degree of that unhappiness, first of all, when president obama is president and he has to get legislation passed -- i cannot remember the cbc ever passing a budget. in fact, the democrats would have passed more stimulus but they had to get support from the ladies in maine and senator specter. now there is a debate that one could have that the democrats should have just use reconciliation and basically said to hell with the republicans. we're just going to do this on iran. but president obama did campaign

on the idea that -- we're just going to do this on our own, but president obama did campaign on the idea that he was going to try to cooperate. >> said you speak about a blue dog democrat to vote, specifically in alabama? >> there are 15 states, especially in the deep south, all of the white candidates in georgia, mississippi, alabama, they are going to have to depend on black voters turning out. they have some advantages in georgia. they have a black candidate who is the senate nominee and a very well liked person. he is not going to win. he is the labor commissioner and very popular. he has won statewide election three times.

he is the democrats' nominee for the senate. there is a vigorous campaign for the governorship. democrats are competitive there and there will be a big effort made to turn out the black vote. i would not be surprised to see maxine waters showing up in his district. the thing yeis, maintaining a democratic majority is the paramount goal. he is better than any republican. >> what does that do for

energizing black voters turn out if you have blue dog democrats running to the right? i went to a district where the incumbent has a television ad claiming that 80% of the time he votes with john boehner. he wrote this in alabama which has a 33% african-american population. what does that do to encourage or discourage african-american voter turnout, with democrats running so far to the right? >> you are asking me about the state i know well. i have no doubt that the alabama democratic party and joe reed have endorsed a candidate and are probably putting all of their organizational resources

to turn out black voters for hampshirim. they got their nominee chosen. they picked the white candidate over the black candidate for governor. they got a nominee they wanted. i met them at an alabama democratic conference meeting. i have no doubt that black organizations will communicate for all supporters deptthat of this clause he is better than republican. -- for all his flaws, he is better than a republican. >> you want to get out certain voting groups, african- americans, latinos. then there is the backlash

you are leaning too hard toward particular groups and that president obama is not interested in governing for everybody. >> that is why i told you that often the effort been churning out african-american voters is below the radar. i believe that if you go back to the newspaper archives of 1986 and 1998, you will probably not find a whole lot of stories about -- heck, there are not many stories about black voters in the newspapers anyway. in terms of many things, but the colors still invisible in the united states, certainly in the media -- black people are still invisible in the united states, certainly in the media. it is happening under the radar.

>> i'd like to go back to what inu mentioned earlier terms of all of these black candidates who have competition this year. do any of those opponents have a prayer of getting elected if decent black turnout, and if not, what makes this such a good thing? >> if you have a campaign, especially if you have a competitive campaign, then you have to raise resources and put

resources into turning out your supporters. now, as i said, the last three election cycles there were 16 members of the congressional black caucus who did not have to make any effort to turn out their supporters. as a matter of fact, find it very interesting that two of the distance expert -- districts that are not contested in this election are bobby rush's district, one of the blackest district in illinois -- illinois has a very competitive senatorial and gubernatorial elections. if somebody russia had an opponent to was forcing him to rush had anodif bobby

opponent who was forcing him to campaign and mobilized voters, that would help other democrats get elected that day. you have urged candidates say -- you have heard candidates speak about a ballot integrity program, which is basically about trying to reduce the black turnout. the other district is in florida, the most democratic district in florida. florida has a very highly contested senate and governor's race. if that was actually us seriously contested race, then the democratic candidate there would have to mobilize resources and work on turning out the

voters in that district. the plus side of these races being competitive is that it forces the members of the cbc to mount campaigns and get out black voters. if a black voter it turns out in florida to vote for the congresswoman, he will probably also vote for the governor. in that sense, competitive elections are a plus. >> so what it amounts to is that these people are token opposition or can somebody -- >> in terms of actually winning, thinkpad -- i think that i would

be very surprised if sanford bishop lost. he is really about the only person that i think is in any real danger. that does not mean that cbc members are is still not going to make an extra effort. politicians are paranoid. democratic politicians in the year like this are especially paranoid i. they may very well make an effort to turn out additional supporters in a year like this. >> are there any issues between now and the election that would

have an impact on what the vote is, whether it is a big vote for a small vote? >> i am not an issue guy. i am a politics guide. i think that the emphasis on organizational effort is going to be more important than issues. remember something. the republican party, as seen by african americans, is a party of southern white conservatives. to an african american, if they see a republican candidate for, their face does not more into osama bin laden. -- their facemorti morphs into bull conner.

>> i think what will be the issue is emphasizing the extremism of the other side, for which there is abundant evidence. >> i have a question about the enthusiasm gap. the naacp has condemned racist elements in the the tea party. has the tea party and then a motivator for black voters -- then a motivator for black voters -- been a motivator for black voters? >> thereof spent a lot of racist incidents since president obama was elected. -- there have been a lot of racist incidents since president obama was elected.

the first president bush certainly would not have been downed any of the things that have gone on during the last two years involving the tea party, and the second president bush would not have condoned those things. but now, the republican party does not have any leaders, absolutely none. all of the traditional leaders are running scared, and the loudest and most virulent of voices -- and many of those voices are from people who are most likely racist -- and there is actually a whole new generation of african-americans who are being increasingly exposed to conservative white people who have shown without question that they look down on

and demesne african americans. african americans. "my favorite politicians ran for governor -- one of my favorite politicians ran for governor against david duke. year -- i really audit yeaodd do not mean like a midterm election, i mean a year that ended in an odd number. african-american turnout was like 80%. i think it might be worth it to african-americans to consider that there are people up there who would most definitely be

hostile to them. >> it may not be enough in 2010 to make a huge difference, but i just want to emphasize how bad potentially this is for republicans in a presidential year. the tea party has basically branded the republican party as the tea party party. a lot of people do may not show upper this -- a lot of people who may not show up this time are likely to show up in 2012. there is a distinct racist party in the tea party. they are way more annoying and more extreme than most of america. it is going to be hard for them to shake that. republicans are going to do well and the tea party is going to and it isit for it,

going to be hard for republicans to want to move to the center in 2012 to be competitive to shake that off. >> i will quibble about one thing is said about the tea party deserving credit. if the economy was doing fine, they would just be nice. it is important to remember -- they would just be norway'ise. it is important to remember what lection is about. . .

>> we are very aware through looking at the data how terribly democratic congressional candidates are doing among white working class voters in general, men, in particular. and as i said, i think the chances are more that it will tighten up than it will get more extreme, the spread between the parties by election day. we know from looking at these likely voter models how bad things could be, so we are aware of that possibility. i want to kind of -- i don't want to say it's not post democrats could lose 60 or 70 seats, it is possible, but small

probability. if they are going to lose the house more in the 45 to 50-seat range. weird things happen. >> other pollsters said the same thing in 1994, that it's going to tighten up. any way -- >> it's a possibility. >> the difference is in 1994, nobody was living who remembered a republican majority in the house of representatives. that is a -- >> people didn't believe it was going to happen and people didn't put the money in trying to forestall the catastrophe. democrats seen this coming and they probably can't forestall a seriously bad outcome but reduce the probability of a totally catastrophic outcome. they are trying really hard. >> both of you all have

discounted the youth vote. and i want to sort of -- >> i haven't discounted the youth vote. >> i thought i heard that there was this expectation that it wasn't going to be there. you talk about that and also in the context of what is it, twog weekends before the election -- two weekends before the election, the jon stewart rally, is that going to be a youth, get out the vote effort that we aren't paying attention to? >> well, i didn't want to sort of make light of the youth vote. i do think it is going to be pro-democratic in this election. it could be big but not as big as it was in 2008. if you look at some of the likely voter models. it is a small advantage.

my guess it will be somewhere between the small advantages and the advantages that obama had in 2008. however, i mean, youth turnout is typically low in off-year elections. again, if we look at the fact, the real enthusiasm gap comes from some of these highly motivated conservative voters and they aren't typically young and that will increase the gap between youth voters and older voters. given the two factors, they should make up a smaller proportion in the electorate than they have in 2008. we'll see. but i just think it's going to be difficult to get those enthusiasm levels up particularly in this political environment, so you close that gap. there will be a factor that's positive for progressive and democratic candidates, but they probably won't be as huge a factor as in 2008.

i think that's a reasonable expectation. i believe pretty strongly that they will be back in 2012, because it's going to be a different kind of election with a different kind of electorate and look at the underlying views on issues of young voters, they are still sympathetic to what our democratic stances on most economic and social issues. and look at their party identification. the democrats have a pretty wide, double-digit lead on party identification. the real damage will come in this election for democrats not because they have shifted against the democrats, but rather too few of them will show up. in a different political environment, they will show up. this is another thing that is lost in this election, is that the republicans are in the process of losing a generation of americans. the tea party thing isn't going

to help and that's a huge story that has long-term implications and the story will be lost in this election but it will be back. >> we'll take one additional question, if there are any. if not, we thank you very much for being here today. and the report is on our web site at jointcenter.org. thank you very much. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] >> c-span 2010 coverage continues tonight at 8:00 p.m., kansas for missouri senate's seat and then arkansas for another senate debate between four candidates. later in the evening, president obama and vice president biden attend a campaign rally for delaware senate candidate. six candidates competing for the

job of vermont governor, the current governor announced he is retiring. watch these events tonight here on c-span. >> a discussion on i am gation and border security. alan bersin spoke to this group for an hour and 20 minutes. >> good afternoon. my name is doris and senior fellow where i direct our work on u.s. immigration policy. i'm very pleased to welcome you here to m.p.i.'s leadership vision series and the commissioner of borders and custom protection. this is a speaker's series that creates an opportunity for the

washington immigration community and others to meet with and hear from a senior official who have important immigration policy and organizational portfolios about their work and particularly about their plans for where they are steering their agencies in this period ahead. prior speakers have been john morton, assistant secretary for immigration and customs enforcement and we had the director of u.s. citizenship and immigration services and deputy high commissioner for refugees and you can check out all of those prior appearances and podcasts and videos that are posted on our web site, www. migrationpolicy.org. i ask you to turn off your cell

phones at this point. but what we do in this series is that we really do use the time for three parts. first, we will have formal remarks from the commissioner. secondly, the commissioner will join me on the podium and he and i will have a conversation for a while. and the third part will turn to you, the audience and give the opportunity for questions and answers. with that, let me turn to our guest speaker and to an introduction of him. answers. so, with that let me now turn to our guest speaker and to introductions of him that gives you some ability to understand the background that he rings to this position. alan was appointed the commission our position in march of 2010, so he still probably in just about for six months now i

think it is fair to say, may be sneaking over that a little bit, but he is esponsible for an agency whose mission is far reaching and really very difficult because the mission is to protect our nation's borders while facilitating legitimate trade and travel. as most of you of course no, cbp as an organizational entity is relatively new in that it was created in 2003 as part of the creation of the department of homeland security, and was, is an amalgam of key organizational pieces of the former immigration and naturalization service along with key organizational functions from the former united states customs service. so, the point of course was about in the post 9/11 a year other needed to be more coordination and seamless in our

border enforcement efforts and that is the purpose and the background for cbp. shouldering the response of the body for leading this agency, alan brings really unique skills and perspective. because he has been there before. in the mid 1990's, he served as united states attorney in san diego, and as a part of those responsibilities she began to work on the border enforcement issues, been quite quickly became the attorney general southwest border representative, also known as border -- czar under janet reno. we got to know each other well, worked closely and intensively at that time, and i think it is fair to say that that really was the time where the modern border buildup as we know wit and more importantly perhaps, the consciousness of about

enforcement as we understand today really began. so, it's really a spial and personal pleasure for me to able to host him and have him here today as our guest, and i can attest and hosting him that this is a man who knows the border well. this is somebody who knows border communities on both sides who knows officials on both sides of the border. he is a seasoned law enforcement professional, she is hard driving, she is indeftigable, she has an incredible work ethic and he is somebody that is not afraid to rock the boat. he is a great partner with him to work. so our relationship is one that makes me a extraordinarilyglad not only to welcome him here today but see him back on the

case with the portfolio that he has now in this administration. since that time in the 1990's as you can see in more detail from the biographies on your chairs, he is of course worn many hats. he's been the superintendent of public schools in san diego, which is the eighth largest urban school district in the country. he served as the secretary of education for the state of california. he's been the chairman of the san diego regional airport authority. he stunned lots of other things, so he brings all kind of skills and perspectives to this position. but i don't think that i am speaking out of school in saying that in being in the job that he is in now, he is in many ways really returned to his first love, which is law enforcement, and to that, he brings exceptional credentials and experience. he travels a lot. he's just back from dubai,

citron in very hard to stay awake with the time changes. so i am very, very pleased that we were able to work out a schedule that allowed him to be here with us because we really are looking forward to having the opportunity as the washington immigration community to know you better, alan, and for you to know s better. so, with that i am very pleased to welcome you and i would ask everybody to pleaseoin me in welcoming you to the podium. [applause] >> thank you, doris. actually, the way my friend and wife puts t is right now to in my fourth left turn and i am back where i ban. [laughter] so i am particularly happy to be here with all of you at the migration policy institute,

particularly with doris meissner. as she indicated the era of modern border management and control began in the early 90's when in fact it did. it was doris meissner commissioner of the ims and was the person before front who led the effort to restore to the u.s.-mexico border and which i would like to give you an update report in the course of this presentation. i'm going to do something i don't characteristically do which is to refer repeatedly to a set speech, but i promise not to be bound by it and look forward particularly to questions and answers we have in the dialogue. i would like to discuss the

prairies in connection to the customs and border protection which has ms. meissner indicated is there is in the wake of mine 11 and the homeland security act of 2003 implemented in the first quarter of 2000 for the first consolidated border management agency that brought together immigration admissibility and customs review ito one agency. australia has that, britain has a form of that other agencies over time will move towards seeing immigration's customs and i should add a third of legacy agency was agriculture that was put in for inspection all purposes in the cbp but it is the direction the order management is moving and we are attempting to perfect the merger so to speak at the cbp and talk

about the priorities of a leadership team has set for this particular chapter and an agency that is now just over 6-yearold i'd also like to be specifically addressed the rolph border security in the administration effort to fix our broken immigration program. let me again with the seven propositions, the seven principles that we have set forth to guide cbp efforts both to secure our country nd expedite legal trade and travel. first, targeting o enforcement efforts is the key to a safe nation. since its creation in 2001 the national targeting center, and we have to located in virgia at the national targeting center for cargo and the national targeting center for people and

passengers looking at our function of protecting the american homeland by keeping dangerous people and dangerous things, people and passengers, goods and cargo away from the american homeland. the national targeting center has become a critical tool and ensuring safety and the security both of cargo and passengers. one of the failures note to the 9/11 commission report was the inability to connect the dots, to harness the pieces of critical information to prevent errorist attacks. the national targeting center with for the cargo and passengers has incrased our capacity in this critical area and is producing results. the database capacity is astounding, and the search engines ailable to review the data equally impressive. the in tce for example played an important role in the capitol of

faisal shazad. tgeting risk management are crucial to the counter terrorism efforts and ultimately disinformation. to raise our capabilities to the next level, we are refining o targeting with real-time information and increasing our partnerships with other countries and other agencies in the united states government. accurate targeting is essential to facilitating legiimate travel and commerce. it allows officers to focus law enforcement resources where they are most needed. on that role to play small percentage of people and goods to pose a threat to the country think bout our challenge in terms of keeping dangerous people and dangerous things away from the homeland and enlisting both space, geography and time doing this as early as we can before people or cargo come to the line physical border.

think of it itrying to find the needle in a haystack because in fact 99 plus% of all cargo and people who approach the homeland actually are engaged in legitimate trade and legitimate travel. so finding the risk, the high-risk cargo is akin to finding the kneal in a haystack. and there are two ways you can locate a needle in a haystack. either you have very specific intelligence that permits you to go specifically into the haystack and pulled out the offending need also to speak or reduce the size of the haystack so in fact you do that by distinguishing between risks and by segmenting traffic between the cargo and people about whom and ich you know something those about which you have

derogatory information or about which you have insufficient information to make a judgment but when you do this segmentation if you identify enough of the trust a travel and trusted cargo you separate the haystack and focus your resources inspection over the remaining people and passengers, cargo and the goods about which you do not have sufficient information to make a judgment to facilitate the expedite ovement across the physical border. over the next few months we will continue to make a major effort to enhance ability to identify potentially dangerous shipments of individuals entering the united states. this means protecting our earch engines and increasing the amount of data against which we can search and make judgments about people and passengers. this also involves strong partnerships as i indicated with

foreign nations and also with agencies in the united states as well as state and local agencies so we are working to develop strong partnerships in coordination with particularly now the transportation security administration, tsa, on civil aviation and creating new partnerships with several agencies including the drug enforcement administration as well as our traditional relationship of immigrations enforcement having to do if drug trafficking and other customs offenses. second goal to secure the flow of people, cargo and goods is key to cbp and i would argue the dhs success generally. a border enforcement is not just a matter of protecting the line. instead, our goal is to look at the border as a matter of securing the flow of people and

goods, cargo and things as far away from the border and as early as we can. we see securing the flow of goods and people as being the essence of border management as opposed to the traditional view of waiting for this traffic to approach you at a point of entry airport, seaport and doing the inspection for the first time at the port. the sooner we can make this assessment the sooner people we have to inspect most intensively at the border and thereby we can engage in the risk segmentation is essential to the modern-day border management theory of managing risk. we don't open up every trumpet the border. we don't inspect every one of the 12 million containers could come into our ports, but we do

so based on risk assessments and targeting using data and search engines thatermit us to translate threat streams and searches in our database. the other key point of securing flow is the trusted traveler ogram. if we are able to identify the low risk travelers and cargo, we concentrate the resources accordingly. our trusted toffler prograwith regard to aviation colin tree, which i hope and expect each of you should ke advantage of is growing at a rapid rate. since we began, we admitted 77,000 people into the program just under a year and we expect to be at 100,000 at the close of this calendar year, and it is a program which permits you to

me to the airport and go immediately to a kiosk fingerprint identification of working with u.s. visit and then you were asked to make a customs declaration on a keyboard and then you are expeditiously able to lve the airport without further inspection except on a very randomized basis. this program takes its place alongside century from the mid-1990s which speak ralf meissner introduced into the international travel on the southern border with mexico as well as nexus on the northern border with canada and fast a commercial program that permits certain drivers to register as trusted drivers of trucks on the in u.s.-mexico and u.s.-canadian border. this involves enhancing o relationship with u.s. visit and we will continue to do that in

order to establish biometric identity. the third and very importantly, as a key goal for the cbp, securing the key hot spots along the southwest border is critic. as the ayaan is former director doris meissner knows well our border security efforts in the 1990's were centered on operations such as hold the line, gooding with ho sold -- reyes in 1994 where we deployed the additional agents and equipment to the key locations alonthe u.s.-mexico border. over the past 20 months we have taken that concept lobal by adding unprecedented resources, including personnel, technology and infrastructure to the border reported to intelligence and operational needs sector by sector.

these data between the ports of schoem progress. for example fiscal year 2010 that just ended the border patrol efforts were jus over 463,000 a reduction of almost 17% from fiscal year 29 and 50% down from the lev of approximately 1.1 million in 2004, 2006. just as efforts by criminal organizations to exploit the border have caused us to adopt our strategy are unprecedented commitment of resources that led the same transnational criminal organizations toadopt there's. today the area that remains the greatest challenge is the tucson sect to arizona, tucson and

phoenix. through the corridor, almost half of the key legal injuries occurring achrista to under 60 miles of the border in this sector are occurring and the traffickers believe they can use the in house the billable terrain to the authorities. just under half of all of the marijuana smuggled into the united states comes through that same corridor. to combat these threats we've concentrated attention on decreasing activity in the legal immigration in that area. the tucson sector through sonora through a dallas through tucson and phoenix. the surge in for some of efforts and the tucson sector allowed us that her name being exported by t transnational organizations. significant shifts of technology into the tucson sector have resulted in increased detection

capabilities along international boundary in the tucson sector. we are reducing the draw for the migrants and is attempting to enter the united states through sonora and arizona. congress recently responded to the call to bolster supplemental funding that will allow us to increase and improve our efforts to secure the border. in signing the southwest border security bill, president obama added to the already unprecedented personnel technology and other assets in the tucson sector of arizona and along the rest of the southwest border. this was the addition of a 1,000 additional patrol agents, 250 additional customs and border protection officers, two additional unmanned aerial vehicle systems as well as additional ice agents and