of the man who created when the most successful economic policies. art laffer joins me on monday. that's it for tonight's "willis report." at is it for us.ht and a great have a great weekend. good night from new york. neil: well, i think we already got our october surprise in september. i'm not talking about the middle east. i am talking about ben bernanke moving to fix this economic mess the middle east is still the bomb. that is the biggest surprise, not that the president, but that he was so obvious about it and so blatant about it. welcome, everybody. i'm neil cavuto. hell hath no fury like an academic scorned. mitt romney is finding that the hard way because ever since mitt romney ripped ben bernanke and new one and said that the fed monetary policies were disastrous and if he had his druthers he would never

reappoint bernanke, i always thought to myself, man, if i were bin i sure don't want that guy to ever be my boss, even though republican president first appointed me, i find a much more kindred spirit in the democratic president to at least is not trashing me this week. just more blatant about it. his third foray into the markets in just about as many years proved it. the markets like it. investors love it. the president really loved it. if you are barack obama and you are reelected, you are going to remember, and you're going to remember that, and you are probably going to reward been by reappointing been. it would not do that, but then again, mitt is not the beneficiary of all this, is seeking back the president of the united states, is to? former new hampshire governor. well bin bernanke's announcement was about stimulating the economy, it was also about stimulating the president's poll numbers. the governor does not think that this will have the desired

effect. governor, this is a fairly blatant move with little more than 50 days to go until the election. it really could have waited. why do you think it happened the way it did? >> i am not sure if it was overt or just the psychological pressure on the back that told him to do it now, but -- neil: why do it now? you would do that now? >> no. if he was going to do it he should have done it for five months ago. obviously it was not appropriate then. it is probably -- it is a problem now. look. what he has done is not a qe3. it is to the infinite. there is no timeframe. there is no limit to the amount. he just says, we are going to do 40 billion a month on mortgage-backed securities. then the next paragraph he says, and we might move to purchasing this is going to clobber, i believe, in the long run the dollar, and it is a terrible

trade of buying a few more months of phony tranquillity. neil: but that is all barack obama needs. i know you are not. that could serve his immediate purpose to which i still suspect is pretty political. neil: i am trying to be. neil: all right. okay. >> a serious problem, and his timing stinks and he should not have done it now. he should have done it either a lot earlier or later. neil: would it have the desired effect? you talked about short term and long term, which we will get into in just a bit, but the short-term gain, i wonder whether it is as pronounced as we think. in other words, it is pointed be the best economic news that this president has until election day the markets are soaring or if they continue, and that is debatable because these type of runups in the short life. is that enough? >> no. no. the american public is smarter

than just looking at as slightly bubbled stock market. they're going to look at the eight. whatever it is percent unemployment that we have in that 23 million people that are not working. the fact that last month we lost industrial production, over 1%. the fact that the economy is moving in the wrong direction. the manufacturing index keeps moving in the wrong direction. this is not a happy situation in america economically. at this pace, i don't think it's going to tell america that things are going well. the americans know there are problems, and now that the kids going back to school there will start paying attention. neil: do you think that mitt romney going out on a limb, very guarded in trying to avoid any rabble rousing comments during the debates, but to go out on a limb the way he did early on and be critical of ben bernanke, critical of all of the great cash run, as you college, do you think that came back to bite

him? >> look. i think he was trying to do the responsible thing. this -- this series of actions which really devalue the dollar really hurts, and i think it was trying to put a marker on the table and discourage bernanke from doing this. obviously it did not work. i think he was willing to take a little bit -- romney was willing to take a little bit of a political risk by putting the right marker on the table and hoping that we don't hurt the economy over the long run with this inflationary qe. neil: to you think this is payback? >> no. payback is a tough word. i think it is -- it is -- well, you don't like this. i'm going to do what i wanted to do anyway. that's probably the way i would characterize it. neil: a very diplomatic response , governor. always good having you. thank you. >> thank you. neil: well, this stimulus may give the economy a short-term

boost, but don't count on it to last. in the first time was the second, this third time will not be a charm. explain. >> okay. well, do you think barack obama is going to give bernanke erased? >> at the very least. >> i will never defended ben bernanke, but i don't think he is being a politician. he has been printing money and lowering interest rates for five years. he has printed over $2 trillion. neil: obsessed with us getting into another depression. >> of course. he's a great scholar of the great depression, but he has printed 2 trillion take an interest rates to 0%. what has that given us? 16,000 people lost their jobs in the goods-producing sector. in august the unemployment rate is over 8% because 368,000 people became so despondent that they stopped looking for work. neil: so if you're going to do

-- >> absolutely. but when romney says and going to fire you if i get elected president, does that dissuade bernanke from doing what he was going to do anyway? he's a counterfeiter and chief. he left the counterfeit money. he has a history of doing it for five years. why stop now? help mitt romney. neil: the things you talk about might come after the election. >> there happening now. look. oil price. neil: out -- the long-term issues become evident after the election. short term it could be enough to get the president reelected. >> let the consumer confidence numbers. bernanke has telegraphed another round of money printing, and guess what happens to the consumer confidence numbers, they shot up. seventy-nine this morning. they help the president or not. the poll numbers can vary tie states of very good. neil: longer term what are your issues? >> longer term i worry about

economic growth because five years of printing money and taking interest rates to 0% has not engendered economic growth whatsoever. economic growth comes from more people entering the labour force and becoming more productive and counterfeiting money and creating inflation does not get people employed, does not bring people off the unemployment rolls, and it does not expand productivity. it does the opposite. it destroys the purchasing power of the middle-class. neil: why don't the markets s that? >> the markets to see that. the markets are rising in nominal terms. if you measure them against all their falling. if you measure them against a real inflation metric they are losing value. it is only in terms of the dollar that they're going higher, which by the way, is getting crushed. neil: we were at the democratic convention last week. one of the big things that the minister she kept talking about is to offer all lining a year from wall street, but how lousy things are, the dow has doubled under my stewardship, all the

market indices are jumping like crazy. how do you counter that? >> first of all, the s&p is down in nominal terms of the last 12 years. if you put up a chart of the weimar stock exchange or the zimbabwe stock exchange you will say they did fantastic in nominal terms. of course they could not buy you anything in the open market all. the purchasing power of the currency has been destroyed. if us that we want to go, we are modeling the american economy after banana republic. banana bin is leading the way. neil: been in the bin. xbox you are brilliant. >> thank you. neil: the media is making ends meet. romney now set to make ends meet of the media. let's just say it's more than storm in here. and, the white house attacks. reminds me of all the times. welcome of private capital is fighting back. forget about painting and the

business. the tragedy is pain is not doing business. instead of rushing to pre order the iphone, maybe think about selling the one you have got. how apple stock is not the only thing pain rich

>> in the process they devastated, they devastated american communities. neil: after a relentless attack spain capital holding onto its capital, the company that does staples going now interested in going private. but private equity companies not wanting to make a move until after the election saying after all the political attacks no one is any -- in any mood.

that is the danger. they could hinder business and ultimately come back to attack the attacker. an excellent point. but what maine is doing and what i know for a fact a number of other capital firms are doing is just that, they are putting the wheels in motion silently. what do you make of it? >> well, thank you for having me back. this administration has been hostile. no surprise that the pr attack is causing them to kind of pullback until after the election. this slows down the economy. certainly it's a negative thing. neil: it could be interpreted as a positive thing. if they don't have to deal with the hassles of the outside world , the politicians and everything else, you just do everything internally. what do you make of that?

>> taking a company private makes all the sense in the world if you don't want to deal with as much regulation, you don't want to deal with some of the attacks coming out of the white house and this administration right now. the reality is, as you look to private capitol, they are there as the vice-president pointed out, to make money. that is the goal. that is the with the capitalist system works. what they have figured out is, they don't have regulation in the way. by going private there is less regulation to deal with. they can make money for the investors more quickly, and that is the goal in the capitalistic system. neil: with there are also sending a signal, every company that we fix up, we could do the same thing. in other western rather than fixing them up, just in the month to go public, it would just be run by another private venture or it would be, you know, brought in with just private hands. that takes more potential in the asman opportunities away from average folks. >> well, that is exactly right. there is too much regulation and

too much pr pressure to take a company public, publicly make money with it. that is exactly what you do. you keep it private, you do it on a smaller scale, at least for the employee and availability of investment standpoint, and there is not as much opportunity for ma and pa kettle at all that would like to by that particular stock or on their own mutual fund. this type of oppression to mention this a ministration is not good for business, not good for the market, and certainly not differ individuals. neil: the administration will point out, as i did, the markets, say what you will on nominal terms or not, have been doing very well. they seem to like that rescue. they seem to like christie's of themselves. so that is the wind at the administration's back. wall street is going their way and should be happy. what say you? >> i talked about this on my radio show today. the reality is, yes, we threw gasoline on the fire. printing $40 billion. buying the mortgage-backed

securities with toxic assets to my keeping interest rates and zero, and that sounds great when you see the dollars go up under retirement. when you go to the gas pump and you feel the realization that gas prices have doubled the last three years as a result of this money printing, your food bill is double what it used to be just two or three years ago potentially. the dollars that you have are not doing nearly as far as they work. it is working contrary to the best interest of the american people. as your previous guests pointed out, america is smarter than just been bernanke coming out and throwing gasoline on the fire of the stock market to run for just a couple of months until the election as upper. neil: it might be just enough for the election and deal with all that stuff later. >> that's right. it may be. as you just pointed out, the states, the president. i believe that as people realize that this administration's

economic policy is not as good as the carter administration and the foreign policy, the president does not even attend his own jobs council meeting for i don't know how long. he is missing intelligence briefings. he has kind of checked out, like chris christie said. he is an absentee president. neil: he is leading in the polls. he is leading in the polls. >> again, who are they pulling? i don't believe that. the reality is when they go to the polls, somebody who understands economics. neil: we shall see, young man. ty yung in atlanta. thank you. >> thanks, neil. neil: is nothing sacred? europeans dealing with the salacious debt are now trying to cross the catholic church. and why she is not worrying. ♪ >> i feel very confident we will win this because i think it will be an economic election. i think that this is the most tepid recovery we have had since the great depression.

♪ neil: in our fox financial / iphone 53 orders are selling now in less than an hour. that was the big news. some are focusing more on selling than buying. website seeing a 500% jump in trading as compared to last release. folks unloading their older fallen for that shiny new phone and getting top dollar. plus, instead of laying off workers best buy is reassigning 2,000 loss prevention employees to focus on selling merchandise. and now they are hitting a. cash strapped europe reportedly looking ted hit up the catholic church. spain and italy want tent next tax breaks for churches to pay down debt. plus, they say, it is already creating a wholly of poor. selling, those offending. you will never be forgiven by

god and we will never hear your confession. we are not happy about it. meanwhile, protesters in the middle east. that unrest is not stop at all. angry crowds are forming. protesters are still protesting. let's get oil, still rising. melissa frances back from the state it -- strait of hormuz. if the unrest continues oil is going to go a lot higher. just the type of scenario. we are worried about that. >> and it is a perfect storm because we are looking at what the fed did this week which on the, you know, and place the value of the dollar. you need more dollars in order to buy oil. and then this unrest is exactly what everyone in the region is worried about. at the same time the head of the international energy agency is in the price of oil where it is right now is unbearable. it is going to translate to prices at the pump and stall the recovery. so this, it is becoming a crisis. neil: and you were in that crucial corridor were so much

oil, iranian oil makes his way to europe. vacancies on this and really make things quite messy. neil: with that question. right now as we watched everything around the middle east and in north africa lot of people are looking directly at a run and israel to see if anything happens under the cover of everything else that is going on. i know that they are doing special exercises where we were in the strait of hormuz, and they are on high guard for something to happen. and this is an area where 20 percent of the world's oil travels through, as he said. a lot of it goes to asia and other places, but that does not make a difference. if a barrel of oil -- neil: it is all the same. >> right. it's all the same. neil: but when you were there, they could not have factored in sort of, you know, an arab uprising in reverse now spreading across the entire region. that changes everything, doesn't this? >> the most recent development for sure changes everything. it is something that --

neil: just recent and will not last? >> no. we were based in bahrain which is where the basis. they have seen their own uprising in unrest. i think that this is sort of the temperature of the middle east and north africa right now. we have seen it heat up quite a bit just in the past few days here. and it is spilling over to this region where oil is, you know, the main thing. so all of it is going to push the price of oil hire, and that is bad news for our recovery and for consumers cannot take it. neil: you have to catch this. see is going to give us a firsthand look at the crucial oil supplies that run through this region. oil directly from there or not, as she pointed out, it is all at the pump. you can catch it. we know something good. this thing is going to be running around the clock. all right. there you go. the media is playing rough with mitt romney. this seems to be taking this in

stride. his wife, not so much. ♪ >> there is not nearly this deal to go after the president's, not even knowing whether egypt is an ally aeronaut then there is for your husband commenting on what is going on over there. >> as you know, we always feel like we are getting picked on one and anyone else. ♪

♪ neil: halftime. angry spouses when they want to go full throttle. best to get out of their way. and romney is upset. very upset, and very angry at the media that is rushing to paint her husband, to capitalize on t the entire mideast mess but has not shown a fraction of the same zeal to go after the president for creating an even

bigger mess. mitt romney, the president is not far not even knowing that mideast policy. the media colossus over that, but and romney has not end and romney will not. today her chosen venue. but the media on notice. here now, and unleased. >> we always feel like we are getting bigger and more than anyone else. it's just what happens. neil: to you think the media is fair? >> that is going to get me in trouble if i answer that honestly. neil: do you think it is disproportionately so? any mistakes you guys make is exaggerated and not so with the president. but do you agree with that? >> i always think that anyone

who is getting picked on has a bias as well. you know, but you cannot think about that or dwell upon that and worry about, you know, how i am being perceived. you have to just go forward and keep going with what he believed and not worry about the critics. and one thing i know is that he is a guy that has enormous integrity and enormous experience. neil: to see get frustrated by this response? to see if frustrated by these polls? making momentum. oh, my god. i'm down. neil: no. you look get the big picture. you look at the big picture. i don't even try to look at that. it is interesting. i don't -- i try to look at why we're running, where this country is headed, what we need right now. we need strong leaders. we need someone that cares, someone that understands the suffering of americans. i am looking forward. and i am very confident, by the way, that we actually will win this thing.

neil: a lot hinges on the debates, as you know, mrs. romney. when your husband goes into those debates everyone is going to be looking, i think more at him because they tend to let the challenger, the entertaining midstream. elected to get the other horse. they look to 1980 and ronald reagan. all right. we could switch to him. does your husband need to do that? does he need to show in that debate that he is worthy of americans' interest in switching? >> i am looking for to the debates. i think it is going to be an opportunity for a lot of americans to maybe tune in for the first time and see that this guy is a serious guy. neil: his own people seem to be trumpeting his debating skills. maybe it is working against an off. >> well, you know, i think we have great confidence that the president is a very good debater. neil: better than air has been? >> i'm not going to a comment on

that, but i do think that the president will have an advantage obviously going into these debates. everyone knows he is a good debater and he is the sitting president of the united states. i definitely think that because in as an underdog. neil: you and for study michele obama, critics of both say each of you gave better speeches and your husband. what do you think of that? >> well, i don't know if i agree. i think my husband's was terrific. it was different. i mean, we obviously are talking about different things. you want to have more fun and more interesting, you might listen to the women speak because we have an opportunity to talk about family and personal things. if you have to listen to policy which is obviously not as entertaining, you would certainly think that in both cases. neil: do you get a sense in this race, mrs. romney, it always comes down to they have it made. now, in your convention speech you mentioned, it was not always that way. a lot of people have seized on

your remarks. meet the press were you said, we have not had a financial struggle in our lives as if you didn't have a struggle. what you said in your speech about, you know, everything else the, it was not that bad. what is the real deal? what was it? >> unfortunately, you know more than anyone how profit can be because people think we have a storybook marriage. the storybooks i have read, there is no chapter on ms or breast cancer. and so, you know, by the fact of me saying i struggles have not been financial but they have crushed mead said -- crush me to death because my essence of who i was and how identify myself, the things that you do in life and how you are as a person. all the sudden all that's taken away from you and what are you left with. i went through a very rough and dark time, never mind not

knowing how sick was going to be and how -- i call it the pac man that was chewing the up. i was not quite sure when he was going to spit me at. neil: are you uncomfortable talking about it? and i say this as a fellow an answer, if you will. i marveled. taken remember many campaign, very tiring, hot. i do. and you don't to the victim thing to well. and i don't mean that disparagingly. do you think you should talk more about it? you don't like to. you are strong, you know, you go to these events and everything else, even though i know it's not fun. this disease and he is not fun. but you and your husband just don't like to where your problems on your sleeve. >> well, i think that is the case.

you know, we have dealt with a lot. i think people have to recognize that our life has not been as people think it has been. and you just get stronger by working and fighting your troubles and life. neil: do you feel uncomfortable about it? just the way your has been stood by you when that happened? with cancer. is it just, i don't want to look like i am using these diseases? i don't know. is the discomfort? >> a bit of discomfort because you don't always want to be saying, poor me. neil: i do. it gets me out of work all the time. all the time. neil: it is a nice excuse sometimes, but for me to power on his importance. important for me to know that i can. it is important for me to know that i have overcome a lot of these things. i have learned from some much of the illnesses that have gone through. most importantly, i have learned from having ms and breast cancer

is compassion. and this has been a cruel teacher, but it has been a teacher. what it has taught me is to recognize that all americans struggled with one thing or another to whenever the struggle this, i have compassion for. and i think what i meant by saying, my struggles have not been financial, but they have been other things is to suggest that, let me have -- give me the allowance to know that i can sympathize with those. and ms. can sympathize with those that are going to struggle maybe our struggles are not uniquely like yours, but we have had struggles. medicare's. i care. we have learned so much from the struggles that we have gone through. neil: quickly, do you find it odd to michele obama's father deals with multiple sclerosis, so you do have that common link? >> well, i think that probably

made her understand how people struggle as well. i'm sure she live with it with her daily life watching her father not be able to be as strong as he would like to be. neil: do you like the obama's? >> i don't think that ever met president obama. i think i would remember that. i have met michele. she is lovely. i met her on one or two occasions. and i think she's doing a good job. neil: good people. >> idea. neil: this race, now you have a busy day and you have to go and do the campaigning thing. a throng of people. start interviewing. just you and your husband. if you lose would you miss that? >> you know, i think what i wellness is the opportunity for my husband to do the things that i know he can do to turn this country around. we won't miss our life is fine. our life is wonderful.

we won't miss anything except for the opportunity that americans will be better off if midwest. neil: you don't think that is -- >> i believe we are going to get there. neil: all right. dismissing the polls and the campaign has already trying to make greater use. better on the stump that her husband. that is a debate, but bottom line see as a weapon and they do want to use for these next two months. we shall see. next, revenue going down and calls for more taxes revving up. first, because it's friday. french and then british, wondering what is next. the eu guy who could change taxes on a dime. ♪

♪ music kids will spend 22 minutes watching us, the super duper party troopers, sing about ants in their pants. brushing for two minutes now, can save your child from severe tooth pain later. two minutes twice a day. they have the time.

♪ neil: don't look now. the weak housing market could be making a strong case for tax hikes with property values plummeting. revenues and a lot of local governments still tumbling down over 2 percent on average. they argue they have to get the money from somewhere. want to plug that gap. it will have to raise taxes on citizens. that is a tough sell in at down economic environment. how did they make that so? >> well, i think it makes itself because when you look at the services being provided at the local level, police, libraries, parks. well you and i would agree on lots of guts of the federal level, this is where the rubber meets the road that affects our daily lives. considering that well over half of the revenue comes from property taxes for the services to my we just can't make enough cuts. i see a silver lining that it is

on the gun down 3 percent on average this year. we have seen at least twice that the past couple of years. things are getting better, but in the meantime, at 3 percent property-tax increase on homeowners who are able to survive this is definitely something that they should be looking at. neil: i wonder if you are jumping to conclusions here. a lot of towns and municipalities, what they have been doing with a lot of overheated properties and people who are under water and as a result of the value of the house does not justify the taxes, they bring the tax rate down or do a town-white, borrow-wide reassessment. invariably hurts those who have been in the town lager, but before the bone because of their property has steadily increased in value, even with the meltdown. the people who bought in 2006 are seven, they are the ones that end up seeing their property taxes that because their property value has been cut. isn't that a better day -- a better way to deal with this, reassess everybody because those

who were valued at exit 1980 or 90 obviously still have a property that is valued more today even with the meltdown. >> well, i actually think that properties in general are undervalued because the bargain-basement prices that banks are offloading many houses on is bringing down the property values of everyone around them artificially low. i bring a personal example, get a second home in new orleans a couple of years ago, and my property assessment went down 50%. i'm thinking to myself, i still have my job, i got a second house. my property taxes have gone down tremendously, which means that the pull down the street cannot open because it is just not properly funded. i do think -- neil: but there are many -- i don't know your specific case, but there are many who bought prior to you, even with their production and prices, maybe you got your property after. but by today's comparisons even with the meltdown the property, the reassessed environment, that

property will be worth more and they should be taxed accordingly before we raise everyone's taxes, let's make the tax base and real estate base reflective of the valuations to date. everybody. neil: i would agree with you, neal, on that count. absolutely. at think what we are seeing here is a lag because the assessment is behind. in a place like california we will probably never recover from this recession because of prop. 13 which places everything at these bargain base price is not that the tax base, and it can only increase 2% per year. while everyone else is pulling out our cities are going to continue to go bankrupt because of this draconian rule. but i would very much agree that we need to go through and reassess and only really assess the tax increase on those who can afford it mean homeowners to whether the storm caught did not lose their job and particularly those with a high end gabba can afford a second or third home. neil: starting to do that with property taxes, picking and choosing. but it is a worthy debate. neil: if you can afford a second

come, come on. neil: well, you are deciding who pays taxes to my guess. but we will see. thank you very much. to any of you remember air jordan sneakers causing riots across the country last year? fans wanting a pair no matter the cost. next, they guy who is fighting to make sure they don't get a pair right now. ♪ @8

neil: well, they told nike to adjust to it. the national urban league's landing nike for charging $315 for a pair of lebron james baker

said. nike announcing it is going to cut the price of $270 as if that is a bargain-basement sale. this certainly president said that is not nearly enough. but i do wonder if he could be my agent. this guy can get results. i want the number to go up, not down. how did you give them to come down that much? >> well, the point here is, this is still the most expensive snickered in american history. i think this sticker shock of the idea, $315 sneaker got parents and the people who buy things for their kids while that -- riled up in a very big way. and if, you know, we've, i think, very importantly made the point that not now. the economy, the unemployment rate, people stretched to pay their bills. and here is a company, we all love and respect st. you need to buy out $315 an acre.

but. neil: let the market decide. >> and i am saying, let me play in the market and encourage people on one hand. don't do it. on the other hand, that the appeal to your sense of responsibility. a lot of nike's ads are about values, but the product. but in this instance i encouraged nike not to go down the road of having this maker release advance that turn into circuses with violence, people fighting. it's a bad thing. neil: why does it did like it did with the michael jordan? >> a modern-day version of a pet rock. you have to have its. neil: to various beds of rock. so you are as much looking at the potential for violence, it seems, and just warning that off. let's say 270, maybe it down to 250. i don't even know. will it be less violent? will it be less of a big scene?

>> it is about how they do there release. if they do there release event where there are ten pairs of these shoes but they suggest that there is an unlimited quantity and people, and are angry at the unavailability of it, maybe what they should do is only release whenever sure this is on line in first so that people are not going to storm these retail establishments. nike has to be more responsible with their retailers on how they orchestrate these releases. so it is about that, but it is also about this idea of values in a tough economy, what we ought to be spending money on. neil: you were explaining to me why these stickers are priced the way that they are. unless they're going to give me a cup of coffee in a book me dinner reservations. neil: last hundred years. bottom line, where do you see this going? there are a lot of capitalists out there watching. i love with this deck is trying

to do, but if apple gets too pricey, when to go after it. where does this lead? >> this is unusual because this is a product that is targeted at teenagers and young people. this is not a product that is targeted primarily at adults. i think that is where the line has to be drawn because you're talking about money coming out of the products up to the pockets apparent sickened by computers, books, other things that their children need. nine people may have their own money and want to spend it on the sticker, but even they should be encouraged to spend it differently. nike should meet the parents of america halfway. neil: are getting results, young man. the national urban league president and ceo, getting some results. all right. when we come bac

neil: finally, be very careful acting like to are the smartest guy in the class. you will only prove yourself a dope. no sooner had the president remarked that mitt romney prefers to shoot first and think second than he himself polls of you that puts both the same. is buber over egypt not being an ally, but, wait, maybe it is. well, it only proved that those who through diplomatic stones better make sure they're not in a glass house. in this case the president was and is. when it comes to this middies

messed his reaction became and becomes the issue, not mitt romney's alleged reaction to his reaction. that is the danger in diplomacy in general. it tends to make notes of those who have more degrees than common sense on the right and left. all i know is the smartest guys in the room that as into vietnam and the most able foreign-policy minded had a devil of a time finding certain weapons of mass destruction. where were they? anyway. we are all human and we all make mistakes, but i think a blink in was right on this one. better to remain silent and be thought of fool than to speak and remove all doubt. i just find it odd that the man who compares himself to lincoln some much would forget this terrorism that is so basic. maybe he was too busy talking to hear from all a reminder, be diplomatic and shut up. that will do it here. thanks for