>> bill: gop debate tonight. fox news and google sponsoring. we will have predebate analysis from laura ingraham, george stephanopoulos, and your humble correspondent. >> if taxes are raised, bill o'reilly might quit his fox show. that brings us to our new segment, no, don't. >> bill: jon stewart once again mocking me. this time over my tax the rich analysis. and boy, do i have some things back to stewart. you will hear them. >> we the people. that is our country. that is america! >> bill: a new poll says that most republican primary voters do not want sarah palin in the race. but why? the culture warriors on that. caution. you are about to enter the no spin zone. "the factor" begins right now.

hi. i'm bill o'reilly. thanks for afghanistan us. the obama administration in a freefall. that is a subject of this evening's talking points memo. new polls indicate what's really happening in the u.s. first of all, according to a "washington post"-abc news poll, president obama's support among african-americans is dropping dramatically. five months ago, 83% of blacks had a strongly favorable opinion of the president. that's down to 58% today. to be fair, 86% of black voters still view the president somewhat favorably. the problem for african-americans is the 16.7 unemployment rate compared to the overall number of 9.1%. again to be fair to mr. obama, black employment is not his fault. it's an educational thing that's been going on forever. among americans with college degrees, the unemployment rate is just 4.3%. that says it all. if you're educated, you'll find

a job. if not, life is harder. now, there is little president obama can do about the public education system in america. the government's funding it a record levels. more than $10,000 for each pupil each year. but still the system, especially in poor precincts is on the decline. that's because the family unit is on the decline. nowhere is that situation worse than in the african-american community where about 70% of babies are born out of wedlock. every honest teacher knows if a student does not have parents who supervise and encourage education, that student is far less likely to succeed. black voters aren't going to turn against president obama next year, but some may not vote at all. that has to concern the white house. in another poll, florida voters delivering bad news to mr. obama as well. 57% now disapprove of the job he's doing. just 39% approve. in addition, 53% of florida voters say the president does not deserve a second term.

just 41% believe he does. remember, barak obama carried florida in 2008. finally a gallup poll asked registered voters who they would definitely vote for or might consider in the next year's presidential election. mitt romney weighs in at 62%. good news for him. just 35% saying they will definitely not vote for mr. romney. president obama has support at 54%. but 45% of americans say they will definitely not vote for him, which means he has little margin for error. rick perry, 53% would consider voting for him. but 44% say no. summing up every single poll, every single one, tells the same story. barak obama losing support everywhere, except at nbc news. with just 13 1/2 months to the vote, situation for the president has now reached critical mass. that's a memo. top story tonight, the big fox news google debate on tap this evening from florida.

joining us from washington, fox news analyst laura ingraham, author of the best seller "of thee i zing." what do you want to see at this debate? >> first thing i want to see is a blueprint, okay? i know that's asking a lot. but i think we've done the hpv thing. we're doing these got ya questions and they're important, but america is in a desperate state of decline, bill. you've been documenting this. i've been documenting this for years on my radio show. we are in a state of seemingly inexorable deterioration. we need these candidates to give us the specifics, how can america once again be in a position of dominance for as far as the eye can see? right now five years from now, china is set to overtake us economically. when that happens, if that happens, our lives in this country are going to change and they're going to change dramatically. >> bill: is it all about economics, though?

>> no, it isn't all about economics. i think we focused a lot on these debates on the middle east and that's fine. on iran and so forth. peace process. we need to talk about russia and china. china is moving on all fronts, militarily, militarizing space, aggressively seeking our technology and willing partners to transfer technology to us, russia was supposed to be a reset relationship. remember that reset button they got wrong? how is that worked out for us with russia? why today should countries that are climbing up, countries like india, why should they look to our system today? i've asked the candidates this. why look at the american system when state-run capitalism seems to be working much better? we have to have answers to these questions. i'm not so interested, bill, in the what kind of pet are you going to bring to the white house? or what kind of objects are you going to bring? our country is on the brink and we need serious people with serious answers. >> bill: but it's almost impossible to get your blueprint with 1500 people on the stage.

we have megyn kelly coming up later. she's one of the interrogators tonight. here is the problem with the debate. here is the problem with it, you got too many people on the stage. then you have the google -- i think there is like 20,000 questions from all over the world. >> oh, great. >> bill: yeah. so it's going to be all over the place and then very important for the viewer to understand, and you understand this -- every single republican candidate on that stage tonight has an agenda. they have something that their handlers have told them. this is what you have to do. miss laura might want a blueprint for the future to restore america's dominance in the world, but -- let me give you an example and i want you to react to this. here is what michelle bachman has to do. has to do. she has to destroy rick perry to get his support back to her. >> bill, you pointed out an excellent point. i was saying this to a friend of mine the other day, we were talking about sacrifice. you hear a lot of people who are not in the race saying, well, my family, we talked about it, we decided not to run.

that's fine. but remember where george washington was. he was in the comfort of mount vernon and decided he was going to sacrifice for his country and for this fledgling republic. sleeping in valley farming. i think the country is desperate to see one person on that stage who looks into the camera and says, you know something? i'm here to save america. this is what i'm going to do. it's not about taking down perry or taking down bachman or taking down romney. this is what i'm going to do to save this country. and i think the more we hear that, and less of the self-propping up that we see in a lot of these campaigns, i think people will start listening. i think there is a lot -- >> bill: you're making a good point. i hope the candidates are watching this because they're on the air in a little while. some might have the tv on in their hotel rooms. >> oh, they're watching. >> bill: but i suspect we're going to see more of strategizing. >> hpv. >> bill: right. romney trying to do this. bachman trying to do that.

perry trying to diminish romney. santorum trying to go into the immigration realm to get perry. so i don't know if we're going to get those things that you want and also i don't know if the candidates would have time. >> well, i think at this point, when you're running for president and they all deserve respect for actually putting their necks out and running, but i think at this point with how far we've fallen over the last several years, we have fallen into a disturbing descent that we have to have serious swers, enough of the bumper sticker stuff. enough of the cute little asides. we need serious answers to these and i hope china is brought up. >> bill: the republican challenger next year is, look, we got to restore america's greatness 'cause we're -- >> america, again. bill, america, again. anyone can take it. it's theirs if they want to take it. >> bill: thanks very much. two liberals will tell us what they would like to see tonight.

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see? same question that i gave to laura. what do you want to see in the debate tonight? >> romney has been a very strong debater, but he's got to do something to break out a little bit 'cause rick perry is sort of taking the place of the leader and he's got to do something to shake that up a little bit. and his attacks on the social security stuff are great for a general election, but i don't think they really work in the gop primary because they don't -- debate voters don't have that big of an issue with what rick perry is saying. so he's going to have to find another way to attack him where he doesn't sound like a democrat attacking him. >> bill: do you want to see romney attack perry? is that what you want to see? >> in terms of looking at it and wanting to see things move the ball down a little bit, and look, i'll be honest, if i had to choose between romney or rick perry being president of the united states, i would choose romney. so i think -- >> bill: you just lost governor romney 100,000 votes there. >> i'm sorry. the kiss of death. i know. >> bill: lesley, do you feel that america is in decline? do you feel that we're on the down side here?

>> i actually have to say to be 100% honest, bill, yes. some of america is on the decline. but i don't blame the president or any one party for that. i blame the politicizing on both sides and more so on the republican side as the polls show the majority of americans agree with me on. and if we don't have -- >> bill: what poll -- wait a minute. what poll agrees with you that the republican party is responsible for the decline of america? what poll is that? >> the republicans in the house. the republicans in the house. >> bill: the al franken poll? what poll is that? the michael moore poll? >> no, no. >> bill: come on. pull stuff out of your hat and you know you can't back it up. >> no, i'm not. >> low approval ratings for republicans in congress. >> bill: low approval ratings are different than blaming the republicans in the house for the decline of america. lesley, under the democratic house, okay, they ran up more than a $5 trillion debt in four years. okay? and it didn't work. the economy is worse.

so what moron would blame republicans for the current economic epidemic -- current problems we have in the economic region? allall right. let's get back to the debate. kirsten, when i said to laura, laura knows this is true, that each of the candidates -- this is the problem with these early debates -- has an agenda. they each have something their handlers tell them. you have to do this. in order to survive, michelle bachman has got to destroy rick perry tonight. she has to because all of michelle bachman's support she's now down to single digits in many polls, has gone to perry. she's got to go after him. rick santorum obviously doesn't like perry. he's going to get him on the immigration issue. does that do americans any good? >> no. but i don't know if these debates necessarily do americans good in that sense, but santorum has the same interest that michelle bachman has. they're going for the same exact voters. we've seen that already. we've seen michelle bachman last time go after him on the hpv

vaccine and so to a certain extent, she's doing all the dirty work for romney. but yeah. that's what happens in these -- >> bill: she's not really doing it for romney. >> not intentionally. >> bill: the only way she wins is if she wins in iowa convincingly, can regenerate her fundraising, to go to south carolina and duplicate iowa. so -- >> no, no, that's not what i meant. i don't mean she's doing it intentionally. >> bill: well, it helps romney because he could let them go after perry. now, do you, lesley, expect to see them gang up on perry like they did last time? >> yes, i think they do, regardless of mitt romney doing very well in the polls right now, perry is the guy to take down because -- i believe that perry is the guy that can win the nomination, but i think that romney is the guy that can win the election. in order to be elected, you've got to get the nomination. so i think that perry is the man to attack, both for romney and michelle bachman. i agree 100% with you and laura

regarding michelle bachman. she had brilliant points that everybody remembers, but it was brief. i think she's got to do a lot more between now and iowa even if she wins that. >> bill: if i'm -- if i'm advising congresswoman bachman, i say no matter what they ask you, whatever bear or kelly or wallace ask you, you say, i hate rick perry. and here is why. >> not just -- >> bill: here is why. no matter what they ask you, that's what you have to do to get some of that mojo back because it's obviously what's happened. last word. >> you know, bill? i think what they also have to do is come up with something different. we've heard every excuse that mitt romney has for why he had a health care mandate in massachusetts and won -- we need answers to other questions. >> bill: you know the talking points. all right, ladies. thanks. good debate. ahead, jon stewart mocking me, i know that's unbelievable, about

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>> bill: in the impact segment, as you may know, we have been closely analyzing the terrible economic situation in this country dialed down will -- dow down almost 400 today. there is no question that president obama's big government management solutions aren't working. also the tax the rich mantra, a ruse, there are simply not enough people in the entire country to make a debt in the federal dent no matter how much you take. a liberal man who has no use for whining millionaires, a man dedicated to mocking the hand that feeds him, in this case, the owner of 33 subway sandwich

shops, congressman john fleming, who opposes paying a higher tax. >> if you go after the higher income earners, you're also going after the job creators. so whatever is cut out of those earnings is money taken out of capital for reinvestment for creating more jobs, opening up more locations. >> more locations. at long last, sir, we don't need more subways. >> bill: especially if you're a sushi eating, latte drinking new yorker! jon stewart is not in that category. in fact, he's in a category all his own, kind of like me. >> but there is sadly, only one papa bear. >> bill: if you tax achievement, some of the achievers are going to pack it in. again, let's take me. my corporation's employ scores of people. they depend on me to do what i do so they can make a nice salary. if barak obama begins taxing me more than 50%, which is very

possible, i don't know how much longer i'm going to do this. i like my job, but there comes a point when taxation becomes oppressive. [ laughter ] >> so if taxes are raised, bill o'reilly might quit his fox job? [ cheers and applause ] that brings us to our new segment, no. stop. bill. don't. please. no.

i shouldn't poke fun. bill is just standing up for a shrinking exploited minority. >> bill: that's absolutely correct. i'm standing up for americans with common sense. people who understand that under a democratic congress the nation racked up more than $5 trillion in debt in just four years, even as the economy tanked. so i and many others have come to the conclusion that the liberal tenet of taxing the rich and spending like arab sheiks may not be the solution to fixing the economy. of course, i could be wrong. at least ron howard thinks so. >> to be honest, i remember on the andy griffith show when income taxes for the upper levels were as much as 90% and that's the era that we often look back to with great nostalgia and it was a time of tremendous growth. so, you know, i'm not averse to paying some taxes to try to help

the country grow. >> more taxes than you pay right now? >> yeah. for me personally, i believe that it's silly. i'm with warren buffet on this one. >> bill: now, i do seem to remember floyd the barber and gonnaer browsing about a 90% income tax rate but it is a myth the top tax rate in the 1950s peaked at 90%. but the handful of americans were -- we're talking maybe 200 making more than a million dollars a year. paid 60%. in 1962, president kennedy proposed a big tax cut for the rich in order to stimulate the economy and encourage investment. the rates have been moderating ever since. now today, president obama wants to buck that trend, but even fellow democrat bill clinton knows a tax increase on the rich corporations will not solve the country's economic problems. >> americans lost the fact that

whatever you think about this millionaire surcharge, if -- i don't really care because i would pay it. but it won't affect me 'cause i already pay the minimum income 'cause i live in new york. i'll pay more, but it won't solve the problem. >> bill: that's right. it won't solve the problem. so let's recap, shall we? jon stewart mocks the subway guy who wants to expand and me for telling you the higher taxes will not lead to economic prosperity. better tax collection would help the feds, but raising cap gains and the income tax would mostly like blunt consumer spending and investment. leading to more, more economic hardship. andy and opie would side with stewart, i believe. but i think i would get thelma and barney. either way i'm right. plenty more ahead. we'll take you down to orlando and preview the debate with megyn kelly, one of the interrogators. also the culture warriors on a new poll that says most

republican voters don't want sarah palin to run for president. we hope you stay tuned for those reports. there's only one bottle left ! i've got to tell susie ! the vending machine on elm is almost empty. i'm on it, boss. new pony sorry ! we are open for business. let's reroute greg to fresn growing businees use machine-to-machine technology from verizon wireless. susie ! the vending machine... already filled. cool be. because the business with the best technology rules. a body at rest tends to stay at rest... while a body in motion tends to stay in motion. staying active can actually ease arthritis symptoms. but if you have arthritis, staying active can be difficult. prescription celebrex can help relieve arthritis pain so your body can stay in motion. because just one 200mg celebrex a day

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>> bill: culture warrior segment. insane situation in the sarah palin factor. according to the latest poll, 72% of potential republican primary voters now say governor palin should not run. just 24% want her to get into the race. but why? here the culture warriors, dagen mcdowell in for margaret hoover and gretchen carlson. carlson, we begin with you. this poll is surprising, right? >> the poll on sarah palin? >> bill: yes. >> not really. i'm not that surprised by it because i think that republicans know how much she got beat up in the press the first time around. they think that it's a advice really reaction to her by a lot of people, and so they want to win this election, so they probably are thinking she will not be able to beat president

obama, so let's not even get her into the race at all. >> bill: you think, though -- what? >> she's spot on. >> bill: you think so? >> thank you, dagen. >> bill: i mean, many republican voters and democratic voters when she was on the other side, they get angry about the media attacks and say don't let that stop you. if you think you can go and you have a message, go. i don't know if that's really it, that it's all practical politics. >> no, but republican voters see the tabloid fodder out there, that the left would sling. look no further than that ridiculous book, the levi johnston book. >> bill: they're going to sling it against anybody. look at john mccain. they tried to trump up some affair that he had on a front page of the "new york times" last year. come on, it was ridiculous. they're going to do the same thing to anybody. here is my theory. why most republicans don't want her to get into the race? because they already have two candidates that pretty much reflect her views. rick perry and michelle bachman. >> fair enough. >> bill: they're very, very close.

so the republican voters, particularly conservative tea party people say we already have two people. >> probably that's what sarah palin has been watching as well and that's why she hasn't -- >> bill: why do we wan to mark that up? >> i believe when she resigned as governor of alaska with 18 months -- >> bill: that hurt her. >> that hurt her and it said she still lax experience. >> but part b to my answer is i also believe she hasn't answered the attacks in the best way possible. michelle bachman has done a better job, in my mind, in answering the obvious attacks that come at a conservative woman. and i think that that has hurt sarah palin. >> bill: i'm not sure about that. if i were sarah palin, i wouldn't answer the personal attacks at all. that's insane is this. >> sometimes she has. >> bill: kansas state university has -- they're called the wildcats. kansas state wildcats, that's their mascot. willie the wildcat. the band forever, has been doing a little thing at half time at the football games with the theme every man a wildcat. but now they're not going to do it anymore.

why? >> some people are up in arms that the man is not all inclusive and a couple of years ago, there was this young co-ed, this woman who wrote this editorial in the college newspaper and said, i think it should be not epal, every person. >> bill: so every person a wildcat. it isn't that they're offended by wildcats. >> no, it's the man. >> bill: it's the beast that would eat and kill you. they're not offended by that. they're offended by every man? >> right. >> bill: so they're offended by the word mankind, i guess? >> it's so silly. >> dagen and i are smart working women and we don't have a problem with calling this ima. we don't have is a problem with saying the word m in man. >> i don't have a problem with chairman if you're a woman. >> bill: so you both agree this is foolish and beyond stupid? >> but it was actually a band director who took it upon

himself. >> bill: i don't care about the band director. >> in part the school has said this is their official license -- >> they still make money off it. >> bill: what's going to happen to willie? does he have to be a cross dresser now? does he have to be a man at one game and a lady at the other? >> he has to be -- >> bill: what about willie the wildcat? >> he has to be willing to wax and go self-tan. >> bill: he does. so willie has to be more feminized. >> people are outraged over this. there is a huge campaign trying to keep it on twitter, on facebook. >> bill: you're always going to get that. last question, why would a woman, any woman, care that the slogan would be every man a wildcat? if i were a woman, i don't think i'd want to be a wildcat. >> my first thought was i'm not going to lose sleep over this tonight. >> i will say one thing, syracuse, you should be the orange men. 2004, just the orange now. >> bill: the orange people? >> just orange.

syracuse orange. >> that's like stanford with the indians. >> bill: all right. >> figure that one out. >> bill: the people that don't like the word man are making in roads all across the united states, everybody, which is another reason our country is in decline. [ laughter ] >> that's the theme of the night. >> bill: that's a joke for you media matters! when we come right back, we'll go down to orlando, florida and talk to megyn kelly, one of the questioners this evening. then george stephanopoulos will analyze just how bad things are at the white house. those reports after these messages. [ kristy ] my mom is well...weird.

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>> bill: thanks for staying with us. i'm bill o'reilly. in the kemi file segment, miss kelly living large where she's set to question the republican hopefuls at the debate. she'll be joined by chris wallace and bret baier and megyn joins us now. here is my problem with the

debate tonight, you got fox news partnered up with google. they ask for questions from people all over the world and you got 20,000 of them. then there are thousands of people on the stage, right, running for the nomination. so how are you going to handle and distill all this in less than two hours? >> it's going to be like herding cats. i'm expecting bedlam and chaos and general meltdowns left and right. going to make for great tv, quite frankly. >> bill: let's give the audience some inside baseball here. so the three of you meet and you got to difficulty up the question -- divvy up the questioning somehow. >> it's not just the three of us. there is a whole editorial team, our political unit and people from the dc bureau, the big thinkers in washington, and we all sit down and we decide what are the issues that we're going to talk to them about? what do people care about? and it's the obvious. obviously number one will be jobs. >> bill: has to be the economy,

sure. >> that's going to be huge. then you sort of start thinking like, all right. how do we divvy it up? we do it by topics among anchors and you do your research and come up with what's the most relevant issue on jobs right now. >> bill: so you can bring in your own questions that you want to ask? >> oh, yeah. we all came up with our own questions. >> bill: all right. so they give you this is the area that megyn kelly will have, bret baier will have, chris wallace, then you come up with your own questions. i understand you have videos of people asking questions as well that we're going to run in this debate. is that true? >> yes, because we're partnering with google, and youtube, and so people have been submitting text questions and questions via youtube for weeks now and so let's say i'm responsible tonight, which i am, for among other topics, social issues. i've got some questions and i've got some questions from youtube users asking questions about social issues directly to the candidates. >> bill: are you going to name the people?

here comes vinny from so and so and he says this? >> yeah. >> bill: okay. >> vinny from the bronks. >> bill: right. >> and a lot of these -- it's going to be -- for reasons i won't reveal right now, it will be very interesting and it's going to be even tougher for the candidates, i think in some instances to respond directly to these viewers because these people are living the issues firsthand. >> bill: here is the problem with all of these debates. and i say this if somebody is very jealous of you and bear and others 'cause i never get invite to do moderate and we all know why. okay. so the problem is that no matter what vinny asks or megyn kelly asks or bret baier asks, they, the candidates, have a minute to say whatever they want to say. so if they don't want to answer the question, they can answer anything they want. >> they can try that. they can try that. but that's why we are there. that's why you have three live human beings there. >> bill: but you can't interrupt them for a minute. you've got to let them go. >> you can be a little careful on that. i think what you can do is if

you start to hear something that's offtrack, you can gently re-- you saw with blitzer last week where somebody said, ron paul was saying, well, he should have gotten catastrophic health insurance and the moderator said, he didn't. we're past that. you can jump in a little bit here and there. even on my show i stop talking points. i won't be at liberty to do quite as much of that tonight. we also get follow-ups. so if they give a minute long answer and there is no answer, i do have the chance to say -- >> bill: but you can't be saying, you pinhead, you didn't answer the question like i would say. you have to be nice. now the other thing is, you got all these people on a stage, nine or ten of these people. right? >> yeah. nine people. >> bill: did you guys divide up -- are they all going to get equal time? are we going to gary johnson going to get as much time as rick perry? >> it's going to be fair. i don't know that at the end of the day everyone will have

exactly equal time. but it's goi to be fair and every candidate will have more than a fair chance to offer their position. sometimes in these debates, bill, they get into a back and forth, right, like we've seen that in the past with perry and romney or bachman and pawlenty that one time. and you want to allow for that. so we tried to build the timing in if they want to talk with each other or challenge each other. >> bill: the best way to do that -- >> that happens, sometimes you have to eliminate other questions. >> bill: the best way to do that is say, you know, governor perry, michelle bachman hates you. and she told me that blah, blah, blah. >> you know what happens when you do that? you get yelled at by newt gingrich. >> bill: oh, that's right. you media people, be trying to turn us against each other. we're already turned against each other. we don't need you. >> but listen, can he really make the mickey mouse joke here in orlando? i think not. >> bill: no? i think tonight some of the candidates are going to have to

be outrageous to get attention. thank you very much. we appreciate you taking the time before the debate coming up after "the factor." up next, george stephanopoulos will weigh in on that debate and the bad polling numbers for president obama. then a politician names his dog mohammed, causing all kinds of trouble. we're right back can a trading site help make you a sharper trader? mine can. td ameritrade can. they've got trading specialists i can call for help.

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>> bill: can the white house make a comeback in light of all of bad polling numbers? joining us now from the abc studios in new york city, the co-anchor of "good morning america," george stephanopoulos who did work in the white house at one time. you got to think that things are grim at 1600 pennsylvania avenue. right? >> couldn't be tougher right now. even with these kind of economic numbers coming out, these

numbers may be more important, the income numbers, incomes going down for most americans for the last three years and the number of americans think we're on the wrong track, those all spell a defeat in 2012 unless things turn around and that's what the white house has to bank on right now. >> bill: but here is the interesting question: things turning around. when george w. bush got in trouble in iraq, he lost the confidence of many voters. then a surge happened and the united states reimposed authority in iraq and turned it into a victory militarily. but president bush never got a buffer up to where he was before iraq. >> i think that's true, that's very true. he wasn't on the ballot after the surge. >> bill: no, no, but i'm talking about public opinion polls. even though the surge was successful, there was no bump up. >> you know why? >> bill: go. >> because the economy started to spiral downward. >> bill: not exactly at the same time. the economy was all right until

his last year in office. in 2006 was the surge. but my hypothesis is this: once americans lose confidence in their leadership, very hard to get it back. very hard to get it back. >> no question about that. that's what ben bernanke was warning about last week. if a president would have given the ben bernanke speech, he would have been called a different speech. i don't think the president is at that point yet. >> bill: you don't? >> well, his personal favorability -- >> bill: no, no, no. but it's all about confidence in the economy. if the banks aren't confident and they're not, they won't lend money. if small business owners aren't confident, and they're not, they won't expand and hire people. with the banks holding money back and small business not expanding, you can't. the unemployment rate can't come down. i'm telling you that i don't know in 13 months whether any human being could turn the perception of economic failure around. >> the question is will the

trends be going in the right direction. i don't want to disagree with you too much here, bill, 'cause i basically think you're right. if we don't get this kind of confidence back, if europe doesn't stabilize, if we don't see some growth in the first couple of quarters in 2012, it's going to be very, very difficult for president obama to win. >> bill: he's done. now, tonight on the republican side, the pollshow that mitt romney, among registered voters, nonideological, far and away the most -- >> electable? >> bill: i don't know if it's electable, but the most serious challenger in the sense that he appeals to more voters than rick perry does. >> he definitely has more reach among independent voters. right now than rick perry does. >> bill: so in the debate tonight, you got to assume governor perry knows that poll, has seen that poll. so perry has got to go after romney and he started last night on sean hannity's program by saying hey, you don't want to elect an obama lite. that's what perry said about

romney. he's got to keep that up tonight. >> i think he absolutely does. meanwhile, he's in a tough spot, though, while in a general election, "local 2" electability is very hard for rick perry. he's while he's trying to do that, he's got rick santorum and michelle bachman, a little bit of ron paul all pushing him on the right. he's got to protect that right flank at exactly the same time. so the degree of difficulty for rick perry tonight is quite high. >> bill: do you see them ganging up on perry again as they did last time? do you think that will happen again? >> i was thinking about that. you would think that there is a chance that some of the ones would try to go after romney. yet when you look at those who need traction, when you look at rick santorum, when you look at ron paul, they have to really -- when you look at michelle bachman, they need to start doing better in iowa which means they need to start to feel some of rick perry's conservative support. what could happen, what you could see is john huntsman taking it to romney and that

will give perry a little bit of cover. but i think it's going to be one of the interesting dynamics. >> bill: the reason he would do that is in new hampshire huntsman is running second. >> third in new hampshire right now, but ahead of rick perry. >> bill: right. that's right. paul is ahead of him in new hampshire? yeah. but ron paul and rick santorum and newt gingrich, herman cain, they know they're not going to win. >> i think newt gingrich knows he's not going to win. i think herman cain knows. rick santorum may not win, but he's clearly trying to do something in this race. those remarks he made the other day about he's forgotten more about foreign policy in the middle east than rick perry ever knew shows that he's got a strategy right now and if he continues that, if he really steps up -- >> bill: why do you think santorum is doing that? he knows he can't win the nomination. is he looking to have a cabinet position in a romney presidency or something? >> i can't read his mind or heart, but i was struck this week by how hard he went up against rick perry. also it's also only path to the

nomination. his only path -- >> bill: michelle bachman is a different story. she's going to go after perry, has to go after perry because perry has taken some of her support. and get her mojo back in iowa, she's got to go after him. but the santorum thing is interesting. go ahead. >> i think it's very interesting, i agree. and i think both of the possibilities you raise could be out there in some way. it's also his only path to -- these guys, when you're running for president, as long as you're in the race, you got to believe you can get something done. >> bill: oh, come on. they know they're not -- >> the only way he does well in iowa and the only way he does that is attack rick perry. >> bill: a programming note, i'll be with george on "good morning america" next tuesday talking about my new book "killing lincoln." coming right back with a politician who named his dog mohammed. not good. moments away. this is not only the master of all droids,

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16-dollar muffins. mike, new york, trying to make the argument the 16-dollar muffins aren't the big picture. but he revealed his true intent when he doesn't care if taxing the rich doesn't work economically, as long as it is the right thing to do. norman, tennessee, you were outgunned by ellis because you don't understand that wealthy americans should pay more. why? so the feds can buy more 16-dollar muffins? dolly, arizona. you're talking points were dead on. many of us who are struggling agree with you. jerry, pennsylvania, we just bought six muffins from shop rite for 2.49. heather and ryan, hamilton, montana. thanks to you, we can tell our children where the muffin man actually lives. 1600 pennsylvania avenue. joe, massachusetts, newsweek

quotes you as saying you have more power than anybody but the president. didn't the nuns teach you that pride goes before the fall? they did, but they also taught me that guys who take things out of context like you are pinheads. the remark was made in a discussion of killing lincoln, my new book. and in that context, i said that getting things done like jessica's law makes us powerful here because we don't have to go through the legislative process. makes a big difference, doesn't it. shane, if you call the rich job creators, where are all the jobs? the rich are not job creators. write this down, shane. you should have a no spin pen. investment creates jobs. investors will not invest unless they are confident they will make a profit. high taxes and regulations take profits away from investors. got it? george, ohio. i teach special ed and coach the football team at east lake high school.

my team played a benefit game and raised $3,400 to the wounded warriors. the guy is a patriot. thank you very much. brian, california, why not have a auction for the warriors because believe it or not, interstate ravels are against the law in many states. can't do it. finally, pinheads and patriots, the council on american islamic relations is peeved that a southern california politician has named his dog mohammed. councilman reeve did that and care wants an apology. reeve says he named his dog mohammed to teach his kids about free speech. and eric says in some parts of the world, he could be sentenced to death for naming his dog mohammed. free speech issues aside, he's a pinhead. why offend muslims if you don't have to? you want to teach your children about tolerance? there are plenty other ways to do it. that's it for us tonight.

check out our web site and spout out about the factor. oreilly@foxnews.com. name and town if you wish to opine. word of the day, don't be a bluter. knew, if you go to your dictionary, there is a good chance you won't find it, but it is a word. derived in scotland. you go there, they'll call you a bluter. don't say anything back, could lead to bad things. but it is a word and you can find it if you look. don't be a bluter. thanks for watching us tonight. i am bill o'reilly. remember, the spin stops right here because we are definitely looking out for you. now, let's go down to orlando, florida for the debate. take it away. bret baier.