dog implanted with a microchip that chippy will not be lost again. martha: and we won't have to see her in a bathing suit again. oh my. she got on national tv. how about that. worked out really well all around. have a great weekend, bill. bill: by, chippy. martha: bye chippy. jon: how about a weekend off for bill hemmer to rest his voice? good morning, to you, i'm jon scott. jenna: happy friday to you, i'm jenna lee. we're in the fox newsroom and "happening now", we've been talking about this all week. newt gingrich surging in the bowls and making a bold statement. jon: the former house speaker saying he will be the republican nominee for president. >> i'm going to be nominee. very hard to not to look at recent polls to that odds are very high that i will be a nominee. jenna: can't read between

the lines on that. jon: sure is. he is blunt. jenna: here is a look at the polls in the first four states to hold caucuses or primary. gingrich has a significant lead over romney in iowa at 32%. in new hampshire, romney is hanging on. he invested a lot of resources in the granite state. it is paying off. jon: in this poll mr. romney leads in south carolina but take a look at florida. the numbers in florida, show an eye-popping lead for newt gingrich, 47 to romney's 17. jenna: other people on the screen held the top spot depending what poll you're looking at last couple weeks. carl cameron is looking at them all. he is live in washington. he is always here to bring us a little context. carl, let's talk about the strategy again. romney seems to be getting a little bit more aggressive. have the attacks started? >> reporter: a little bit, sure. it is fun any when you look at polls gingrich is leading in iowa, what scares romney,

if gingrich picks up a big win in iowa and that leads to momentum t could lead to gingrich upsetting romney in new hampshire his must-win strong hold. the former speaker could run the table it. would be a real shocker. he does not have the organization and money that makes that easy. romney says he expects to battle with gingrich right up to the end and wasted no time painting gingrich as arrogant or presumptuous saying he will be the nominee. listen to this. >> to win the election you have to earn it. you have to get out and campaign, see the people, shake their hands, self-aggrandizing statements about polls will not win elections. >> reporter: romney is going after gingrich first as consummate insider who lived and worked in washington for 40 years. here is a little of that. >> newt has had a very extensive long record of working in washington with various governmental and nongovernmental agencies and i just don't think that's the background is ideally

suit, one to replace barack obama and number two, to lead the country. this is not a matter of, that america needs better lobbyists or better deal-makers, better insiders. i think america needs a leader. >> reporter: romney has a big door-to-door campaign swing in new hampshire to show he has much bigger get-out-the-vote organization and towers oaf over gingrich's. the organization will matter in these first few states. jenna: a month from now you will be in iowa? >> reporter: you bet. jenna: you have your brit hume vintage coat in iowa. if you are in iowa as you are a month from now, what can you tell us about the gingrich organization there? can they actually build it in the next 30 days or so so it is set up and ready to go? >> reporter: it needed to be set up and ready to go 30 days ago. gingrich said this surge came earlier than expected which tells us he wasn't prepared to manage the kind of momentum he has got right now. last night he called the acceleration of the campaign,

disorienting. they were looking at a whole bunch of tactical and strategic adjustments. what he needs is boots on the ground and hiring staff and recruiting volunteers. insiders in the gingrich campaign across the country acknowledged at this point it is really too late the build the full-blown iowa caucus get-out-the-vote machine that can compete. they will try like crazy they're scrambling to do so. but it will not be the traditional iowa caucus get-out-the-vote machine that mike huckabee had last sometime around or mitt romney himself had last time around and have a remnants. jenna: can you win the nomination without iowa? >> reporter: absolutely. you can win the nomination without winning iowa or new hampshire. for mitt romney he has to win one to get started and prove he is winnable. leading polls as national frontrunner most consistently this year is very dangerous place to be in new hampshire and iowa politics. those states are famous, not notorious, not infamous,

famous for taking front-runners and slapping them at the last minute. if newt gingrich surges in iowa, mitt romney will have a real headache in must win state of new hampshire. look at south carolina and florida and states come after that. remember this is domino effect. whoever starts to knack over the first one will have the momentum. jenna: jon as more for you carl and another guest. one big family. jon: carl can answer any question you can throw against him especially about politics. newt gingrich is holding firm to his campaign principles vowing not to attack his main rival former massachusetts governor mitt romney. we'll see how long it sticks. the former house speaker reportedly telling his aides to not to respond to any attacks from the romney camp. they will choose to quote, kill him with kindness. will that work in the rough-and-tumble election cycle? chris stirewalt is fox news digital politics editor.

carl cameron still with us our chief political correspondent. can you make a prediction, chris, will it stick, the no attacks on romney thing? >> no, it can't stick. sooner or later gingrich needs this to be two-man fight between him and mitt romney. he wants his basic argument here, i'm more electable than the rest of the conservative candidates and he needs to be, in order to look conservative he needs to be juxtaposed with the more moderate romney. clearly at some point he wants this to be a point him and romney, maunl know eman know fighting it out and everybody forgot enway you keep that going at some point you attack. right with his new boom an uncertain commodity what gingrich needs to do reinforce the thing that got him here by not being an attack dog on the stage. being sort of the cantankerous uncle on the debate stage who may have feuded with moderators and thrown bashes at barbs at

president obama but being the old statesman like uncle. if he gives up on that too soon conservatives may walk away from him. jon: front page story in the "new york times" today says, republican leaders are still torn about romney. he is not picking up a huge number of endorsements. maybe john thune aside. is that, is that a fair assessment where this race stands, chris? >> yeah. it is a fair assessment. you see what romney is trying to do as carl has been reporting on. you know, going down to see the first president bush. touting his connections there. and across the country bringing out former lawmakers and current lawmakers across the country to reinforce the fact, look he may not be the choice of the republican base but the establishment is solidly behind him because that really is worth something. it is a label that romney doesn't, doesn't, isn't helped by in iowa particularly or some other states particularly but it is what he has got and he needs to emphasize it. jon: charles krauthamer, carl, says newt, for all of his baggage, newt gingrich

can point to the contract with america as at signature conservative achievement and in krauthamer's words, romney can point to nothing. >> oh absolutely. romney goes after newt gingrich saying consummate washington insider, 40 years of living in d.c., working in d.c., government and nongovernment work. suggests the country doesn't need a lobbyist or insider. all of that is not veiled code that newt gingrich is part of the problem, not the solution. flip side, 40 years in washington is the most experience of anybody in the field. he has been in the room when major world decisions have been made either on capitol hill, in some cases in the white house. gingrich is undeniably the strongest record, strongest resume'. the problem is some of the issues that are on that record and for newt gingrich and mitt romney to argue over who is the most conservative and go after one another's records has all the earmarks of murder-suicide undertaking. both have a lot of baggage in the conservative wing of the republican party.

highlighting the other, point a finger at one guy, three point back at you. they're both facing that problem. jon: chris, does it become a crucible, when the republican candidates go at each other, does it become a crucible that helps refine the candidate or does it damage the candidate in the general election and give fodder to the democratic opponent, in this case, president obama? >> well, both. but certainly the question for republicans is, what is the last month of this cycle going to be like? and if in fact it is a pig pile where everybody is out there clawing at each other, that may not be good but if what happens as conservatives go through the three quarters of the republican electorate hasn't been for mitt romney thus far, if they go through and decide exactly who they want, retest, test and over again, newt gingrich he was the as carl pointed out the best resume', most substantive candidate in the mix and demonstrates a refiner's

fire burnt through the rite of the republican party. jon: despite spite mr. gingrich's claims we don't have a nominee yet. it will be interesting watch. carl will be on the trail to watch it happening. thanks to both of you, carl cameron, chris stirewalt. >> you bet. jenna: that worked out really well. fox news alert talking about the jobs report today. the unemployment rate dropping sharply to 8.6%, that is from 9% last month. this is the lowest level in unemployment more than 2 1/2 years. a long time since we've seen a number like that. more than 13 million americans remain unemployed though. the key reason the unemployment rate fell so much because roughly 315,000 people have dropped out of the workforce. meaning they have give up looking for work. they can't work or simply don't want to work. those are the three qualifications. if you don't mean all of those you're not counted in the labor force according to the government. those unemployed have been out of work on average nearly 41 weeks, just over ten months, the longest stretch on record. i just spoke a few minutes

ago with the president's top economic advisor. he says the economy is showing signs of improvement, i asked if that is the case why are fewer americans in the labor market? >> the labor market is not shrinking in the sense of job growth. we're seeing more employees go back to work. we've had private sector job growth for 21 months in a row. what did happen in the latest month was a tick down in the labor force participation rate but if you look at the picture as a whole, we've seen employment growing in the private sector over the last 21 months and we're going to need stronger private sector job growth to put more americans back to work given the state of, state and local government budgets. jenna: interesting emphasis there on the private sector. right now the president is touring the transwestern building in washington, d.c. he is going to be announcing $4 billion in federal and private green building investments. the white house claims it will not only improve energy efficiency but also create jobs.

the president is expected to speak in just a few minutes. he will be joined by the way by former president clinton. we will bring you some of his comments in a little bit live there from washington, d.c.. jon: there is new fallout to tell you about after the suspected hazing death of a florida a&m drum major. geraldo rivera weighs in on the chilling 911 call just released in this man's death. all of the latest details straight ahead. jenna: this brutal santa ana wind taking a major to toll out west. jd will talk about that. take a look at that. wow! and also the forecast coming up. jon: senate lawmakers blast the white house over its handling of iran's nuclear program. senator mark kirk joins us straight ahead.

jenna: "happening now", a major u.s. military asset is in iraqi hands. the massive military base in baghdad known as camp

victory handed over to the iraqi government as u.s. troops are pulling out of the iraq by the end of this year. dominic di-natale streaming live from baghdad. >> reporter: small pieces of paper that led to the handover of camp victory today. that was a move much more significant of a nonceremonial act like that. gone so camp victory from american hands. it stood for eight and a half years as the epicenter of u.s. command throughout the war. hundreds of thousands of soldiers, jenna, have passed through camp victory in that time. those who fought, those who injured and those of the 4500, many of those passed through, that were repatriated after they lost their lives. today it is virtually empty. the iraqis yet to move in. there are thousands upon thousands of empty tubes, containerized housing units where soldiers used to live to be taken up by the iraqis. this is one of the key

milestones in the final stages of drawdown itself. after this we'll have the closing of the colors. this is the official move of u.s. military leaving departing iraq. the final convoy will start to roll. those that roll out of baghdad will have memories of camp victory. 84,000 people lived there at any one time. some of those were soldiers. many were contractors creating the life-support system very much for those there. soldiers remember the days when burger king were there and go to the pk, the store exchange and buy playstations and things like that, those sort of memories. ultimately this is the final chapter in the military history the u.s. has had here in iraq. what does it mean going forward? it means this is symbol of iraqi sovereignty, the biggest base in iraq firmly in their hands. they waved good-bye to the americans with vice president joe biden here yesterday and now they feel that the americans are finally out. iraqis yet again even closer to being fully in their own

sovereignty, part of their own sovereignty. back to you, jenna. jenna: a lot of equipment and people to move over next couple weeks as we fully leave that country. dominic, thank you for that story we'll continue to watch. jon: we're also watching from the fox extreme weather center dangerous weather across big parts of the country. we begin in flagstaff, arizona. heavy snow there falling, snarling traffic overnight prompting warnings for drivers. roads are icy and slick with wind gusts up to 40 miles per hour. flagstaff getting five inches of snow. it gives the kids first snow day off from school there. jenna: probably exciting day from for them. in utah, hurricane-like wind tossing trucks like toys. the wind lifting a truck and trailer off the ground. the santa ana wind blowing through northern utah. a number with trucks were blown over by the wind in one area. utah highway patrol shut down a stretch of road to clear more accidents and

prevent more from happening until the winds die down. >> yesterday we showed you high wind video that showed damage in southern california. it is looking like more of the same today. more than 300,000 people there have lost power because one of most ferocious wind storms in years pounding that area. los angeles county under a state of emergency. listen to one witness describe the destruction. >> actually sounded like the old films from vietnam, the napalm going off. >> actually looked like a war zone. jon: power is expected to be out until sometime sunday. jenna: a while to wait through the weekend. janice dean, you told us yesterday these wind were going to be different and you're right. they're still blowing. >> yeah. they're going to blow consistently throughout the weekend as well, jenna. this wasn't your run-of-the-mill santa ana wind event. we had two things going for us. high pressure across the great basin and low pressure across arizona. those working in tandem

brought winds in excess of 100 miles per hour in parts of utah. i'm seeing reading, 120, 130, even 140 miles per hour. this was an intense storm. 55 mile-per-hour winds in beverly hills. look at wind gusts through today. they will start to relax. beginning saturday and sunday, look, guys, we're stealing with winds in excess of 30 miles an hour. we're not out of the woods yet. it will be windy and dry. red flag warnings up for southern california. we have a low pressure system continuing to move eastward bringing snow for mountains of arizona and new mexico. moisture will work its way in from gulf of mexico. we bring icy conditions across portions of texas and oklahoma. there is the future raid today as we go through -- radar as we go through saturday and sunday. a lot of snow and we could see heavy rain across portions of the ohio and tennessee river valley but the thing i'm concerned with, not only winds in parts of

the southwest but the ice. we actually have freezing rain advisories for parts of texas panhandle up through oklahoma and new mexico. we're not done with this storm system by any means. the good news is we won't see the incredible winds we saw yesterday. coming up, guys, we'll have adam housley in pasadena showing incredible damage in one of the hardest hit areas. jenna: luckily we're going into the weekend. maybe that keeps more people off the roads commuting and things like that. maybe good news as we look at tough weather conditions. jd, thank you so much. >> okay, jenna, that pink on the map never good news. as we've been telling you the unemployment rate drops but that's not necessarily a sign of good things happening. economists say because so many people have simply given up looking for work. that's why that number is down. fox news is still on the job hunt. we have found companies practically begging for workers but can't find the right ones. we'll have the whole story on that, next.

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jon: the acquisition center at fox news channel where we're bringing in satellite feeds from all over the country, all over the world. look at remote 218. something is making wall street smile today. the dow is up about 60 points. might have something to do with that jobs number. although there is a little smoke and mirror in that number as we've been telling you. look at remote 231. we saw video of the current president and former president clinton walking through this transwestern building in washington d.c. they are there to announce a multibillion-dollar package to try to help make buildings energy efficient among some other things. on remote 291, take a look at the twinkling christmas trees. it is the 2nd of december. by my calculations that means it is just about, what,

23 shopping days left until christmas? at any rate, get out there and shop if you have the money. jenna back to you. jenna: pretty good math, jon. we're a couple weeks away right until christmas. you have to go shopping. the november jobs report shows the unemployment rate is dropping but it is also a good reminder so many people are still searching the want ads. one sector of the economy is struggling to find good help, believe it or not. we're talking about manufacturing sector specifically when it comes to skilled labor. this is part of our ongoing series, on the job hunt. mike tobin has the latest edition and he is live for us in chicago. hi, mike. >> reporter: hi, jenna. by now i'm sure you heard some one or more than one person can't find a job because jobs just aren't out there. anyone who tells you that has not been looking to the skilled trades particularly in manufacturing. if you think manufacturing is dead in the u.s., businesses in central illinois could just prove you wrong.

machine shops and welding companies there are growing. you heard that right, growing. looking to hire. problem is finding skilled workers. like many u.s. manufacturers, excel foundry and machine can not fill job vacancis. >> we're absolutely frustrated. nine plus percent unemployment and we're dough everything we can to attract employees we desperately need. >> reporter: we're talking about 8 -- $80,000 a year positions pipe fitters, machinists, skilled laborers. trained with specific skills. >> we went through this period where many of those jobs were moved overseas. many of them when manufacturing recession hit weren't just needed. all of sudden we have this missing generation of people who can do those technical jobs. >> reporter: the department of labor says there are four million fewer people working in skilled laborings tos -- positions today than there were 20 years ago. >> one of the problems in

finding people is the perception that manufacturing is a dying art and that jobs are not going to be there because they're being sent overseas. >> reporter: now because of this high school shop class is making a comeback. the manufacturers are turning to the high schools and selling the skilled trades as a way to get a solid income, benefits and long-term security. jenna? jenna: sounds like a good idea. mike, thank you so much. jon: congress votes unanimously for a bill imposing harsh new sanctions against iran as that rogue regime defies the rest of the international community with its controversial nuclear program. so why is the obama administration against the new sanctions? we'll talk with senator mark kirk who cosponsored the bill, coming up. [ male announcer ] medicare...

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from the fox business network to talk with us more about what we saw in the jobs report. the market is up 77 points. what do you make of the jobs report today? >> let's call it a mixed number. later in the day adp came out with a number 206,000. that got a lot of people on wall street excited. we're still poised for one of the best weeks in the stock market. headline of 120,000 jobs, better than what we've been seeing. not great though. not the kind of number which could dig us out of a hole, talking 200,000 plus, 250,000. what the president will talk about is survey came out this morning is broken down into two parts. they surveyed business owners what they call the establishment and also surveyed households. household number has been on fire. 200,000 or more. >> charles, i'm sorry. president is at the microphone. we'll take that live and talk, charles, after this. >> i am thrilled president

clinton has been willing to take this on. as he pointed out, partly thanks to me, he is home alone too often and this is a passion for him for quite some time, so i am very grateful for his involvement. i thank everybody at transwestern, all the folks who are participating here for giving us this remarkable tour. there are the equivalent of 250 full-time workers as a consequence of the project that is taking place here. it is a win for the business owners. it is a win for the tenet -- tenants of this building. a win for the construction workers who are participating and for the property manager that's doing such a great job. so this is a great example of what's possible. you know as president my most pressing challenge is doing everything i can, every single day, to get

this economy growing faster and create more jobs. this morning we learned that our economy added another 140,000 private sector jobs in november. the unemployment rate went down, and despite some strong headwinds this year the american economy has now created in the private sector jobs for the past 21 months in a row. that's nearly three million new jobs in all and more than half a million over the last four months. so we need to keep that growth going. right now that means congress needs to extend the payroll tax cut for working americans for another year. congress needs to renew unemployment insurance for americans who are still out there pounding the pavement, looking for work. failure to take either of these steps would be a significant blow to our economy. it would take money out of the pocket of americans who are most likely to spend it and it would harm small

businesses that depend on the spending. it would be a bad idea. i think it is worth noting by the way, i notice that some folks on the other side have been quoting president clinton about, it's a bad idea to raise taxes during tough economic times. that's precisely why i have sought to extend the payroll tax this year and next year. it doesn't mean we lock in tax cuts for the wealthiest americans. i don't think president clinton has been on board for that for perpetuity. just thought that might be worth mentioning. that's why it is so disappointing last night, by the way, that senate republicans voted to block that payroll tax cut. that effectively would raise taxes on nearly 160 million

hard-working americans because they didn't want to ask a few 100,000 of the wealthiest americans to pay their fair share and get the economy growing faster than anybody. i think that is unacceptable. we'll keep pushing congress to make this happen. now is not the time to slam the brakes on the recovery. it is time to step on the gas. we need to get this done. i expect that it is going to get done before congress leaves. otherwise congress may not be leaving and we can all spend christmas here together. now, our longer-term challenge is rebuilding and economy where hard work is valued and responsibilities is rewarded and middle class and folks trying to get into the middle class regain some security. and economy built to compete with the rest of the world and and economy that is built to last. that is why we are here today in a place where clearly there is some building going on.

president clinton, leaders of business, leaders of labor, we're all here to announce some new steps that are going to create good jobs rebuilding america. this building is in the middle of a retrofitting project to make it more energy efficient. already this retrofit is saving this building $200,000 a year on its energy bills. as i mentioned earlier by the time it is finished it will have created more than 250 full-time jobs of construction here in this building. consider, you know, president clinton is coming down from new york. the fact that the owners of the empire state building did the same thing. they are retrofitting that iconic landmark from top to bottom. it is a big investment but it will pay for itself by saving them $4.4 million a year in energy costs. it is estimated that all the retrofiting that they're

doing will pay for itself in about 4 1/2 years. making our buildings more energy efficient is one of the fastest, easiest and cheapest ways for us to create jobs, save money, and cut down on harmful pollution. it is a trifecta. which is why you've got labor and business behind it. it could save our businesses up to $40 billion a year on their energy bills. money better spent growing and hiring new workers. it would boost manufacturing of energy efficient materials. and when millions of construction workers have found themselves out of work since the housing bubble burst, it will put them back to work doing the work that america needs done. so this is an idea whose time has come. jenna: the president talking more about the jobs report and also and energy efficiency when it comes to construction projects part

of his agenda. just to be clear on something he mentioned, payroll tax cut extension was being debated last night in the senate. there was plans from both sides, gop and also democrats. the, what was on the floor was to extend the debate so you could actually get a vote on one of these plans and both sides were defeated. the gop plan as well as democrats plan as well. so we're starting from an interesting point here. john has an interview coming up in a little bit about the payroll tax cut extension, and two senators who decided to vote against this, two republicans. the president mentioned half a million jobs created over last four months. the latest jobs data showed 315,000, more than half, americans is dropping out of the workforce. and charles, you were talking a little bit about that before we went to the president, the significance of that. to bring this all back together, will a payroll tax cut extension be key to bringing those americans back into the labor force?

is that incentive enough? or will that do enough to the economy to help create jobs moving ahead in the next year? >> no, no. it is far too small although i do believe it will go through. hear is the reality. the president talked about extending unemployment benefits because people are pounding the pavement looking for work. you just mentioned. 315,000 people decided to chill out on the sofa and call it quits, they have given up on the job search. given up on america. given up on their dreams. so there is a double-edged sword. someone on unemployment, two, three, four years, at that point they obviously lose their job skills and lose their desire to work. it is interesting that this payroll tax thing is the number one issue in washington right now. if we're talking about tax cuts, why stop there? why not give all hard-working americans, forget about what economic class they're in, a tax cut, why not give businesses tax cuts? also, you know, the president talked about that 40 billion that businesses would save. i don't know if he want to

tax them how about letting american businesses bring money back from overseas? there is almost $2 trillion sitting overseas offshore. if they would lower taxes a lot of that money would come back. jenna: we'll see what happens next couple weeks and we'll talk more about the payroll tax cut extension. we'll see you on fbn and we'll be back with more "happening now."

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[ male announcer ] want great taste and whole gin oats that can help lower cholesterol? honey nut cheerios. jon: well your taxes could be going up soon after the senate's failure to pass both republican and democrat-backed bills to extend the expiring payroll tax cuts. the extension is a priority of president obama. take a listen. >> that's why it is so disappointing last night by the way that senate republicans voted to block that payroll tax cut. that effectively would raise taxes on nearly 160 million hard-working americans. because they didn't want to

ask a few 100,000 of the wealthiest americans to pay their fair share and get the economy growing faster than everybody and i think that is unacceptable. jon: well senator joe manchin, a democrat from west virgina joins us along with republican senator mark kirk of illinois. senator manchin, the president blames republicans for the failure of one, there were actually two bills voted on but in fact you voted against it as well, right? >> well the problem is, everybody seems to be playing the blame game. that is not how you fix things by blaming people. we need reform, simple tax reform. and that would be a fairness to the system. it would be consistent. people would have confidence and we're willing to fix and tackle the big problems. that is all we're asking for. and it goes right back to the bowls simpson plan laid out a year ago. neither the president nor any of our leadership has stepped to the plate to fix the big problems and they keep fooling with social security. that was an attack on social security as far as i

was concerned. i wasn't willing to go down that road. jon: senator kirk, we saw you nodding in agreement with what your fellow senator had to say. he says let's fix the big problems right now. congress doesn't seem to be able to come to agreement on the little problems? >> that's right. i think this legislation would have made it worse. this is a chart showing the hit that would be taken by social security contributions. seniors would be left out by $250 billion of tax revenue needed to support the social security program. we would have paid for this part not until 2018 with seniors basically being told trust us, we'll pay the social security trust fund back. i think we should maintain social security contributions, which is why so many of us on a bipartisan basis defended social security and resisted this legislation. >> jon, when people call that a tax increase that is not fair, not a fair representation. this tax is one purpose and one purpose only.

to pay for basically retirement benefits through social security as people grow older, dignity and respect of life they should have at that point in time. we started down that slippery slope last year. i voted for $120 billion reduction. i go back home in west virginia. very few people know they were getting it. now they want to double down to 240 billion. we haven't seen any appreciate gains whatsoever. i did not think it was right thing for us to start doing. how many people believe we could stop it next year? this will continue on forever and really just cripple social security and mark and i weren't willing to do that. jon: senator kirk, he is called it a failed policy, your fellow senator, joe manchin. do you agree? >> it did. it didn't create any net new jobs and wounded social security greatly. if we doubled down we would hit the social security trust fund again, $250 billion. we already know social security is running in the red. we know that 10,000 americans qualify for

social security each day. i am for funding social security and therefore i think we should accurately call this bill for what it is. it cuts social security contributions and i think that is the wrong way to go for a program that is already in the red. jon: well, senator manchin, there seems to be appetite in the white house and among many of your fellow senators to somehow cobble something together that extend this, this employment tax? >> i would hope that the seniors and those to be soon seniors depending on social security would speak out and speak out loudly because we're going down a slippery slope. even if we did not give this exemption or extension of the tax reduction, by 2037 we'll have to cut all benefits in social security by 22% on the path we're going right now, jon. that is unacceptable. and we can fix it. we know we can fix it. all we're asking is the leadership of both of our

parties, respectfully and the president to start leading. let's put down and look at something and fix this big problem that we have for the next generation. jon: welcome news to a lost ears. senators joe manchin of west virgina, a democrat and mark kirk of illinois, a republican. thank you both. >> thank you. >> thank you

jenna: we take you live to baghdad for the transition of the u.s. military base, camp victory, to the iraqi government today. there is no official handover event but it is happening now. we also want to ask the question about the politics behind this event. if there are any which i'm sure one can find, james rosen can. he is chief washington correspondent for us. james? >> reporter: jenna, good afternoon. by 3:05 eastern time this morning the sprawling grounds officially named victory based complex but better known as camp victory have been officially returned to the control of the iraqi government.

at its peak this complex housed 46,000 people. its transfer is part of the complete withdrawal of american forces from iraq by year's end. more than one million americans who served in iraq, camp victory was always special because it was among the first areas secured by u.s. troops nine years ago and it was once a palace ground for the deposed dictator saddam hussein. the iraq war of course cost the lives of nearly 4500 americans and hundreds of thousands of iraqis. it left scores of thoses more both sides wounded for life. it was among the most divisive events of our time. poisonous after birth of the 9/11 attacks a multidim men shaunal story that exposed deep fissures and pronounced shortcomings in the american intelligence appractical tus. president biden visit to iraq to commemorate this historic moment. >> as a result of our joint efforts, we topple ad murderous dictator, and

after grave struggle, gave iraq both the time and the space for a society that has long-suffered, long been stifled,. >> reporter: for americans the battleground of iraq is historical to be waged in books and films, ph.d dissertations and of course on the internet whether the bush administration made the right decision to invade iraq even on the wrong prem sees, will continue to be debated but no long term consensus as iraq's instability remains uncertain. the victory odd relic of saddam era listing hours of operation for his private casino. general i can't -- jenna. jenna: for some time to come the debate will continue. james, thank you. >> reporter: thank you. jon: it is a very busy news day on this first friday in december but we can'ted to take a couple of seconds to show you this. it is very cool christmas

display in south lake texas. clark griswold would be proud. the church putting a speck lar three deshow. the -- spectacular show, the outside with 3-d projectors, a generous member of the congregation donated equipment. jenna: very cool. geraldo rivera talks with gary geodawn know the suspect from aruba, the man vacationing with robin gardner. the government says they can't hold him. they don't have enough evidence. we'll talk with geraldo any breaking news he got out of the interview. plus, former arkansas governor mike huckabee will talk with us about a presidential forum holding here at the fox studios. he will give us his opinions about the race in just 30 minutes [ male announcer ] attention medicare beneficiaries.

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with the good news, the unemployment rate dropping to its lowest level in two and a half years. we're glad you're with us, i'm jenna lee. jon: but some questions about the mall -- jenna: that's the way to do it. jon: a little shaky, i'm jon scott. a brand new hour of "happening now" ahead. the lower number seems like cause for celebration on that unemployment figure, but that's until you read the fine print. jenna: the jobless rate now stands at 8.6%, the expectation was to stay at 9%, but many are pointing to a key reason as to why we're seeing this big drop in the unemployment rate. more than 300,000 people have dropped out of the labor market, people have just gotten discouraged, they've stopped looking for work. chief congressional correspondent mike emanuel is live on capitol hill, so, mike, what are lawmakers saying about this report this morning? >> reporter: let's get to it. here's house speaker john boehner. quote: any job creation is

welcome news, but the jobless rate in our country is still unacceptably high. nancy pelosi, quote: today's jobs report sends a clear message we've made progress, but we have work to do. there are millions of americans looking for work, and they don't have jobs today. jenna? jenna: that's a good point. quite a few spending a lot of time out of the job market, more than ten months. we're talking about the payroll tax holiday extension, that's a hot topic this week, both democrats and republicans had their own legislation that failed in the senate last night. so what's next? >> reporter: well, unfolding drama today on capitol hill is republican leadership is onboard with doing an extension that is paid for, but a growing number of republican rank and file say they don't want to do it. they don't think it's worked, or they don't think we can afford it. here's the leading house democrat on that. >> the immediate issue which will have an impact on americans beginning january 1st of this

year is the effort by senate republicans to block this extension of the payroll tax holiday. now, most economists out there will tell us that consumer confidence and demand is essential to getting the economy going. >> reporter: republican leaders are getting a lot of pushback, we will see how it all plays out, jenna. jenna: what is the gop response to that pushback to the inference or maybe the direct accusation by democrats that the republicans are protecting the rich? >> reporter: well, yeah. the argument has been from the democrats, you know, if you're asking a few hundred thousand to pay a little bit more to give 160 million americans tax relief, well, here was house speaker john boehner's response to that. >> listen, i've got 11 brothers and sisters on every rung of the economic ladder, all right? my dad owned a bar. i know what's going on out in america. and the fact is that republicans are trying to do everything we can to allow american families and small businesses to keep more of what they earn, to try

to get this government off the backs of employers so that they can begin to hire people. >> reporter: and house republicans, of course, make the point that they've passed more than two dozen jobs bills that the senate has refused to act on, so they're pushing for that. there are still plenty for squabbling days before christmas before this payroll tax holiday runs out. jenna: they'll work right up until that deadline christmas eve and right up until new year's eve. we'll see what happens. busy day down there, mike, thanks so much. >> reporter: i'll be here, thanks. jon: he's always there. jenna: gotta be there. jon: right now a congressional hearing on the keystone pipeline is taking center sustaining on capitol hill, talking about jobs and employment. advocates say this is a shovel-ready project that would carry hundreds of thousands of barrels of crude oil from canada to the gulf coast and create thousands of jobs in the process. jim angle is live in washington with the latest. on the prospects for that pipeline. jim?

>> reporter: republicans call it the biggest shovel-ready project there is. now, when the obama administration set aside state department approval of the keystone xl pipeline and postponed a decision until after the election, it pleased environmentalists but angered labor unions who were counting on the jobs. as they headed into a hearing this morning, they made clear their support. listen. >> this is a jobs creator, it's going to put many of our members to work. the construction industry has been hit harder than any other industry with unemployment figures, some of which over 20% it's hovering at now. so we feel that this project is a critical path forward to getting some of our unemployed members to work. >> reporter: now, he said the permitting process has been going on for three years, and it's time to make a decision. the administration set aside a state department approval of the pipeline from canada to texas after environmental protests that it would pass through a sensitive area of the state. nebraska has now agreed to move the pipeline and will choose the

exact new route within six months, house republicans are proposing legislation to take the decision away from the white house and the state department and give it, instead, to a federal agency that deals with pipelines, the ferc, the federal energy regulatory commission, in hopes of removing politics from the decision. listen. >> this removes any decision making from the state department and the president. they don't have to pick between friends now. [laughter] >> reporter: republicans argue the president postponed the pipeline decision so he wouldn't have to anger one of two key constituencies, either labor unions or environmentalists. but democrats made clear in the hearing this morning they don't want any new major oil projects. >> we should be reducing our oil dependence and using cleaner fuels. but keystone is a big step in the opposite direction. >> reporter: democrats were talking about emphasizing alternative energy, not oil. now, officials from the company building the pipeline, transcanada, said this morning

they'd offer that the pipeline would offer the u.s. is supply of oil from a friendly neighbor instead of places such as the middle east and venezuela, but the jobs issue, jon, is paramount here. jon all kinds of good arguments, it would seem, to build that thing. jim angle, thank you. >> reporter: you bet. jenna: well, new information now on this story about a widow's fight to get her late husband's military benefits. the army has said that arkansas national guard captain samsome luke died at home and, therefore, the family was uneligible to get those benefits each though captain luke had been on duty. we're going to need more background on this. jennifer griffin at the pentagon has more. what happened to captain luke? >> reporter: essentially, he was on a two-day training assignment with the arkansas national guard. i've seen a copy of his orders. and according to captain luke's family, he came home to sleep that night after a grueling day of heavy labor in the freezing cold with his unit, and his heart stopped, he died.

he was just 34 years old, the father of four kids under the age of 11, had deployed twice to iraq and was given the bronze star. >> sam was an amazing man. he was a somewhere good sold -- a very good soldier, and he -- and a remarkable leader. to us, he was the love of my life. he's the father of our four children, and i would like them to do what's right. i would like them to, um, not only, um, give me and my four children back the benefits that my husband died for, i would also like them to change the, um, verbage, the language so that no one else has to go through this again. >> reporter: miranda luke was assigned a casualty assistance officer right after her husband died as all military families are. three weeks after that the army pulled that officer out, told

her she wouldn't receive any benefits and, um, basically, because her husband had died at home. jenna: you see those photos, it just breaks your heart. four children under the age of 11. what does the army have to say about this? >> reporter: the army is sticking to a very strict interpretation of a regulation. here is their response to our query. quote: >> reporter: arkansas senator mark pryor proposed an amendment to the bill to tighten the language of benefits due to national guard families. that amendment passed yesterday in the senate. >> i'm fighting on behalf of him and for his family and for others in a similarly-situated circumstance where we make, we clarify that when you're on orders, when you're doing your national guard training, you are entitled to the benefit wherever you happen to be laying your

head down that particular night. >> reporter: meanwhile, miranda and her four children continue to wait. it's been two years since her husband died. he was buried on his 35th birthday two years ago. jenna: we'll think about them during these holidays and continue to follow the story. jennifer griffin, thank you. jon: a convicted killer awaiting his fate for the murders of a woman and her two children in a brutal home invasion. we'll update you on the case against joshua komisarjevsky. plus, a look at president obama's re-election campaign. some suggest he should take a page from the past. we will compare what mr. obama is doing, his strategy, to that of fdr and harry truman. ♪ >> aboard the truman campaign in texas is sam rayburn, speaker of the house, and there's a meeting with former vice president garner. president truman n a public appearance with the leading

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jon: right now new information on some crime stories we're watching. closing arguments underway in the death penalty case against convicted home invasion killer joshua komisarjevsky. the jury has to decide if he deserves a death sentence or life in prison for the attack that left a connecticut mother and her two daughters dead. authorities have confirmed they have found human remains in tennessee that might belong to 44-year-old gayle, the mother of two vanished back on april 30th. police found her jeep near chattanooga just yesterday, the remains were found near that jeep. a judge in ohio will decide if a teenager accused of a craig's list murder plot stands trial as an adult. the 16-year-old was involved in a scheme in which at least two

people answering ads for work were then robbed and murdered. jenna: america's election headquarters, your inside track on politics, of course. the future may have roots in the past to win a second term, the president may follow the path of two previous presidents, fdr and truman. both "the new york times" and wall street journal have written about this, so we decided we needed an expert. a professor of history at rice university, so, douglas, what do you think? do these comparisons work? >> well, they are the ones that president obama's adopted. you know, fdr in particular kind of the fighting, um, aristocrat that fdr was, he went after the

so-called princes of privilege. the whole 99 versus 1 that obama's doing now is straight from the fdr playbook of 1936. and as for 1948 and harry truman, yes, it's give 'em hell obama, although it's more of a harvard type of give 'em hell than truman of the midwest. but he's able to -- what truman had not working for him in '48 was the democratic party had splintered. it formed a progress i party of henry wallace, strom strom thurd had created the dixiecrat party. he's got an attitude of blaming the do-nothing congress like truman did, except truman didn't have a consolidated democratic party, and obama does. jenna: how does that change things? >> well, one thing, these two analogies that the president's -- and this this ist speculation, this is fact, that he's really trying to take pages from fdr and truman at this

juncture. when truman went after the know-nothing congress as a democrat, both the senate and congress were republican. in this case the senate is democratic, so i think it'll only go so far for obama. i think the third act that nobody, that "wall street journal" and new york times didn't mention is he's going to wrap himself around bill and hillary clinton, president obama, meaning the fact that the economy did well, there was a surplus by the time bill clinton left, and al gore didn't want to be seen on a stage with bill clinton. i believe this time around you're going to see bill and hillary clinton working ohio and pennsylvania and other close states very, very hard, and it's going to say let's go back to the clinton economy. jenna: that's really interesting. we haven't heard that directly the way you've put this, so let's talk more about that. speaking of history, had there been a precedent where a president looking for his second term wraps himself in the reputation of who's now being judged by history, and i'm

talking about president closing, as a successful democratic president? >> well, of course, it always happens. you try to go back to, you know, if you're richard nixon running in '68, you try to showcase, you know, the dwight eisenhower or, you know, you can find cases of it all the time. but what's unique here, what i'm suggesting is hillary clinton is sort of a secret weapon for president obama at this point. if he had to, they could switch roles meaning joe biden could leave vp, he could become secretary of state under the auspices of i need to help get our country out of iraq and afghanistan, and it's going to take somebody like me to do it, and then have hillary clinton on the ticket which would just energize the democrats over the summer. the convention would suddenly be of wild interest. so bill and hillary clinton are very much people to keep your eyes on in the next few months, certainly as the summer approaches. jenna: what's in it for them? what's in it for the clintons?

>> well, for hillary clinton if she got to be vp, she would be the automatic front runner. you start running for president two years later, so in 2014 it could be hillary clinton, perhaps the first woman president. popular culture sometimes goes into these things. the big movie's about to come out with margaret thatcher, the iron lady starring meryl streep, and here's hillary clinton who by everybody's belief, she's been a very effective secretary of state. so her brand is very high, and if obama finds himself in a difficult, desperate situation, if the economy's trending the wrong way, there's always that possibility he could lean towards the clintons. there hasn't been a lot of closeness between the president and the secretary of state per se, but in the last six months they seem to be getting politically warmer and warmer together. jenna: and until today we really haven't seen the president with former president bill clinton, and yet he makes an appearance today on a jobs day and makes that connection very clear. i should be careful saying that

history has judged president clinton as a successful democratic president, history is much longer than the time period we have to speak about at this moment. finishing up here, i'm just curious based on the strategy you put forward and something now we're going to watch closely, has history given us any precedent on how to compete with that? would there be anything for the republicans to look for in history, in the past to properly strategize against a strategy that the president could come up with like the one that you're suggesting? >> well, there's only one hillary clinton, and it would be a historic first to have a, you know, have a woman vice president. you know, it would be another big moment in u.s. history, and it would create a lot of interest. the media would love it. i think if you're newt gingrich and you get the nomination, you may want to play on -- people understand his sort of economic message. you might see somebody, you know, um, who's more of a, um, foreign affairs expert, somebody who's good on china perhaps join

up with newt gingrich. if you're mitt romney, i think you'd have to find a conservative to go on the ticket. so, and the hispanic vote's going to be extremely important to be fought over. it's one reason newt gingrich has been a little bit softer on the immigration issue. the republican party cannot afford to just walk away from that hispanic demographic. it's growing, and it's essential that republicans have some of that vote. jenna: historically speaking, does newt gingrich have advantage because he was speaker of the house, or is that a disadvantage to him? >> i think it's now an advantage because he wasn't just speaker of the house, but the contract for america is historic. it's sort of like a part of the, you know, post-ronald reagan republican history or mythology, if you'd like, and gingrich gets a lot of credit for that '94 republican sweep, that movement. he's had to remake himself. he reminds me of richard nixon in a sense, people thought he was down and out, and it's a

lazarus resurrection of himself to where he's at right now. he's done it as being a historian. he had earned his ph.d. from tulane, he always looks at kind of the past, but also the future. he's a very unusual candidate, um, newt gingrich, and if he got the nomination, the most exciting part would be the debates. if they occur the way gingrich likes them, mano a mano, obama v. gingrich, that goes on for a couple of hours, it could be quite exciting for the country to have policy talked about and not so many reporters interfering with it. jenna: yeah, it would be fascinating to watch. we look forward to continuing this conversation with you as well, douglas, and we appreciate your insights today. look forward to having you back. >> thank you. take care. jon: well, it is heading back to court a horrific murder case in knoxville, tennessee, that you might remember. four defendants convicted in the gruesome torture and murders of this young couple. they are now going to get

another shot at freedom. new trials for them all, and it's all because of something their judge was hiding during the trial. also, he spent four months sitting in a jail in aruba, now maryland businessman gary giordano is speaking out to our geraldo rivera about accusations that he had something to do with the disappearance of robyn gardner. geraldo joins us to tell us about that conversation after the break. when i grill lobster, i make sure it's a melt in your mouth kind of experience. [ john ] the wood fires up the grill a little bit hotter so you really get a good sear and it locks in the juices. surf & turf -- you n't go wrong [ male announcer ] don't miss red lobster's surf & turf event. choose from three grilled combinations all under $20. like our maine lobster with peppercorn sirloin or our new bacon-wrapped shrimp with blue cheese sirloin for $14.99. [ adrianna ] i think the guests are going to take a bite and be like "oh, man, this is so awesome." [ john ] i'm grill master john mazany. i'm grill master adrianna hollis. and we sea food differently.

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jon: right now in a tennessee courtroom a special judge ordering up new trials for the four people convicted in torturing and killing a young couple back in 2007. the development sparked by the behavior of the judge who presided at the trials during the time of convictions. harris is live at the breaking news desk with an update. >> reporter: well, jon, this is a situation where a judge who was disbarred in october sat on

the bench while four people were convict inside a heinous crime. that judge, we now know, was under the influence, intoxicated on drugs per an investigation that has happened, and he would have been likely during the time of this trial. and now the case against the four people is simply being erased and started again. quite simply, a nightmare as you might imagine for the families of the victims. let's quickly revisit the case to bring everybody forward. 21-year-old shannon christian and 23-year-old chris newsome were on a date when they were car jacked, sexually tortured and killed in 2007. the words from newsome's mom probably best sum them up. she said, he -- meaning the judge in the case -- who we now know was intoxicated while he was sitting on the bench, says he's taken four years of our lives. he should have known better, he should have stepped down, end quote. and just so you know, the case had already gone through

sentencing, jon. one of the killers got the death penalty. so you really could look at it like this; literally new life for him. knoxville, tennessee, this is in the headlines today. back to you. jon: all right. harris faulkner, thank you. for more on this case let's bring in geraldo rivera, anchor of "geraldo at large. "i've heard of bad behavior by judges, but they're saying drunk or high or both during these murder trials? >> if we just freeze that thought for a second, the stoned, wasted, intoxicated, irresponsible, reckless judge and remember the crime, you know, we covered this crime. 23-year-old and a 22-year-old, they're on a date. not only are they car jacked and kidnaps, but this young lady was raped, she was tortured, the young man's body was burned, it was abandoned on the railroad tracks. these people were nailed, they were definitely guilty, one of them getting the death penalty as harris reports. these are the most despicable criminals you could ever, you

know, wrap your arms around this trial. richard baumgartner, the criminal court judge, presides over this process. remember, the crime happens in 2007. the trials respect until 2009 -- aren't until 2009, 2010. these four losers, these sons of bitches, what they did is so outrageous, jon, they get the just desserts, but guess what? the judge was wasted on the trial, he was, you know, a man who was popping pills secretly. even these louses deserve justice, and they can't have a stoned judge presiding. the judge, the emergency judge who's sitting and has ruled the retrial is absolutely right, but this is how hideous the judge's conduct was, he allows this quartet who not only committed this vicious crime, but then the family sat through extensive trials, they saw autopsy pictures of this poor young lady, they saw the burned corpse

of the young man. now to do this whole process again, i think it's very likely that the state will allow the one sentenced to death the plead to life, try to get some kind of plea deal to spare these families because what has happened here is just outrageous. jon: they had changes of venue the first time around -- >> they could try them in alaska, doesn't matter. they'd be convicted. jon: let's turn to a second topic because you have a cable exclusive for us. you just spoke to gary giordano, the guy who spent four months in prison? >> four months in aruba, in the prison. gary giordano, of course, as everybody knows who went with robin robyn gardner who went on a date, met through the internet, they go on a date to aruba. they go snorkeling, she drowns or disappears. giordano suspected of murdering her for the $1.5 million -- jon: that's him in the striped

shirt. >> jose baez, criminal defense attorney. he helped chris si anthony beat her murder crap. but here is robyn, you know, a relatively flamboyant person. but i don't know if you have -- jon: we do. >> so i asked giordano who says she disappears, we were snorkeling. i asked him, did you do enough to find her when she went missing? he's gary. did you call for help? help me, help me. >> no, because there was nobody in, you know, screaming distance. no, i just ran to the -- >> did you call her name when you were still in the water? >> no, i turned, there was nobody there. i didn't see her at all. did i yell for her? i don't think so. >> you know, it's -- all right. say you and i are together, and we're snorkeling. and all of a sudden i'm in trouble because i've left my sneakers on, so the water is pulling me down, and i'm struggling. at what point do i say, wait,

where's jon? and if i say, hey, where's jon? john, john, hey, folks, help me. you know, i don't know that his story of what happened here is convincing, but i do know this, and jose baez points it out very, very specifically, if they had the evidence, they would have held him longer, and they just -- under aruban law you can hold someone up until a certain point without charging them, which is different than the united states law, but in that situation the, you know, there was no mountain of evidence, no mountain of circumstantial evidence. no choice. she's gone, no proof of wrong doing -- jon: and we'll be hearing more of that interview. >> oh, yeah, the whole interview. jon, you know, cable exclusive. fox news, 10 p.m. eastern time this sunday for more of that. >> thanks, jon. jenna: governor mike huckabee, in the meantime, is here to tell us about a republican presidential forum that's happening tomorrow.

don't miss it, he's with us next. so who ordered the cereal that can help lower olesterol and who ordered the yummy cereal? yummy. [ woman ] lower cholesterol. [ man 2 ] yummy. i got that wrong didn't i? [ male announcer ] want great taste and whole gin oats that can help lower cholesterol? honey nut cheerios.

jon: a fox news alert and live pictures right now, aerials from detroit where a manhunt is underway for a little 2-year-old girl. name is biyang ca jones. her dad says he was driving her

around, she was in her car seat in the back of his car when he got carjacked, a guy pointed a gun at him, told him to get out, he says, while the little girl went away with the car. the car was later found but so far no sign of little bianca jones. she's described as a light-skinned black child, she weighed approximately 25 pounds wearing a purple coat with gold trim. her hair is braided, she was wearing pink tights. if you have any information about little bianca jones, authorities in the detroit would like to hear from you. we'll keep you updated. jenna: we're going to turn now to politics. a big event taking place this weekend right here in our studios. a huckabee special, republican presidential forum. not a debate, a forum. and here's the host of "huckabee," mike huckabee. [laughter] you know -- >> real original name, wasn't it? [laughter] jenna: why do you think a forum

is necessary versus another debate? >> several things are going to be different. first of all, since they're not being posed by journalists, they're being posed by elected state attorneys general, they're going to be posing the questions. and the focus is going to be on federalism, state/federal relationships. let me explain. everything a president does has an effect upon a state; immigration, education, economic decisions. we're going to have these guys who deal with really the impact of those decisions every day ask the questions. secondly, they're not all on the stage together. they come out individually, they all get exactly the same amount of time, so you don't have some folks sort of relegated to the wigs of the stage and put out there on the edge. i think it's going to be a very substantive debate, but it's also going to give every candidate an opportunity to answer questions without attacking each other. jenna: how much time do they have, and how many questions do they get? >> a lot of it depends on how

many breaks we have, but they're going to have a sub substantive amount of time. jenna: that's 8 p.m. on saturday. >> 8 p.m. eastern, and it's going to be a two-hour special. i think it's going to be worth watching and telling friends about. jenna: it's an interesting approach. one of the things we've seen this week, it seems, is jostling for position for the most conservative of them all it seems like a snow white complex, mirror, mirror, on the wall, who's the most conservative of them all? i'm curious who you think is the most conservative candidate right now. >> it's unfair to say one of them is not a conservative. they wouldn't have gotten this far within the republican party if they were not conservatives. take any issue, one might be by someone's standards more conservative, but one of my gripes as a republican has been that there is no sort of fixed orthodoxy as to who gets to say what's the most conservative. some people are a libertarian

and think that's conservative. well, they're libertarian -- jenna: do you think it's problematic for the republican party or maybe just the conservative movement overall? it seems that there's testing of boundaries, and people are searching for a definition of what the conservative or who the conservative is? it's an interesting topic to focus on as you watch these candidates try to prove what they believe to potential voters. >> i think it's a big problem for the republican party, and they need to resolve it before we get into the general election. it's going to be problematic if they try to win those voters -- jenna: and within the republican establishment, or is something that would happen outside with a movement like the tea party? >> i think a lot of republicans have to understand unless you own all the moving parts of the game board, you don't get everything you want all the time. so some republicans who push for this absolute purity, here's what we have to have, we want 100% of it, look, you can campaign that way, jenna, you cannot govern that way. you have to govern within the context of what you have.

so if we're talking about the supercommittee or how to bring the deficit down, if you aren't willing to work with democrats, you may not like what they want, but you have to work with them a degree to get as much as you can. but expect that you won't get everything you want, and they won't get everything they want. jenna: you sound incredibly presidential yourself. >> well, i was a governor ten and a half years. every governor knows that that's how you actually govern. it's navigating the canoe downstream, and there are shoals and rocks in that stream. it's not all pure water. jenna: would you consider being the vice presidential candidate with mitt romney? >> you know, nobody's asked me abouting being a vice presidentl candidate, so there's no point in me discussing, gee, would i take the call if it comes? because i don't want expect to get the call. jenna: but if it comes? >> if you call me and pass the word along, i'll at least talk -- jenna: i will publicly say that i will take calls calls and pasn to you. mitt romney, rick santorum, any of them, i'm willing to take

that on the air. >> in the meantime, everyone needs to watch this incredible forum this weekend because i do think it's going to be a very insightful look at how the candidates feel about issues, some of which they have not addressed yet. jenna: and they have to stand alone and answer questions. >> and they can't complain or talk about the other candidates. we will call them down. they are not allowed to talk about or mention any other candidate. jenna: can they mention the president? >> of course they can. he's not one of the primary opponents. jenna: it's not that they can't do any attacks -- >> no attacks on the other republican candidates for president. jenna: we'll look forward to it. 8 p.m. on saturday. it's a great special this weekend, a different way to approach finding out more about these candidates. it's called "a huckabee special: republican presidential forum." live from 8 to 10 p.m. eastern time. right after the break, jon will have more on our fox news panel, so stay with us, we'll be right back with more "happening now." we're america's natural gas

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megyn: hey, everyone, i'm megyn kelly. newt gingrich declares that he will be the nominee for the gop, but is he getting ahead of himself? guess who the clear front runner was back in '08? hint, it wasn't mccain. and it looks like herman cain will announce on monday whether he stays in this race. former south carolina governor mark sanford is here on whether cain should call it quits. and new facts emerging in the case of this missing mom in florida. was her ex connect today a previous murder or two? judge alex is here. all that plus a teacher falsely suggest toss a room full of school children that there's no santa. that's in today's kelly's court. see you top of the one. jenna: new information raising questions about a goth safety net -- government safety net. jobless benefits are not working quite the way they're supposed to. researchers at rutgers university say many of those collecting checks are still falling behind besides that extra support they're getting. adam shapiro is here to tell us

about these study's findings. what did they find out? >> one of the big headlines is people who take unemployment insurance take longer find ago job than people who don't take unemployment insurance. the study found that people who didn't take benefits found a job within a year. those who took benefits, it took longer, but there's a catch to that. jenna: what is the catch? >> a large portion of the people who didn't take unemployment benefits weren't eligible to begin with, so if they wanted to eat, if they wanted to get out there and support the family, they had to get a job. and they tend to be less skilled, it's minimum wage jobs. jenna: did it look into how they survived for that year? >> here's the conclusion if you want to go after whether or not unemployment benefits work. one of the conclusions to the author of the study, dr. carl van horn, he said to me, look, what we found is unemployment benefits do not stop the financial crisis and don't even

stave off the crisis for the people who receive the benefits. it's just not working. jenna: what about the effects on pay, compensation? >> that was the other thing. people who took unemployment benefits actually had a larger drop. you were making a buck before you lost the job, your new job once you found it, you're making roughly 50 cents. people who didn't take unemployment, they were making 80 cents, the percentage drop was smaller for those who never took unemployment, but again, it's because they were making less to begin with. everyone, though, the majority of people who found jobs after unemployment found jobs that paid less, they took pay cuts, and that's a problem. jenna: and we didn't see became growth in our latest jobless reports, something we keep an eye on. adam, thank you so much. interesting debate. in the meantime, we're going to turn to a completely other topic, this one being mitt romney. why some republicans remain torn about giving him their support. jon is going to talk to his news watch panel next.

jon: a little more on presidential politics now. mitt romney has been hoping for strong republican support going into the early premares, but it seems like many republican leaders remain torn about whether to give him their support or not. so what's holding them back? kirsten powers is a columnist for the daily piece, she's with us along with judy miller, both are fox news contributors. so what is the problem? you know, republicans typically anoint the person who came in second place the last time around. mitt romney -- i guess, actually, maybe mike huckabee came in second technically at the very end last time, but mitt romney, you know, was generally right behind john mccain last time around. this time around republicans

seem to have problems giving the guy the go ahead. why? >> well, they've never really warmed the him. it's always been the search for the anti-mitt, essentially, and we've seen one person after another. if you look, and frequently people say it's because he's a flip-flopper, but if you look at gingrich, he's even more of a flip-flopper than romney is, so you have to say what is this about? i think what it's about is they're looking for somebody who's more of a fighter. if you look at the different people they've been looking at, they're people who will really take it to the president -- jon: because, essentially, that's what this is going to be. this is going to be two people standing on stage -- >> uh-huh, yeah, and i think they think romney's a little weak. he's probably not -- newt gingrich is pugilistic, he's a fighter. he's somebody who will really confront obama. and really take him on.

>> i think it's also a reflection of how far to the right to republican party has drifted. romney is just too accept tryst for a lot of people in this party deny centrist. and even though in terms of a general election he seems absolutely the strongest candidate, his views, his experience, especially his business experience in such a time of economic turmoil, it doesn't seem to cut it with republican voters. so it's an odd phenomenon, and i think it must be very challenging for the people trying to nominate the best person to confront obama. jon: well, and speaking of mr. obama, i mean, his poll numbers are very low, lower than jimmy carter's were at this point during his presidency. it should be a lot of observers say a slam dunk for republican x, any name to win the white house. and yet people like mitch daniels who flirted with a run himself, he's saying you can't just depend on people's dissatisfaction with the president to propel a republican into the white house. >> no.

i mean, the incumbency carrot has huge advantages, and you have to remember, also, with obama, people still actually like obama. so they're not against obama, they're unhappy with the economy. but, you know, we saw the unemployment rate drop down to 8.6 which is still very high, but if it continues to drop down, that's going to work in obama's favor. so we'll have to see where we are in terms of the economy, and obama's a great campaigner. if there's one thing he knows how to do, he knows how to run a great campaign. jon: well, newt gingrich is a great debater. a lot of people have said he has won these debates and that has propelled his rather shoe string campaign to the point it's at. >> that's the amazing thing about this extraordinary newt phenomenon, is the phoenix-like quality of his resurrection, that he is truly as tough as obama is. and that's what would make it a very interesting contest. but remember, obama's going to fight a very, very ideological campaign. it's going to be very much the

99% at the bottom suffering versus the 1%, class warfare. i think newt will have a hard time with that given the money that he's taken from freddie mac. i mean, there are a lot of pitfalls there for the republicans. jon: but newt has been around a long time, and, you know, a lot of the skeletons -- and he has a lot of them -- a lot of skeletons in the closet have been exposed. >> people seem to want an anti-romney, so they're willing to overlook a lot of things they normally would not be willing to overlook, at least as the polls show today. >> and i wonder to what extent, in the beginning i discounted this thinking the country's moved on, but i wonder to what extent the mormon factor is playing a role in his inability to get beyond that 25% mark. jon: interesting. judy miller, kirsten powers, thank you. we will hear more from you coming up, this is just a taste of the kinds of things our panel has to say. tune in to "news watch" tomorrow

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jenna: breaking news on a car recall we want to share with you. >> reporter: 304,000 vehicles being recalled by honda. here is the pertinent you need to know. accord, civic, odyssey and pilot. it is a global recall. this is the 6th time they have done this recall for the same problem, and it has to do with hai airbags possibly busting up during a crash and not doing their jobs n. all the time they've been recalling they've had at least two deaths in the united states, both in 2009 because of accidents so far related to the airbag problem. you want to pay attention to this. the tip line was just there on the screen. we'll have more on our website foxnews.com/"happening now." jenna: 1/4 there. jon is joining us. you're going to stay up there for your news watch panel. jon: