this sunday, the president set to speak to the nation during his state of the union address riding a wave of popularity and renewed confidence in the economy. while the gop is arguing over how much government spending to cut and laying down a marker over health care. >> this is not symbolic. this is whye were sent here and we will not stop until we repeal a president and put a president in the position of the white house who will repeal this bill. >> the new majority leader of the house, republican eric cantor from virginia. then, what's driving the president's polls upward? is it his leadership after the

tucson tragedy or a feeling that he's moved back to the political center? how will he address america's concerns about jobs during the state of the union? and getting a jump on 2012. how the campaign is already heating up. with us, the assistant democratic leader in the house, congressman jim clyburn, karen hughes, john podesta, cnbc's erin burnett and ron brownstein. and in our meet the press minute, we remember a frequent guest on this program laid to rest yesterday in a heartfelt tribute for a lifetime of service to his country and his family. >> we appeal to the spirit of personal initiative and volunteering to do something for your country patriotic.

captions paid for by nbc-universal television >> good morning. this weekend the president has offered up a preview of his state of the union address in an online video to his supporters. the focus of his address, the president says, will be making sure the economy is working for everybody. with us this morning for his first appearance here as house majority leader, congressman eric cantor. the president is previewing the state of the union address. this is a portion of the message he will deliver on tuesday. watch. >> so my principle focus, my number one focus, is going to be making sure that we are competitive, that we are growing and we are creating jobs not just now but well into the future. and that's what is going to be the main topic of the state of the union. >> being competitive in his mind means additional targeted spending in some areas to make america competitive and cuts and

dealing with the deficit. here's the headline in "the new york times" this morning the way they describe it obama to push centrist agenda in his address. is that a vision you can support? >> i'm really interested to see and hear what the president has to say. i think he's got a real chance to lead here, but the question is did he listen and has he learned from the last election? i think that the vision the president laid out over the last two years is one very much focused on increasing government spending and trying to fund action from a washington based perspective and what the people have said is enough. we've got to shrink government. we've got to cut spending. and we need to really look to the private sector to grow jobs. >> he says there has to be a combination of spending to keep

america competitive and cuts. can you support that? >> our congress will be a cut and grow congress. we believe we got to cut spending. we've got to cut the regulations that have stopped job growth. when the president talks about competitiveness, sure, we want america to be competitive but then when he talks about investing, i think even someone from the white house this week had said that this is going to be a cut and invest white house. we want to cut and grow. when we hear invest from anyone in washington, to me that means more spending and -- >> let's just be clear. you don't believe there's a balance you have to get right in terms of investing in the economy to help it become more competitive. that's not a vision you agree with? >> what i would say is investment needs to occur in the private sector and for too long now there's been uncertainty on the part of investors. >> let's pick up where republicans have left off. cut and grow. that's the mantra. you campaigned on a pledge to america last september and this

is part of what you said. it was clear. we'll roll back government spending to pre-stimulus and bailout levels saving $100 billion in the first year alone and putting us on a path to balance the budget and pay down the debt. you came into office saying we won't hit that $100 billion figure and on friday in "the washington post" gop block in the house calls for deeper cuts and subheadline campaign pledge divides the party. you are arguing about how much to spend. i thought this was already worked out. >> let's step back a minute and look at sort of the whole continuum of the spending challenges. we'll have three bites at the apple here as far as approaching, reducing spending in the size of washington. as far as the mess in the past, we're going to have this debt limit increase vote that will come. that is dealing with the spending in this town that's gone overdrive in the last couple years. as far as decisions we make now,

it's about continuing resolution vote that will come up in the next month or so. >> 100 billion or not 100 billion? >> we committed to saying $100 billion in reductions which brings spending down to '08 levels. now, we also were in the position where we starting to even deliver on that five months into the fiscal year. we are intent on making sure on an annualized basis that we're hitting the '08 levels or below and so every member will have the chance to come to the floor, to talk about whether they believe that '08 levels are enough to cut because some members actually want to see us do more. i agree. we ought to look in every way possible to reduce spending as much as possible. >> it seems like it's a straightforward question. will you live up to $100 billion pledge? can you make it or not? >> absolutely. on annualized basis we'll cut spending $100 billion.

>> which means what exactly? >> look where we are. we are where we are because the democratic majority last congress didn't pass a budget, right? they didn't do it. we're in a continuing resolution environment so now we got an interim step to take to make sure that we reset the dial and bring spending back down to '08 levels. >> it's passing $14 trillion and last week you gave an interview to "the washington post" about this important vote that will come up in the spring about raising the debt ceiling which has been done for a long time in the past. this is what you said in "the washington post." it's a leverage moment for republicans, cantor said, in an interview. the president needs us. there are things we were elected to do. let's accomplish those if the president needs us to clean up the old mess. i want you to be specific. what's the leverage moment? what will you exact as a promise for your members to vote to increase the debt ceiling? >> let me be clear. republicans are not going to vote for this increase in debt limit unless there are serious

spending cuts and reforms. >> like what? >> that is just the way it is. so we have talked a lot about bringing spending levels down to '08 levels. we've talked about things that we can do to make sure that off into the future this kind of spending doesn't continue. when i went back and told you three bites at the apple, the other pieces are budget. we're going to work on our budget and say, look, we'll have to institute some reforms to make sure these spending patterns don't recur. >> if you say serious spending cuts, you don't have something specific in mind. you'll know it when you see it, is that the approach? >> that's not true. we'll have a vote on the floor of tuesday of this week directing our appropriations committee directing where those cuts are. there are hundreds of programs that will need to be cut. when you talk about cutting $100 billion, you're going to have hundreds of programs in the

thousands pages of spending plan that the federal government has. this week we will vote on an issue having to do with the presidential election fund. we'll vote to cut that. that's a 500 and some million dollar expenditure. he'll see hundreds of programs experience analysis and cuts like that. >> $500 million is a drop in the bucket. it's real money but in the federal budget that's nothing. you're not really tackling the big three. you're not tacklinining entitlements. >> i can tell you that we always said this. every dollar should be on the table. i have said before -- >> including defense? >> absolutely. no one can defend the expenditure of every dollar and cent at the pentagon. we have to make sure that they are doing more with less as well. >> look at "the wall street

journa journal". let's scrap department of commerce and housing and urban development just for starters. would those be on the table? >> everything is on the table. >> cancer research is on the table? >> we have to do what families in this country are doing and what businesses are doing. you've got to learn to do more with less. you can't afford to sustain this level of borrowing and spending. everyone knows that. we have to be very, very good and disciplined to make sure that we are cutting what needs to be cut and focus on growing this economy so america can maintain its competitiveness and see jobs grow in the private sector. >> majority leader reid was on the program. i asked him if social security was in crisis. this is what he said. >> when we start talking about the debt, first thing people do is run to social security. social security is a program that works and fully funded for the next 40 years.

stop picking on social security. there are a lot of places -- >> do you think the arithmetic on social security works? >> no doubt it does. it's not in crisis. this is something that is perp wet waited by people who don't like government. >> are you prepared to raise the retirement age or seriously tackle social security? >> what we have said is we have a serious fiscal train wreck coming for this country if we don't deal with these entitlements. this is something we need to begin to work on. for me the first entitlement we need to deal with is the health care bill. >> we'll get to health care. i asked you about social security. >> absolutely. we have got to focus on what we can do together. as that just indicated, the senate is not willing to do anything under harry reid.

>> what are you willing to do? means test benefits? raise the retirement age? >> we have a program that we have seen one of our members, paul ryan, chairman of the budget committee, put together called the road map. he and kevin mccarthy and i wrote a book together and we reserved a chapter for discussion about social security, about medicare and how we can begin to -- >> i'm asking you what you are for? >> what we're for is an active discussion to see what we can come together and do. >> social security has been discussed for years. the irony of paul ryan doing the response to the state of the union, he has proposed cuts to social security and medicare and republicans don't stand behind it. >> that's not true. we put a chapter in our book about it because the direction in which the road map goes is something we need to embrace. >> raise retirement age, means testing benefits, those are specifics. >> the starting point in any plan has got to be we need to

distinguish between those at or nearing retirement. anyone 55 and older in this country has got to know that their social security benefits will not be addressed. will not be changed. it's for all of the younger people. those 54 and younger, we're going to have to have a serious discussion. with harry reid talking about the fact that he doesn't want to even discuss it, that's not leadership. >> let's move onto health care. house republicans did repeal the president's health care reform plan. the real question is what republicans are prepared to replace it with and whether you have a serious plan. major garrett in the national journal reports this week the following about the speaker's plan. speaker boehner. the boehner plan according to congressional budget office would add 3 million americans to the insurance rolls leaving 50 million without coverage through 2019. cbo said the proposal would reduce costs and the group insurance market which is 80% of private sector premiums by less than 3%. if it's all they do, it's not a

serious effort. you can't just do that. the truth is republicans do not have a serious alternative to covering more americans, do they? >> i disagree with that obviously, david. first of all, we believe you can do better in health care. we want to try and address the situation so more folks can have coverage. >> that's not what the boehner plan does. >> if you recall last session, we republicans were given one shot. we didn't have any open debate for both sides at all on the health care bill the way it was jammed through. the boehner plan is just a starting point. what we said when we went and voted to repeal obama care last week in congress and what we said is we want our committees to begin a process of deliberations from both sides. open, honest debate so that people can understand everything that's being discussed and we're

going to focus on patient controlled health care. we'll focus on first and foremost bringing down costs and adding to people's choices and flexibility. >> by bringing down costs, if you were serious about this, why not negotiate with democrats in areas where you could deliver republican votes. there are currently efficiencies in the obama health care bill that deal with penalties for hospitals if there are recurrent infections and address getting more people covered than any republican plan you're suggesting. >> the problem is if we're all really desirous of trying to deal with people who are in need and want to improve the health care future for this country, you can't start with a washington controlled system. that's the structure of obama care. it's broad, sweeping federal mandates imposing the kind of health care that people should have instead of allowing people to choose for themselves and allow for the flexibility and choice. that's why we're going to have an open process and invite the

other side in to have debate. we've committed in the pledge to america that we'll finally see the institution work. speaker boehner always said that. we'll actually have committees do their work and have work on the floor and we're not going to see an instance where you will jam through health care bill the way that speaker pelosi did. >> isn't that what you just did on the repeal? >> no. >> how is that different? >> it was a page and a half bill, david. >> seven hours of debate. wasn't room for a lot of negotiation. wasn't it symbolic to make this a marker for the 2012 campaign? >> no. it was something that was very much a policy based vote. we disagree as far as the prescription on how we better health care in this country. if you look at '12, it comes back to the state of the union. obama care really represents what i believe this president sees as policy focus in this town.

and that is start with washington, allow washington to set the perimeters and then try to impose that as a prescription to do things better. we don't believe that and that's really in the state of the union the president's task. is he going to be able to step up and prove that he's listened and learned an electorate and change going into the next two years. >> let me ask you about politics. do you think as 40% in a recent poll thought the president has become a moderate. do you agree with that? >> i think actions speak louder than words. that will be the real question here is whether he decoupled himsehi himself from the last few years of federal government centericed

attitudes. >> there's been a lot of talk about discourse and how you all can get along better and do it more civilly. this is a leadership moment here. there are elements of this country who question the president's citizenship, who think that his birth certificate isn't authentic. will you call that what it is, which is crazy talk? >> a lot of that has been an issue generated by not only the media but others in the country. most americans really are beyond that and they want us to focus -- >> if someone brings that up, engaging in crazy talk? >> it's not nice to call anyone crazy. i don't think it's an issue we should address at all. >> his citizenship should not be questioned? >> it's not an issue that even needs to be on the policy making table right now.

>> because it's illegitimate? call it what it is. a plot of republican leaders won't criticize those -- >> i think the president is a citizen of the united states. >> period. >> yes. why is it you want me to engage in name calling? >> because i think a lot of people would say that a leader's job is to shut some of this down. you know as well as i do there are elements on the right who believe two things about this president. he actively is trying to undermine the american way and wants to deny individuals their freedom. do you reject those beliefs as a leader in our congress? >> i believe this president wants what's best in this country. it's just how he feels we get there are policy difference. >> fair enough. >> the question over the next two years he will demonstrate he no longer wants to adhere to more spending, to more trying to achieve equal outcomes rather than equal opportunity and that he really does believe america was built on those striving for opportunity and willing to take

their own responsibility to achieve their success and not rely on washington to sort of determine winners and losers. that to me is what america is about. that's how we get to a better place in this country and continue to lead. and the question will be -- i think that most americans are like that. and so the question is does the president now embrace what the electorate said which is we reject your agenda and let's try it a different way. >> is the tea party a difficult cross current in the republican party to deal with right now. michelle bachmann is giving an alternative response. are they in sync with you? >> i always said this -- first of all taxed enough already. they are focused on making sure we get spending under control. they've been a tremendous force in having us focus on fiscal issues first to get our fiscal house in order. if you are looking at ways to

grow the economy, the heritage foundation just came out with their index of freedom. one of the reasons they cite as to united states falling in that index is the government spending which promises more tax increases in the future so the tea party came in said enough spending already. >> if the economy gets better, harry reid predicts the tea party goes away. >> i think that washington has been about its bigger spending ways for a long time. >> you think the tea party is here to stay? >> absolutely. i think they bring a fresh, new look to all spending and get us more in sync with the people in this country as far as living within our means. >> leader, more to do but we're out of time. thank you very much for being here. coming up next, the president enjoys a bounce in the polls at his two-year mark but how will he address the economy in his state of the union? joining us on the roundtable assistant democratic leader representative jim clyburn. karen hughes, former white house

chief of staff, john podesta, cnbc's erin burnett and national journal's ron brownstein. plus our "meet the press minute." ♪ >> woman: good night, gluttony-- a farewell long awaited. good night, expected. >> ( yawning ) >> good night, outdated. >> ( click ) >> ( whimpers ) >> good night, fluffy. and good night, stuffy. >> ( clinking ) >> ( chewing ) >> good night, old luxury and all of your wares. good night, bygones

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we're back joined by our rou roundtable. karen hughes is here, representative james clyburn, former white house chief of staff to president clinton, john podesta of center for america progress and anchor of "squawk on the street" erin burnett and editor ial director, ron brownstein. message to supporters about focusing on the economy. here's what our poll indicates americans are waiting for in terms of what message they want to hear. 34% job creation and economic growth. erin burnett, how does the president approach it? >> it's actually a nice poll result for him because it's actually not putting the deficit as first issue which means people won't demand cuts, cuts,

cuts as everyone expected. that's a key issue but with jobs i think he made a huge step this week is the way i would put it. a renamed panel and putting business front and center on job creation and focusing on exports and right now he's in the cat bird seat when it comes to that. government can't create jobs. that's the next problem. we have 27 million people unemployed. >> you heard leader cantor say, whoa, on the investment side. we're not for government intervening in the economy anymore. are we headed for a real impasse here in terms of what the president is expected to say? >> i think the president is very clear that he is going to focus on job creation and government can create the climate within jobs to create it. we can't create jobs. we shouldn't. we want them created in the private sector. it's interesting that we've seen this 1.1 million new jobs. 1.3 million in the private

sector. 1.1 because of the public sector and that's the trend we want. we're on that arc. i think we'll continue. >> john podesta, as former chief of staff to president clinton, you know these battles well. last year the state of the union the president had a singular message and this is what it was. >> jobs must be our number one focus in 2010. >> yet peter baker in "the new york times" magazine talks about the white house looking for work. he says this. the public didn't sense that everyone in the white house was waking up thinking about you who to create jobs. it seemed they were waking up every day thinking about how to pass more bills. do something and if that doesn't work, do something else. it wasn't good enough. >> i think the results weren't good enough through the course of the year. i think they saw the -- the public saw a white house that was obsessed with what was going

on on capitol hill and outside of the country. things have changed. since the election he's had a considerable amount of achievement. now he's got to lay out a trajectory for the country about how he intends to manage the economy that builds on investment, innovation, education, the things that i think he will talk about on tuesday night and contrast that with what the republicans are offering as you saw with leader cantor. >> karen, how do you see it. >> since the election the president seems to have had a revelation that it's business that creates jobs. i think during the first two years of his presidency what we saw is what president obama truly believes and believes in a bigger, more expensive, expansive federal government. you saw that with the trillion dollar stimulus and health care and now we see what president obama believes he needs to do to be re-elected and that's move back to the center. you see that with the extension

of bush tax cuts. you might think he had gone to sleep and we woke up and 2012 election has happened and we elected a republican. >> to a point. if you think about this competitiveness that he's using, it's a centerpiece of the state of the union laid it out in early december speech saying it's driven by chinaen and indi. he said nations that win the competition in the 21st century are those with the best trained workforce, best infrastructure and best research. that's not what eric cantor or paul ryan would lay out as the fundamentals of our competitiveness. there are other elements of the agenda on corporate tax reform and regulatory reform and free trade that does create more conflict with the republican party but at the core it's a vision of a role of government creating the conditions of prosperity almost abraham

linco lincolnesk that's a big problem from where paul ryan or eric cantor would end up. >> you can cloak an increase of spending and competitiveness agenda but you can't win the future when we drown in debt when our biggest competitor is the banker and person to whom we're indebted. a competitiveness focus is smart but it needs to be a conservative one that cuts spending and cuts debt. >> erin, death is what the business community wants to hear tackled. >> they want debt in focus. we do have a debt problem. we know that. one thing that doesn't get talked about that when we are feeling bad about ourselves compared to china and even with the financial crisis, $63 trillion are assets. debt is 13.5 trillion. we're a wealthy country. we can deal with the big three. social security, medicare, defense. we have to put a plan out there.

>> what about this debt limit business? you heard leader cantor say unless we get serious spending cuts you're not going to get a vote to increase the debt limit. he won't be specific on where the cuts will be but everything is on the table. do you think that government shutdown is possible? are republicans prepared to shut down the government? >> i don't think they are. maybe possible but not probable. i would say to leader cantor he should get on the same page with speaker boehner. we've got to be grown-ups about this. i would argue that what we see now is what the president really is rather than what we saw two years ago. the president came into office having to react to a crisis. and he was in fact in a crisis mode. we were at a place we had never been before. not unlike the 1930s but like the 1930s. the president had to respond, react. he's now creating. he's moving the agenda.

>> that may be the case. he did not have to do health care. a wore ar of choice and not of necessity. >> a cost now of only $28 billion rather than 700 that was -- >> i want to go to what president bush did to the economy. jim is right. the president had to react with extraordinary measures to fix the financial system and to invest and keep the economy from sinking into depression. he did it. now we're at a different moment where he's laying out a very different path for the future. >> what about the health care piece? he didn't have to do health care is the argument. >> if you really want to go to a competitive agenda and reorientate the federal government, it requires tougher decisions than we're likely to hear in the state of the union next week.

they talked about reorientating the tax code and spending from consumption to investment. look back to 1969, federal government spend one-third of the total budget on payments to individuals and one-third of the total budget in infrastructure research and education. it's 60% payment to individuals and 16% on investment. if you want to do investment from a democratic point of view it would be an argument you have to tackle entitlements because it will squeeze out your ability to do other things. that's the part that probably neither party are ready to really address. if you are serious about competitiveness, ultimately you have to look at the ways we subsidize consumption. >> reading this peter baker piece this morning that talks about the approach now where jeff is on board and more reaching out to business and compromising with republicans, it struck me that the president could have been there two years ago. you may have had to do t.a.r.p. and bailout of gm and do

stimulus but a different way but you didn't necessarily have to do health care and kept that focus. what are we doing to create jobs? do you disagree with that? >> i do. >> go ahead. >> look, what we was facing with families going into bankruptcy because of health care, the biggest cause of individual bankruptcy was over health insurance. what the president did here and i think if you look at it of the 1.1 million new jobs, 20% of those jobs are in the health care industry. >> 8 million lost jobs. you can talk about new jobs but the vast majority of jobs have been lost since december of 2008 when president obama was preparing to become president. we lost 8 million jobs. we still have a stubbornly high unemployment rate. >> it wasn't health care that caused that loss. i'm saying that health care puts

security in individual families and cbo says a $230 billion reduction in the deficit. i don't know that health care can be dealt out as a bad thing. >> we have a minute here before we take a break. karen, honestly, how serious are republicans about replacing health care? they didn't want obama's health care. they didn't think the government should be involved. ron put that in his writing. big ideological divide. they don't want to replace it with anything real. >> absolutely they do. it's a good thing with when political leaders do in office what they promised to do in the campaign trail. republicans campaigned and voters last november went to the polls thinking they were voting for this onerous health care bill to be repealed and replaced. our entitlements are on a path of not sustainable. instead of addressing that problem we added a massive new entitlement we can't afford. >> you have 51 million uninsured. the republican alternative would

cover 3 million by 2019 leaving you with 50 million uninsured. today you have republican governors in states with 30 million uninsured. you can repeal the bill but those people don't go away. if you repeal the bill is the answer just to allow status quo to continue. the reason this passed after every other president roosevelt, truman, clinton failed because so many in the system felt the status quo was unacceptable and the republican alternative the return was sunacceptable status quo. >> we'll talk about this when we return and 2012 climate that is heating up in ways many people will not realize. needed a coach. our doctor was great, but with so many tough decisions i felt lost. unitedhealthcare offered us a specially trained rn who helped us weigh and understand all our options. for me cancer was as scary as a fastball is to some of these kids.

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>> we're back with more of our roundtable. 2012 is upon us. i'm sure everyone realizes that politically. eric cantor is saying he's taking a more centrist. here's a preview of the state of

the union. >> it's going to take a lot of work. these are big challenges that are in front. us. we're up to it as long as we come together as a people, republicans, democrats, independents. as long as we focus on what binds us together as a people. as long as we're willing to find common ground even as we have vigorous debates. >> here's the president's approval rating in the latest poll up over 53%. look at this among independents. this is striking. in positive territory, up 11 points, karen hughes. if you are on the republican side, you look at the president, do you agree with dick cheney who says this is a one-term president? >> well, i do think he will ultimately be a one-term president. we have sorting out to do in my party to pick out the strongest candidate against him. it's not unusual that his poll numbers have ticked up slightly. that happens after a time of national trauma and he gave a very powerful speech in tucson where i think he was right. he did what a president is supposed to do in a time of trauma and that is call us to be higher and better and try to

make our debates spirited but more civil. i think it's a natural result of that and the fact that he reached out to republicans and agreed that you probably don't agree with but agreed to extending bush tax cuts. i think he's making a mistake in state of the union calling for a big increase in federal spending. i have worked in government. there are not many americans who think government is too small. it's too big and too intrusive. >> you talk about on the republican side. we see despite all of the apparent front runners and we can get our own poll from the nbc news/"wall street journal" poll indicating who is on top of the heap here. republicans are still sort of hanging back here. they're not rushing to announce and become candidates. why that caution? >> from my perspective i think you have president obama really playing this business card in terms of now regulations and giving the image that regulations should be pulled back and pro business and pro tax cut and keeping the left

happy. i can tell you financial markets are betting that obama will win re-election by a landslide and post-tucson the change in the financial market went to mitt romney. sarah palin had been the presumed republican front runner. now it's romney. all of her loss went to mr. romney and did not go to huckabee. that's the financial market bet right now. >> you said he's giving the image of moving to the center. the question is how much of this is perception and how much of this is actual policies that he's going to implement. the regulations and announcement of review of regulations and his administration is writing new ones to implement health care and financial reform. >> talk about republicans and what's happening in the republican field now. >> first of all, you have the republican party's coalition being transformed in a mirror image of the democratic party's coalition. they are moving upscale and been doing better in upper middle class white collar suburbs with people who are liberal on

foreign policy and republican party are more blue collar than there used to be. you'll see a class divide in 2012 particularly if sarah palin runs. mitt romney does well in that professional republican new you. i call them managers. you have people like palin and mike huckabee and maybe rick perry if he wants to come out of austin who will be stronger with national conservatives. you don't have a candidate in the republican field who can unite these two wings of the party and that's why you see no one at 20% in your survey. >> tim pawlenty and newt gingrich say republicans shouldn't vote to raise the debt ceiling. sarah palin comes up so often. our poll indicated her likability is a problem. positive rating at 27%. negatives are high at 49%. where does she stand now? >> i think that she's had a bad couple of weeks. i think that her reaction to tucson was particularly bad, and

i think she's moving herself to the fringe but it's a fringe that's occupied by probably half of the republican caucus in the house right now. if you look at the economic program they're putting forward, i think it would be pretty much in line with the way palin sees the future as opposed to the way romney does and that i think spells trouble for the republican party which is careening off to the right at this moment. >> you talked about sarah palin during a radio address with bill press. you were critical of that. i want to play a portion of that. >> sarah palin can't seem to get it on any front. i think she's an attractive person. she's articulate. i think that intellectually she seems not to be able to understand what's going on here. >> a couple of observations about that. one, you were dismissive of her.

second, i hear when i talk to people about sarah palin one of the things particularly women tend to react to is how frankly men talk down to her. i wonder how a lot of women would react to you saying. she's attractive and articulate but intellectually she doesn't have much heft. >> i have a wife and three daughters and we talk about these kinds of things. we do consider her to be a very attractive candidate. she's very articulate when it comes to issues she puts forward. the fact of the matter is she doesn't seem to get the impact of what she says and what she does. the fact of the matter is that we have congresswoman's giffords saying that she took offense at these crosshairs. she spoke about it very te

eloquently and was disturbed by it and her husband told us they had conversations about this and she was seriously concerned about exactly what happened. i think that anybody in public life ought to really come to grips with what their words mean and what their actions -- >> karen, you work for a guy who love to be underestimated in president bush. do you think there's a strain of folks out there who may not be palin people who don't like who she's talked about? >> i think that's true. people don't like to see her look down. if she runs, she'll be factor. we have a wide field of republicans. i know a lot of republicans are wringing their hands, i'm not one of those. we believe in competition and opportunity. there's a great opportunity right now for someone to emerge. we have well qualified governors who have cut spending in their states who have created a pro-growth and pro-jobs environment in their state. we have members of congress and

members of the senate. >> here's the new hampshire straw poll from this weekend that shows you have mitt romney on top of it. a lot of people. >> as potential nominee, sarah palin is strong where republicans are strongest. the movement of working class white voters toward the republican party in the last 30 years but accelerated under obama is enormous. two-thirds of them voting republican. she's weakest where the electorate is most fluid and where this will be decided in that white collar upper middle class college educated white electorate moving toward democrats and through this class inversion where they do better in places than in youngstown but have pulled back from democrats. if obama is going to win in 2012 it will be with a coalition of young people and minorities who didn't turn out and then college educated who are socially liberated voters. you saw this in colorado. david axelrod pointed to michael bennett's win as a model of what they need to do.

sarah palin is weak where they have to beat obama. >> my concern with this is we game the system. how will it go with this poll or that. it comes to the big issue and we talk about debt, your interview with representative cantor said so much. no one wants to cut spending but in long-term there isn't anybody on either side when we hit the road here is willing to deal with the big issues facing this country when it comes to big three things. i wonder and maybe this is a financial correspondent here but i wonder if in a world without term limits you'll address those big issues and those big issues that could bankrupt this country because you're not going to get re-elected if you cut social security or you cut medicare. >> partly because those are issues that are too big for one party to deal with alone. the only way food thto do that have both parties do it together. >> i want to get a quick point in here.

ambassador huntsman to china hasn't ruled out his own run for presidency. watch this. >> i couldn't be happier with the ambassador's service and i'm sure he'll be successful in whatever endeavors he chooses in the future and i'm sure him having worked so well with me will be a great asset in any republican primary. >> what you missed there was the president's broad smile after that. there's a lot of people who think he put huntsman in the job in the first place so he wouldn't run against him. >> i think that the president put this in some perspective which is that huntsman is an attractive guy. he's probably got a political future. presidency in the next round i don't see it. >> we'll take a break here. final thoughts when we come back with our group plus our "meet the press minute" about sargent shriver. we'll be right back. ag. you know when to hold 'em... and how to fold 'em.

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to renewable sources of clean energy, ecomagination from ge is advanced technology that's good for both the economy and the environment. ♪ it's technology that makes the world work. [ squawking ] ♪ leader clyburn, what can we expect in terms of tone and discourse starting with the state of the union, do you think? will you sit with a republican? >> i think so. during the elections when we all elected the speaker, there was some republicans on the democratic side and vice versa. it already started. i think it's a good thing. i do believe that this is symbolic. the way you do that is let's

propose some bipartisan efforts with health care and with job creation just as we did with voting rights and civil rights. these things were done in a bipartisan way. >> thank you all very much. before we go, our "meet the press minute." we remember robert sargent shriver married 56 years to the love of his life. he passed away this week at the age of 95. a towering figure in politics and civil service, shriver appeared on this program ten times throughout his career. known as the driving force between the peace corps served as first director under his brother-in-law president john f. kennedy and made his first appearance here in 1961. >> volunteering to do something for your country patriotic. >> after serving on the

presidential ticket in 1972, shriver made his own run for the presidency and stopped here the day after announcing his bid on september 21st, 1975. >> we've been talking a great deal today about the kennedy legacy. just what is the kennedy legacy? >> first of all, let me say that i think it's a legacy of which all americans can be proud of. i think it's a legacy which may at that time indicate that people all over the world respected this nation and there was an aection and belief in what we stood for. it was a legacy that said at that time that we could solve our problems. we were not helpless. there was reason to have trust and confidence in one another. and since then there's been this development of divisiveness in our society, watergate, assassinations, the war, the recession, so the people have lost confidence. kennedy was against that. he was in favor of a more positive approach to our national potential and so am i. >> indeed he was.

idealist for sure. he was remembered in a funeral mass with his life celebrated by five children and 19 grandchildren. his children talked about the influence on their lives and inspiration. his daughter, maria, said at the funeral mass that her dad was in love with two things. his wife and god. doesn't get any better than that. he and his family are in our thoughts and prayers. a breeze ♪ learing c'' ♪ that's logistics ♪ ♪ a-di-os, cheerio, au revoir ♪ ♪ off it goes, that's logistics ♪ ♪ over seas, over land, on the web, on demand ♪ ♪ that's logistics ♪ ♪ operations worldwide, ups on your side ♪ ♪ that's logistics ♪

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>> before we go this morning, a programming note. tune into msnbc at noon today for a special broadcast of brian williams reports, the president and his men 20 years after the gulf war. fascinating discussion. that's all for today. we'll be back next week. if it's sunday, it's "meet the press." -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com