he was neither a democrat nor a republican but ross perot was polling at shockingly high numbers in that year's presidential race. mr. perot was well on his way to qualifying for the ballot in all 50 states in. in june of that year his national polling was better than the sitting president at the time, george h.w. bush and significantly better than president bush's main democratic challenger a name by the man of bill clinton. but in mid-july of 1992, with numbers that high and with a path to the nomination for the reform matter, at least a path to competing, in mid-july of 1992, he's doing great, sort of out of the blue ross perot announced he was leaving the race. he was quitting the presidential race. mr. perot at the time giving the odd explanation he was dropping out because he did not want the house of representatives to end up deciding the presidential election if there was a tie in the electoral college. >> i'm not in this for ego. i'm not in this for fun. i'm not in this for gratification. i'm in this for what's good for

my country, what's good for our children and grandchildren and i'm trying to do the right thing. it's that simple. putting this thing in the house of representatives is negative and disruptive. >> this seemed like sort of a far-fetched thing to be worried about. this house of representatives is going to have to decide a thing. ross perot, did, in fact, that summer quit the race. then weeks after he quit, ross perot gave a whole different explanation for why he had quit. he told "the boston herald" he had a videotape of somebody from the bush campaign meeting with someone from the cia. he told campaign audiences and "60 minutes" there was some republican plan to disrupt his daughter's wedding. so he had to quit the race i guess to save the wedding? another one of his daughters explained to "the new york times" how that republican disruption was going to happen. apparently the perot family believed republican operatives were going to spread a false rumor bolstered by doctored photographs that ross perot's daughter who was about to be

married was secretly a lesbian. and, therefore, ross perot had to quit the presidential race? or something? yeah. in the end, actually, 19 years ago this week ross perot did get back into the race. he got back in late, just a month before the election. but on election night 1992 ross perot got 19% of the vote. george h.w. bush lost making him a one-term president. bill clinton was elected. bill clinton, because of the whole ross perot thing, bill clinton was elected with only 43% of the vote. not exactly starting from a position of strength for that new democratic president. and then when the first midterm elections came around in 1994, two years later, president clinton's hand grew weaker. republicans picked up 54 seats in that midterm election. they took control of the house for the first time since 1954. and right after that midterm election, magazine covers like this one started gracing the nation's newsstands. in case that's not subtle enough.

i'll never let you live this down, "time" magazine. see what's being crushed under the elephant's foot? the donkey with the eyeballs squirting out of the donkey's head. the eyeballs have to be extended out of the donkey's skull. really. what's holding the eyeballs in? really, "time" magazine? in the wake of the results in 1994 it did not look like the clinton presidency was longed for this world. it turned out, it turned out it matter what the republicans did with the governing authority they won in that big midterm squish the donkey election in 1994. once they took control of the house, newt gingrich and his big republican majority shut down the federal government which to republicans i'm sure felt very exciting and very tough. to the rest of the country, it seemed kind of insane. by huge margins the country blamed newt gingrich and republican leaders for the shutdown and they did not like that shutdown. by the time bill clinton was running for re-election in 1996, yeah, technically his opponent

was a man named bob dole. as much as he was running against bob dole, bill clinton ran for re-election against the radical shut down the government republicans who were in control of congress. in 1996, with his daughter safely married and the cia nowhere to be seen, ross perot went for it again for president. he still got 8% of the vote that year but bill clinton took the election running away. the republican congress shutting down the government in 1995 was the best thing that any american not named ross perot ever did for the prospects of electing bill clinton president. that was president 1990s. and the 2000s, there was a reason what we're going through right now all feels familiar. democratic president gets elected elected, in the first midterm after that, yeah, it's a big republican win. big republican wins in the 2010 midterms. republicans take the house. then what does the republican majority in congress do with their big new majority? what do they do almost right away? >> it is a night for anger and

recrimination in washington and around the country as the clock ticks down to a shutdown of the u.s. government. >> shut her down! just three months after the republican majority house gets sworn in under john boehner, they put the country up against the wall for the first near-government shutdown. that was just the first one. >> in washington, meantime, the threat of a much larger federal shutdown and what the white house describes as a potential financial catastrophe looms tonight. >> shut her down! again. that was government shutdown attempt number two. a few months later, that time over raising the nation's debt ceiling. that was just the second one. >> even as the campaign rages, so does another partisan fight over government spending here in washington. the latest deadline to come to an agreement and avert a government shutdown, friday. >> since the republicans have been in control of the house of

representatives this year, which they won their big midterm elections last november, since they have been in office, they've been in office for about nine months and we're now up against our third near-government shutdown. and this should not have been a surprise. we did have the test drive of this with republican control in the 1990s. then when they were campaigning this time around they essentially told us they would do it again this time around. >> i have to tell you, most people in my district say shut it down. >> the american people could see, life would go on without the federal government for a little while. >> i don't think it would hurt one bit. >> even if it means showing how serious we are. okay, government's going to have to shut down. >> so you think even if that were to happen, theoretically, it wouldn't be as bad as people make it out? >> no, i don't think if would be. >> do you think shutdown should be off the table? >> everything ought to be on the table. >> we will do what we have to do to shut down the government if we have to. >> if liberals in the senate would rather play political games and shut down the government instead of making a

small down payment on fiscal discipline and reform, i say shut it down. >> shut it down! >> cut it or shut it, cut it or -- republicans have been telegraphing that they want another government shutdown for a long, long, long time now. i think the first time that they got really close to shutting the government down after they won the house in 2010, i think the first time they were very excited about it and saw it as a big positive. the second time they almost shut down the government was over the debt ceiling thing. that led to the nation's credit rating getting downgraded, i think they were shook up by that. now we're facing the third possible government shutdown since the republicans took over. the third possible government shutdown in nine months. but this one it seems like they actually don't want. at least some of them don't want it. at least the republican leadership does not seem to want it. the current government shutdown fight is over a continuing resolution which is just a

funding bill to keep the lights on, to keep the republican running. republican house speaker john boehner brought the continuing resolution up for a vote last week. in the republican controlled house where the democratic minority essentially has no rights at all, john boehner brings this up in his house and he loses. his own party voted against his bill to keep the government running. how many times do you remember nancy pelosi when she was house speaker bringing something up in the house, something that she intended to win and she would lose it? do you remember that happening ever? no. that never happened to nancy pelosi. this sort of thing happens to john boehner all the time. this appears to be a fight that he really did not want to be fighting. "roll call "reporting today that john boehner, kevin mccarthy, eric cantor, all three hoped, quote, lawmakers would return to washington, d.c., after the washington break willing to work together and avoid dragged out fights. while the trio stressed the needs to focus on jobs and the economy rather than fight, one aide acknowledged the gop, quote, didn't have the come to jesus kind of family meeting we

needed. papa boehner unable to convene those meetings with his congressional family. speaker boehner repeatedly threatened to strip his own members of leadership positions in the house if he didn't vote with him. in the end, 48 of his own members decided not to vote with him. why would you defy your own speaker like that? apparently they believe the speaker has no clothes. republicans said they voted against john boehner's bill despite the threats, quote, because they did not believe boehner would go through with his threats. near government shutdown number one under john boehner seemed to be definitely on purpose. near government shutdown number two under john boehner seemingly on purpose but it also seems to have scared them. near government shutdown number three under john boehner, i do not think this one is even on purpose. what does that mean? republicans do actually have governing responsibilities because they control the house

of representatives. and under john boehner, it looks like they may just not be technically capable of doing the basic things that need to be done to keep the lights on even when they want to. they can't keep the lights on. almost literally. they do not seem capable of doing just the basic things that need to be done to keep government going and the electricity bill paid. it appears john boehner did not really want this fight that he is now waging. he could not avoid it. he cannot control his own party to avoid fights he doesn't want to be in. sort of like the difference between using your car as a road block and just doing that by accident because you have flat tires. if you're not trying to be a barricade here, i can't go anywhere. joining us now, john stanton, reporter for the newspaper "at

this hour, it looks like there may be some resolution to the shutdown fight. the senate reportedly reached a last-minute agreement to fund the government temporarily and avoid the shutdown that was threatened. is that your understanding of what happened tonight? >> 79 senators voted for it. so about 24, 25 republicans voted for essentially a clean cr. it looks like now fema has used some accounting tricks s s to make sure it has money through the end of the week. the continuing resolution will get them through technically november and there was a short-term one they passed through october 4th in case the house needs to come back and actually vote on the short-term cr. >> in terms of john boehner and what we can predict out of the house and what this whole process recently says about how john boehner is doing as speaker, you have been reporting on house speaker boehner has been privately counseling republican members about how they're being perceived by the public. what is he saying to them? >> right. you know, after the debt limit vote, they felt like, you know, the polling showed, the public polling showed they were doing very poorly with voters. even though they won that debate, they really did, they

got pretty much everything they asked for when they went into the negotiations with the obama administration. the public viewed them as less able to govern than even obama. and, you know, his numbers are not doing very well. their own internal polling apparently also shows it being at least that bad if not worse than what we've seen in public. and there was this hope amongst leaders that the rank and file would go home. they feel this anger from the public. they feel the pressure from the public to try to actually legislate and govern and come home and not have this fight over the cr. they have a big omnibus bill fight that's going to happen in november. the debt committee fight is coming up. they want to focus on jobs and not constantly on spending and his hope and what he explicitly told them in meetings, look, let's not have these fights anymore, it doesn't do us any good. the message that came back to him sort of was, we don't really care, we want to fight, this is what we sort of came to washington to do is to fight over spending and cut spend and we don't really care about

anything else. >> is that minority that's telling him that sizable enough minority to thwart anything else he wants to do with the house? >> it is. you know, it's not just freshmen. a lot of people have put it on the new group of freshmen republicans. a lot of them are the freshmen but there are also some older rank and file members that have been around a long time using this as a moment to force the gop and congress into a much more conservative position on spending. as we saw last week, after they voted it down, the next day they essentially revoted the same bill. he was able to convince 26 of the 48 members that voted against him to then vote with him and pass the bill. so there are some indications that some of his members are beginning to sort of get the point, but it seems clear, at least right now, that this is sort of going to be the pattern we're going to see for the foreseeable future with republican controlled house. >> john stanton, reporter for the newspaper "roll call." thanks for your time and reporting on this tonight. really appreciate it.

think about the republican members who had to change their votes under pressure from john boehner. if they felt like their constituents at home wanted them to vote one way or the other and that gave them support in standing up to john boehner on that, john boehner just forced them to vote both ways on that bill. thanks, speaker. all right. president obama this weekend gave a speech that the beltway media reported so wrongly, i think it's possible the reporting was designed to cause the president trouble. maybe not. but the evidence is weird and i think it is damning. you can decide for yourself.

i hereby advance apologize for the use of the word poop in the next segment. i'm sorry.

sunday night dnc fund-raiser san francisco bay area. quote, i'm going to need you to be out there talking to your friends, talking to your neighbors, talking to your co-workers. i'm going to need you to be advocates for what we believe in. it's not just to just support me. if other folks have been reading "the wall street journal" or watching fox news and are full of inadequate information, push back. quote, in some cases i may need you to have arguments with our progressive friends. let's face. it. the fact of the matter is over the last 2 1/2 years, though we've gotten a lot done, there are folks on our side that get dispirited because we didn't get it all done in 2 1/2 years. sunday night. sunday afternoon, dnc fund-raiser, seattle. i know there are times when folks feel discouraged. you may have the old hope poster in the back. you're thinking, man, we're struggling and the unemployment rate is still high and politics in washington seem as polarized as ever. you feel frustrated.

if we had that attitude back in 2008, we never would have won. if he had that attitude throughout our history, america wouldn't be what it is today. quote, i need you guys to shake off doldrums and decide right here and right now. i need you to talk to your friends and neighbors and co-workers. you need to tell them, you know what, we're not finished yet, we have more work to do. that was sunday afternoon in seattle. sunday lunchtime at a fund-raiser in medina, washington, quote, a lot of people are discouraged and disillusioned about the capacity of the leadership in government to make significant changes. quote, i'm determined because there's too much at stake. i'm going to need you to mobilize people and push back against arguments that say somehow if we've only gotten 80% of what we wanted to get done that that's a failure. that's a success. that should be inspiration for us to get re-elected so i can do the other 20%. president obama campaigning and fund-raising triple time this weekend with a consistent message to his supporters that

this is not the time for grumbling, it's the time to get to work. he put that same message in pound the podium terms in an on-camera address to the congressional black caucus. >> throughout our history, change has often come slowly, progress often takes time. we take a step forward, sometimes we take two steps back. sometimes we get two steps forwards and one step back. it's never a straight line. it's never easy. i never promised easy. easy has never been promised to us. even when folks are hitting you over the head, you can't stop marching. even when they're turning the hoses on you, you can't stop. even when somebody fires you for speaking out, you can't stop. even when it looks like there's no way, you find a way. you can't stop.

through the mud and the muck and the driving rain, we don't stop. because we know the rightness of our cause. widening the circle of opportunity. standing up for everybody's opportunities. increasing each other's prosper prosperity prosperity. we know our cause is just. it's a righteous cause. it's on the face of troopers and tear gas. folks stood unafraid. let somebody like john lewis to wake up after getting beat within an inch of his life on sunday. he wakes up on monday. we're going to go march. dr. king once said, "before we reach the majestic shores of the

promise land, there is a frustrating and bewildering wilderness ahead. we must still face prodigious hill tops of opposition and gigantic mountains of resistance, but with patient and firm determination, we will press on." so i don't know about you, cbc, but the future rewards those who press on. with patient and firm determination, i'm going to press on for jobs. i'm going to press on for equality. i'm going to press on for the sake of our children. i'm going to press on for the sake of all those families who are struggling right now. i don't have time to feel sorry for myself. i don't have time to complain. i'm going to press on. i expect all of you to march with me and press on. take off your bedroom slippers. put on your marching shoes.

shake it off. stop complaining. stop grumbling. stop crying. we are going to press on. we've got work to do. cbc, god bless you. and god bless the united states of america. >> now, with those parting words and this thundering applause in mind, you may be surprised at the way the president's speech was headlined for the consumption of the beltway. there's this from the "associated press." the headline, "obama tells blacks to stop complainin' and fight." this from "mediaite." obama to congressional black caucus, stop complaining, stop grumbling, stop whining. you would think he gave a finger wagging speech to the members of the congress forum.

you heard a let's get up and go campaign style speech that brought on thunderous ovations from the crowd he was addressing. that's not the way the beltway wants to see it. >> if you listen to what he said to the congressional black caucus on saturday, stop whining. >> last night, at a big dinner here in washington sponsored by the congressional black caucus, the president responded, did he ever. >> the president clearly striking a different chord to the congressional black caucus on saturday. listen to how he told them to stop whining. >> i think he's complaining about you among others, right? >> did it sound like he was complaining? over at yahoo! news you have this, "obama pushes back against the congressional black caucus." i'm no expert, but pushing back is not exactly what this sounds like to me. >> we are going to press on. we've got work to do. cbc, god bless you. and god bless the united states of america.

>> with the thump on the podium for emphasis. joining us now, democratic congresswoman barbara lee of california, former chair of the congressional black caucus. she was in attendance when the president addressed the cbc this weekend. congresswoman lee, great to see you again. thank you for being here. >> thank you so much for having me with you tonight, rachel. >> i'm not much of a media critic. i think i'm probably as damnedable as anybody else in the media any given day. this is differently represented in the media than it was when i saw it on tape. you were there in the room. do you think the president's remarks are being fairly represented? >> let me say, it was a very lengthy and comprehensive speech, rachel, at least 35 to 45 minutes. also i know, you know, some of the controversial comments that have been picked up by the media. they couldn't have been directed to the congressional black caucus and members of the caucus because as a former member of the congressional black caucus,

the president knows how much these great members who have sacrificed so much throughout their lives have made our country better and will continue to fight for justice and for jobs and for equality. and also i was very pleased in the president's speech, he did talk about the huge numbers of african-americans who are unemployed as it relates to the black unemployment rates. he talked about black children living in poverty, nearly 40%. unconscionable. so i think that what he said, of course, you know, could have been off script. he could have, you know, in terms of the controversial parts of his speech, for whatever reason, but i do have to say that he knows that we hear the suffering and the cries of the american people who need jobs. who are anxious about jobs. he's heard that. as former member of the congressional black caucus, he knows what we're doing each and every day. we want to work with him to make sure this american jobs act gets passed because this is the first step toward creating jobs and

clearly in the black community, that's what our cry is and our voices are pleading for congress and the white house to get together to create some jobs so people can get to work. >> with your work in congress, specifically your work with the out of poverty caucus, as founder and current co-chair of that caucus, you've done as much as anybody to bring attend to that aspect of our national economic woes. do you feel like the president is substantively telling you something that is going to make a difference, that he's talking about his economic agenda, his jobs agenda and his understanding of poverty issues in a way that resonates with you and you think is substantive? >> i think the president is talking about jobs. why this country has a moral obligation, first of all, to create jobs. we can't have a country that's secure with so many people unemployed. i'm very happy, as i said earlier, that he mentioned childhood poverty. 40% of african-american children live in poverty.

rachel, i have to say, the reason i formed the out of poverty caucus when the bush administration was in because i knew then the bush administration policies and these wars would lead to where we are today unfortunately. so we have 39 members of the out of poverty caucus. we've been working with the white house on our out of poverty agenda. and our jobs agenda. because clearly the best pathway out of poverty is a job. so that's what we're working on and i think that the president has heard us and i'm very proud of congresswoman waters and chairman cleburne in the congressional black caucus. when you look at what took place in august with the black caucus, five cities, a jobs tour. what we did was get the jobs debate on the agenda where now the president has the space and the wherewithal to be able to use his platform, the bully pulpit to say, look, we have to work together to create jobs. >> congresswoman barbara lee, democrat of california. i want to thank you very much for your work on this continuing issue and thank you for joining us tonight, ma'am.

it's always a real pleasure to have you here. >> thank you. it was so good to be with you, rachel. >> thank you. a government program, a policy to policy so effective it is funny or made for a really funny graphics meeting in the office today.

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the rural electrification administration. they could open up for the old pro medicine show. they'd have a standup bass and somebody to play wash board. now bearded hipsters and modern american costume soundtrack editors, it's the rural electrification administration. it's not just an excellent brooklyn band name. it's a real thing created by fdr to quite literally turn the lights on all over america. the mission was to get electricity to american farms which had little electricity at the time and little hope of getting any ever. it cost to much to run wires to every far flung family with a few acres. yet the nation had an interest in it happening.

and making it happen would make some jobs. so the government intervened. first in providing electricity to rural places and later in providing phone service. when president roosevelt acted in the '30s we were in the middle of the great depression. the nation was flat broke with bread lines and shantytowns and hobos on trains crossing the country for work. in the darkest hour when things were as tough as they'd ever been, the rural electrification administration worked. the chair of the appropriations committee grew up in our nation's poorest state in those tough times. congressman witten asked for a report, and it notes in the second photograph rural electrification was part of a general program of unemployment relief. it shows this chart showing the incredible climb our nation's loneliest places made from very few people have lighting or telephones to most people have

them. this graph shows our country basically from when we were china, right? young and rapidly developing with government investments making infrastructure possible. it's kind of amazing. we did not get to 90% of farms having phones until 1976. during the carter administration. these days we still invest in rural electrification but on a smaller scale when a different types of technology and goals. we do it through the rural energy for america program. reap. part of the 2008 farm bill. this month the federal government announced it's giving out $27 million in rural energy loans and grants for farms and small town businesses. some of that to help farmers become energy efficient or make energy from unusual sources from something they like to call bio mass which most people call poop. some of the funding is going to help farms and little shops make the switch to solar like pete's cafe in new mexico. they got a grant for solar. or this christmas tree farm in

new york. they got a grant for solar. this company, a grant for solar energy. another 500 grants are expected soon under the rural energy for america program. the federal government is quietly investing in renewable energy and making energy more affordable and more renewable. happens in ways you don't hear about much unless you read local business pages where federal money coming to town makes a big difference. to the extent washington is talking about alternative energy right now at all, the talk has to do with a failed government loan to a company called sylindra, a maker of solar panels. this month the company closed its plant, laid off more than 1,000 people and went bankrupt. congress called its top executives to testify last week on capitol hill. the executives took the fifth. you can argue the sylindra case any number of ways, whether president bush was responsible for it since the loan started under him or whether you want to blame president obama.

whether any administration should have known better to loan to them or whether it's a bad bet in a partnership which is never a good thing. solyndra made headlines in the latest round of funding for electrification. this week "the weekly standard" put president obama on its cover as president solyndra trying to reduce his own presidency to one loan to one failed maker of solar panels. as national conservatives want to make you feel bad about public investment in electricity, in energy, even some conservatives are pouring on the dollars for it in the states. the solar thing in particular makes sense to a lot of conservatives back home. investing in infrastructure back home remains a core value. the same way it was a core value when the nation first started wiring our far flung farms. just this month the mississippi

state legislature approved a $75 million loan to bring one maker of solar equipment to the state of mississippi. another solar company opened its doors in mississippi this month with another 75 million bucks in loans and tax breaks from the state. the republicans of mississippi are very proud of this. very, very proud. republican lieutenant governor phil bryant reported from the ribbon cutting -- >> going to see new high-tech energy moving ahead. the green type energy that we all believe will be part of the future. but don't worry, we're still going to drill for oil, we're still going to use co 2. we're still going to use coal in our clean coal plant. our energy policy is all of the above and more jobs for mississippi. >> lieutenant governor of mississippi so excited about solar that he reassures mississippians they will still use co 2. which is actually just the pollution part of energy. it's not the fuel. he is excited about solar. he's excited about jobs. he is excited, dare i say, about

the greener, brighter future of mississippi. made possible if comes to pass by the collective will of the taxpayers to invest in it. facilitated by republican politicians like him. there has not yet been a major obama administration scandal. at least one that the republicans like to harp on too much. they really want solyndra to be a big obama administration scandal. for that to work, the country has to believe that investing in better electricity ideas is always a scam and that it feels like one to the american people. with our history, i think that is a tough sell. joining us, e.j. dionne, columnist for "washington post" and msnbc contributor. thanks for talking to us about this tonight. >> great to be with you. >> republicans at the national level attacking investment in solar as if that's the sort of thing you ought to know is going to be corrupt from the beginning. as if that's something government should never be used for. then at the state level, public coffers are being used to bring solar in.

do these things co-exist totally independent of each other? >> the sun is clearly a socialist. that must be it. you know, i think what you're ng here is how governors are judged versus members of congress. governors are judged by results, by jobs created, governors are judged by practical things on the ground. republican governors like democratic governors know we have a great history in our country of cooperation between private initiative and public enterprise. i mean, if you go all the way back to hamilton who wanted the federal government to encourage us to become a manufacturing nation, to henry clay who had what he called the american system. yes, the american system. it was about a whole lot of things to build a country including building the canals and the roads that bound us together as a nation. so this notion that government never had anything to do with american economic growth is just untrue to our history. the american system, as clay

said, is about exactly these kind of partnerships and republican governors seem to know it or most of them. >> how does that history translate to politics today? to you think there is, is there a widely held american value, public investment to build up the country or have we lost that sense to now it's a liberal thing and people in the center and the right don't share that anymore in anymore? >> our friends in the tea party have done a good job, depending on your point of view, of reinterpreting or rewriting the american story to turn us into an entirely individualistic anti-government nation. i think we progressives have defaulted by not sort of celebrating our own history and grabbing our own history and saying, no, this is not who we are as americans. americans have always seen that cooperation and individual success go together. and so i think there is this concerted effort to rewrite the history books and do that in order to change our politics so we give up on these partnerships that actually made us a great

country. >> e.j., i wonder if we are -- i think the way that i tend to think about what you're describing off the top about the difference between governors and members of congress, people who are in executive authority and people who participate in group discussions in legislatures is different. i read this quote tonight about the current shutting down the government standoff. it's from a republican congressman named charlie dent. "i think it's ill advised to bring the government to the brink of closure every three months. we have a fundamental basic responsibility to govern the country. when we fail to meet our most basic responsibilities." republican congressman challenging his own party i think on the latest almost shutdown of the government. is there a little ray of governing sunshine in his

frustration there? >> i think there is. although, you know, it's remarkable that it's remarkable at all to quote a republican saying our job is to govern when we're elected to govern. yet it is quite something. but i think that the republicans looked at the polls after the debt ceiling fight and said, well, we may be bringing down obama pretty well, because his numbers came down, but theirs went down even more. and this was more aggressiveness and less governing than the americans who elected them counted on. the people who voted them into office were not ideologues. the swing voters were just people who were upset about the state of the country. very unhappy about high unemployment. they didn't count on three shutdown threats in a year and i think some of the republicans know that. >> e.j. dionne, columnist for "washington post," senior fellow at brookings institution and msnbc contributor. e.j., appreciate you talk to us about this. you're a wise, wise man. it's always nice to talk to you about this stuff. >> thank you.

i love shows that talk about rural electrification. >> we're just pandering for the ratings. you know us. the great rick santorum and the great ed schultz have one thing in common today. they are both on "the ed show" tonight. together. yes. the rick santorum. i swear.

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the front-runner for the republican nomination for president is of course herman cain. former ceo of a mafia-themed pizza chain called godfather's. if you ask, herman cain is out front and in the lead. followed closely by ron paul. herman cain first, ron paul second. a distant third place as little-known former massachusetts governor, name of romney. close behind mr. romney is rick santorum, former senator. then michele bachmann behind him in fifth place. there are rumors there is a texas governor named rick perry running for this nomination as well but you would have no way of knowing that if you were just looking at the polling. if you were just looking at the straw polling. this weekend, herman cain won yet another republican activist straw poll, a big one. this rounds out a stng of big republican straw poll victories in may, washington state.

in july, colorado. in august, georgia. this weekend, florida. ron paul has won a number of smaller straw polls. in terms of statewide gop straw polls, ron paul's big kahuna was california, which he won hugely last weekend. mitt romney won a michigan straw poll this weekend. he won ohio in july. in new hampshire he won in january. mr. santorum won his home state of pennsylvania, as well as south carolina. michele bachmann won ames, iowa. if straw polls meant winning that state, if he meant electoral college votes, these would be the standings. among the republican presidential contenders right now. maybe that's the way it is. maybe that's exactly how the republican nomination contest is going to play out. ron paul and herman cain duking it out down to the wire. if you believe that, keep using

up all that shoe leather and pixels and all that breath covering republican party fund-raisers. i mean, straw polls. because of their great predictive value and all the important information they give us the presidential race. or, we could all agree to treat these things as what we all know they are. cooked-up publicity stunts to get media attention and use it as leverage to force the candidates to pander to the most manipulative and cynical activists in the political system. oh, and to raise money for republican parties and activists groups. we could call them embarrassing political pandering stunts. or we could call them straw polls. same difference.

bag trying to answer a call,

instead of sending an astonian disco, you can sound like one of saturn's moons. moons make noise. or the space shuttle. remember when we had a space shuttle? this was the sound of "discovery" lifting off. could be your ring tone. might get you some funny looking on the bus. for the traditionalists on the bus, raise your hand. i know you're out there. >> ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five -- all three engines up and burning. three, two, one, lift off. he would never answer before liftoff. or this one. short and classic. >> houston, tranquillity base here, the eagle has landed. >> oh, yes. >> also file this one under classic, though i think this is

controversial for ring tone use. >> houston, we have a problem here. >> houston, we've had a problem. >> you're talking to somebody, and your phone goes houston, we have a problem here. you know who you should assign that ring tone too. that is none of my business, we have posted a collection of the ring tones on my blog. you can get them there. personally, i have chosen the sound of sputnik beeping at me. i can warn you, though, if you choose the sputnik beep, the problem is you will never answer the phone. you will turn into a human bobblehead. that's right, sputnik, i'm here. "first look" is up next.