is out. he's way too liberal. >> will he or won't he buzz is everywhere. >> like elvis said, now or never. >> chris christie has republicans waiting and waiting and waiting. >> the governor chris christie is seriously reconsidering. >> chris christie's rethinking a run for the white house. >> narrowly favor his not running. >> it may not be too late. >> his family is reportedly on board with. >> chris christie's wife marry p pat is apparently on board. >> promising to do one thing and then doing the opposite, sounds pretty presidential to me. >> christie cannot win the right wing. >> i wish him luck. >> his competition is thin. >> the flavor of the month. >> the pool is bad. >> the swimming pool looks better until you jump right in. >> come on in, let us take a look at you. >> republicans are going to be all over him. >> put you to the microscope. >> conservative alternative to mit romney. >> saying to michele bachmann -- >> he's going to turn off a lot

of conservatives. >> the star has been falling. >> the president issues a challenge to all the republican candidates. >> you want to be commander in chief? you can start by standing up for the men and women who wear the uniform of the united states. even when it's not politically convenient. a republican who supports the obama position on civil unions for same-sex couples. a republican who may be to the left of the president on gun control and medical marijuana. and a republican who has definitely been to the left of the president on the treatment of undocumented workers. and a republican who completely agrees with the president that climate change is real continues to trick the political media and

more importantly wall street billionaires into thinking he can win the republican nomination for president. if he simply makes everything he has previously said about running for president a lie. >> everyone in the republican party but you is talking about that you should be on the ticket in 2012 to run for the white house. you say -- >> no way. >> going to run? >> no. not going to happen. >> you're still saying categorically not running? >> no, i'm not running. i'm 100% certain i'm not going to run. i don't want to run. i don't feel like i'm ready to run. first you have to have in your heart, you have to want it more than anything else. more than anything else. i don't want it that badly. you have to believe in your heart and soul and your mind i am ready. i don't believe that about myself right now. >> herman cain is the one republican presidential candidate who is not waiting for chris christie to make up his mind before campaigning against

him. >> i believe that a lot of conservatives, once they know his position on those things that you delineated, they're not going to be able to support him. i think that is absolutely a liability for him if he gets in the race. >> why do you think they won't be able to support him? >> because, you know, most of the conservatives believe we should enforce our borders. they do not believe people should be here without documentation and do not believe global warming is a crisis or threat. yes, it might be a little bit out there but i don't see it as a crisis of a threat. as you go right down the line, he's going to turn off a lot of conservatives with those positions. >> nbc is reporting that chris christie is giving a presidential run, quote, serious consideration and has asked several republicans who were about to endorse other candidates to hold off until wednesday. as for which way christie is leaning, politico says, "three sources who are aware of the discussions in christieland said their perception is it's

likelier than not that he stays out of the 2012 race." however, all three said it's the same thing, it's a family decision between his family and wife, mary pat, and he could still decide to run. joining me now, national affairs editor for "new york magazine" john heilman. and aol, "huffington post" analyst, howard fineman. thank you. you were chuckling as we were ramping back into the latest christie fever, christie indecision 2011 discussion. what's so funny? >> i was chuckling at the definitive politico report. >> the definitive maybe. >> the definitive maybe. here's what i know. i'm in john's town here. so i'm calling new york sources. he's seriously considering. a political consultant close to him, also by the way close to karl rove, and others who have

been going around saying, i said this on the show last week, they're saying to professionals around the region and the country, if the governor were to decide to do this, would you be willing to go with him? either as fund-raisers or as professional staff people? that doesn't mean he's going to do it. the last word i had before i came on the air was one guy who worked for him at one point who said, look, if he's gone radio silent, that definitely means he's seriously considering it. that's all we can say at this point about his decision making process. >> john, this is your jurisdiction. "new york" magazine. new jersey is definitely considered part of the new york magazine jurisdiction. >> metro area. >> it's your big piece of the week. christie's moment. what should he do with his moment? >> first of all, i'll confirm who howard's daying. throughout this year, a lot of, as you know, a lot of big money republicans in this area have been trying to get him to run. he's been definitive in private as well as in public, no, i'm not going to run. two weeks ago the nature of the conversation started to change.

it was clear what he was saying to them was something different, that he started to take it seriously. i think the thing i tried to write about in the column is the thing i think has come to matter to him, what he has realized, is that there is this moment for him now. in the sense that it doesn't happen for you in your life two or three times when everyone is begging you to run for president. that doesn't happen very often. and you might look at this and say, hey, i'm a republican ain democratic state, i might not be re-elected three years from now, god knows what 2016, to 2020 are going to look like. this is my shot, i might not win but this is the clearest shot i have at the white house. at the urging of a lot of people he took that advice more seriously to the point he feels like he has to go through the process right now of seriously considering getting in. >> i think politics is different than the way it used to be. when we were kids, richard nixon ran for president three times. ronald reagan ran for president three times. it was a more of a generational thing where you built up your contacts, you traveled the

country. you know, you went airplane stop to airplane stop, train stop to train stop. it's different now. >> losing once was considered good batting practice for next season. >> now in the digital age and the speedup of media in part and the change of the nature of politics, it's come to be viewed, you got your moment, you got your window. that's what happened with barack obama. he caught the moment. that's the new template and that's probably what chris christie is out there in new jersey thinking about. >> the opposite for hillary clint clinton. she went through the exact same thing in 2008, 2003. everyone was begging her to run. she said, i'll wait until 2008. she didn't get the shot in 2008. she's not going to get the shot in 2012. her time may be gone. her best moment wasted. christie is thinking about that as the negative example. with obama on the opposite side. >> cuomo had that moment in 1992. i think there was a lot of presumption at the time, i know in democratic circles, hey,

george h.w. bush is going it be re-elected. this is not a one to waste it on, the '92 campaign. he may have calculated he could run in '96 but that was gone. >> that kind of thinking is over, too, about the power of incumbency. in our toxic atmosphere at the time when the public thinks only 12% of the american public likes the congress, when president obama's ratings are low, the nature of incumbency has changed. it doesn't frighten anybody anymore. >> okay. here's one thing i think might be going on here which was exhibited at the reagan library. he was asked twice last week at the speech. the first time it was dismissive, classic christie, just watch my take. that was his answer. his tape, by which he meant every time i said no, i'm not absolutely not running. then he's asked again and he's asked by a very emotional woman who seems to be almost on the verge of tears. he has to meet her emotionally. he realizes, hey, wait a minute, i can't toy with these people, i have to make her feel as though i'm joining this thing that

she's concerned about. i have a feeling that could be going on now. all these wall street billionaires who have no idea how to pick candidates. just ask rudy giuliani and others, he wants them to feel hurt. he wants them to feel all of their wise advice has been considered and he's giving them yet another hearing. he doesn't want to be dismissive on his way to wednesday or some point this week saying what he's always said. >> if nothing else, he wants to show them that he might actually have to be able to try to run again that he took them seriously. that he does take them seriously. >> that's sort of your point. >> he's a very smart guy and he looks at rick perry and thinks that rick perry is both the -- it's both the temptation and it's the warning sign. right? the temptation is look, there's this opening here. the establishment doesn't love mitt romney. rick perry is fading fast. i could get in here and maybe sweep this thing, take it, just

run right through. on the other hand, look what happened to rick perry as unprepared as he was. christie looks at a situation, i have not had any chance, i don't know that much about foreign policy or domestic policy. what if i get up in the glare and what happens to me happened to rick perry? it's a delicate balance to figure out what side to come down on. >> christie knows he's never once been in a public debate about social security, medicare, national defense. all these big and complex issues. he probably also knows he needs one good index card worth of material to win a republican debate on any one of these subjects, right? to sound smart enough. does he know what obviously perry didn't know? perry obviously wasn't crossing his mind what the name of his hunting camp was. in other words, all those vulnerabilities that you pick up over the course of your lifetime. something you said in college to someone you shouldn't have said. is christie smart enough to know where every one of those things

is buried in his resume ? >> the obvious answer to both of us having covered a lot of campaigns is, no. you don't know at all what it's like until you get in it. don't forget the time is of the essence here. there's a debate in new hampshire next week. the filing deadline in new hampshire is in mid to late october. if he were to get in it, he's a candidate tailor made for new hampshire because he's a straight talking guy. took on the unions and he's a low tax guy. that's his natural habitat. if he can't gear up in new hampshire, he can't afford to skip new jersey. he has a lot to think about at one time. >> how much of this is your fault? by you, i mean, my friend, i mean the new york media. the guys across the river in new jersey. he can only over here and do "morning joe" and all these shows. if this guy was the governor of kansas, would this be happening? >> no, no, under no circumstances would it be happening. i mean, i think we do, the new york media, not me personally, we take cues from the big

billionaires. we hear the billionaires all day long saying chris christie could be the savior. >> i disagree with that a little bit. i think christie would be a phenom anywhere he was. >> the important thing about where he is, if you have a republican who is actually a threat to win places like new jersey, new york, you know, some of the northeast states, then you have a whole new table to -- >> well, the obvious thing is getting from here to there. don't forget, there's also vpic presidential stuff going on which we haven't talked about. >> i could do this all night. we have other guests. howard fineman of "the huffington post" and john heilman of "new york" magazine. thanks for joining me tonight. >> thanks, lawrence. coming up, rick perry's new campaign crisis. could the title written on a rock at the entrance of a ranch be the end of a presidential campaign? and later the occupy wall street protesters spread across the country. in new york demonstrators got a visit from the former chief economist of the world bank. the nobel prize winning professor joseph stiglitz.

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coming up, race and politics. texas governor rick perry has knocked off whatever he thinks his message is while trying to explain away the racist name of the ranch his family leased. jim moore joins me. and later, herman cain gets another straw poll win over the weekend. where does he go to celebrate? yes. trump towers. having the right real estate agent on your side

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you mean, i can't use the word if i'm reporting? >> you can do anything you want, barbara. you're barbara walters. >> i'm sorry, that has nothing to do with it. >> i don't want to stray from the subject at hand. this is an issue that will go on until we die. >> it is the subject at hand. >> i'm saying when you say the word, i don't like it. i don't like it when you -- it brings up feelings -- yes, when white people say it, it brings up feelings in me. >> that was barbara walters and sherri shepherd on "the view" today discussing the name of a west texas hunting camp. once leased by republican presidential candidate rick perry and his father. yesterday the "washington post" revealed that the hunting camp was, "a place known by the name painted in block letters across a large, flat rock standing upright at its gated entrance."

now, because of our standards and practices at the department here at nbc, we are not allowed to actually speak that word. i wouldn't want to speak that word. we're not even allowed to show it to you in print in its entirety, even though it does appear in print in its entirety in the "washington post" on sunday and in "the new york times" today. it's very easy to find this word out there. the revelation has rocked the presidential campaign. here's republican presidential candidate herman cain on fox news sunday. >> that is a more vile, negative word than the "n" word and for him to leave it there for as long as he did before i hear they finally painted over it is just plain insensitive to a lot of black people in this country. >> perry's campaign immediately replied with this. "mr. cain is wrong about the perry people's quick action to eliminate the word on the rock but is right the word written by

others long ago is insensitive and offensive. that is why the perrys took quick action to cover and obscure it." that turned out to be good enough for herman cain. >> let's talk about what's important to the american people. i would rather talk about that and take questions on that than to continue to beat this distraction to death about a word that appeared on a rock. i really don't care about that word. they painted over it. end of story. i think it happened way -- i accept governor perry's response on that. >> no other republican candidate found anything to be bothered by in what we found out about rick perry this weekend. >> in this day and age, to try to turn something around and make him say that he endorsed using that word, ah -- i think we should worry about the wars and the assassinations, the economy, not trying to find out some way that you're going to

blame perry. >> i don't believe rick perry is a racist. i think it's a side issue that it's unfortunate and he's being hit with that. >> the white house today wisely decided to let bad enough alone. >> the name is clearly offensive and from what i've read and i have no inside knowledge beyond what i've read, the governor shares that opinion. >> if his opponents don't want to touch this controversial matter, it may prove to be detrimental for the texas governor trying to take his texas approach to the national stage. joining me now is james moore, he's been reporting on texas politics and history since 1975. and is author of the forthcoming book on rick perry entitled -- this is interesting because nbc standards lets me say this and i still don't want to. "adios -- fill in the blank: why rick perry will make america

miss george w. bush. thanks very much for joining me. >> sure. >> i leave the title up there long enough for everyone to read it every time. i found this, the herman cain reaction was fascinating to me. he reacted to the story as we knew it in the "washington post," on television yesterday saying this is absolutely wrong. by the way, all of the information from the perry family about when they say they painted over that sign was in the "washington post" story. no new information emerged to make herman cain suddenly find the whole thing to be okay. is that because herman cain is calculating that within republican politics, you don't want to complain about anybody racist associations or past in any way? >> there's probably an argument to be made, lawrence, that this story for him to keep complaining about it is an unsettling reminder to his party and it eventually could order against herman cain.

i think for perry's part, however, this has been completely bungled by his staff. his media people are clearly very inept and largely incompetent. they tended to in response try to parse how they reacted to this. first we knew about it on this date then he knew about it on this date. then he used the eastern entrance to the ranch. it was very sort of awkward for them to take that approach when they should have owned it. they should have said, look, the governor knew this. when they started leasing the land, they painted it, kept ainting it and kept it covered this thing. they bungled it pretty badly. it's another brick in the little red wagon rick perry has to turn around. >> in the reporting in the "washington post" and "the new york times," there's a dispute as to exactly when that thing was covered up. you have witnesses in both articles saying they saw it relatively recently, as recently as six years ago, that it was not immediately covered over in

the 1980s when the perrys first took over that property at all. and those witnesses as they cite in the article are at least as credible as the perry allies who say, oh, i never saw it. >> well, here's an interesting thing. rick has said many times that when he was a young guy back in the '70s he would get in his pickup truck and go to the clear fork and the river and take his tent and rifle and he would camp. he knew the name of the place. it was a name that's been around forever. it wasn't added to that property at that particular time. so he's particularly incensensie and certainly guilty of bad form for bringing his fellow legislators out to that site in the future, when he took them out there camping and hunting on visits. so if it were on that property, in fact, it was a bad mistake on his part. as to when it was covered up, it's going to be very difficult to get something definitive on that, but i will say this. when you lease property, hunting property in texas, and you want

to make a change to that property, the property owner is the one who's going to have the final say on that. rick may have wanted to but couldn't. who knows. if he couldn't, then he probably shouldn't have been there. it's just bad judgment on his part. >> jim, quickly, before you go, rate for me exactly how shocked you were when you discovered this about the perry property. >> well, i want to say that rick perry's not a racist. this guy has appointed more african-americans in this state of any governor in our history. the first chief justice african-american in the state supreme court of texas. but it doesn't surprise me because they're clunky and they clearly did not vet their own candidate effectively, lawrence. they should have done their own research and find out what stories are out there that could have been harmful. then they have all this issue of history in west texas of not that many african-americans that grew up around a largely white population. he brings that with him in his candidacy. >> jim moore, thank you very

much for your texas expertise. we're going to need you. thanks for joining me tonight. >> you bet. coming up, the occupy wall street protests keep gaining momentum nationwide, even after massive arrests in new york over the weekend. yesterday nobel prize winning commitist joseph stiglitz spoke to the protesters. he joins me next. later, why andrew brightbart is the very worst standup comedian ever. that's in the "rewrite." [ male announcer ] one-hundred-nineteen data points. this is what we can gather from an ordinary crash test dummy. two million data points. this is what we can gather from a lexus crash test genius. [ engine revving ] when you pursue industry-leading safety,

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still to come tonight, nobel prize winning economist joseph stiglitz gave a rousing speech yesterday at the occupy wall street protests. he joins me next. and later, the trump primary continues with herman cain stopping by trump tower in new york earlier today. "the last word's" senior trump correspondent jonathan capehart spoke to trump after the meeting. ♪ [ male announcer ] every day, thousands of people are choosing advil®. advil® helps me do what i love. the job's tough, advil® is tougher. advil® never lets me down. [ male announcer ] take action. take advil®. advil® never lets me down.

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in the spotlight tonight, the occupy wall street protests continued into its 17th day today after a weekend of mass arrests. on saturday, more than 700 people were arrested during a peaceful march on the brooklyn bridge for allegedly blocking the roadway. many witnesses insist the protesters were lured on to the bridge by the police who then rounded up 700 of them for dis orderly conduct and blocking

vehicular traffic. the arrested protesters were put in plastic handcuffs and bused to police precincts. most were given a summons and released overnight. this weekend proved that the unbridled police violence that broke out last weekend was not a necessary component of crowd control. on wednesday the protesters will march on wall street joined by members of the service employees international union, the communication workers union, the new york afl-cio and united federation of teachers. as is customary in such large-scale protests, many well-known people have spoken publicly in support of the protesters including michael moore who joined us live from the protest site last week. it is not customary for street protests of this kind to attract nobel prize winning economists. the appearance of nobel laureate joseph stiglitz at the protests

sunday is the latest indicator that this protest is something we have never seen before. >> we've privatized gains. we have to restore the economy. if we continue with that, we won't succeed in growing and we won't succeed in creating a just society. >> joining me now is columbia university economics professor joseph stiglitz who served as chairman of the council of economic advisers under president clinton. thank you for joining me tonight, professor. >> nice to be here. >> now, with a career in academia, in university life, you have had many ton opportunities to be in protests, about loud, noisy protests about many things. what brought you to lower manhattan this weekend? >> the united states is in a severe economic problem and unfortunately our leaders in

washington haven't done enough about it. i've been surprised there haven't been protests earlier. the way our democracy obviously -- our democracy obviously needs a stimulus to make our leaders in washington hear the pain that so many americans, particularly our youth, are now feeling. >> professor, you did a "vanity fair" piece earlier this year which was titled "of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%." how did our government come to this? >> that's actually one of the points i make in that article. that this government of the 1% for the 1% by the 1% perpetuates itself. it passes rules. it allows the banks to get deregula deregulated. it restricts our democracy. in fact, i began my comments yesterday by pointing out that

we have too little regulation of banks but too much regulation of our democratic processes. i could not talk yesterday with a normal blow horn. i've talked in discussions and other places. this is the first time that there's been that kind of restraint in communicating with a large group. and it seems to me that, you know, we were trying to discuss what was the cause of the crisis, what could be done, how could they articulate their concerns. and it had to be done in this very particular way which may have been useful as they repeated everything i said and went down around the whole group. but it's not the way other countries have allowed their demonstrations to communicate with each other. >> the protesters have not isolated any kind of legislative package that they would like to see come out of this. they have not said, this is what

we need in order to achieve our goals. if you were to suggest to them one thing, just one thing to ask of washington, what would be that number one thing? >> create more jobs. do what you have to do to get our economy back to work. the fact is that for so many of the young people gathered there, their prospects of getting a good job within the next year, two years, is not very good. and they played by the rules. they've done what they were supposed to do. many of them worked hard in college. worked their way through college. and, yet, now they see very few prospects and a knowledge that when they get a job, it will not be what they had aspired to. >> and do you have a quick response to the economically

illiteraill l litrate republicans who say government cannot do anything to create jobs? >> i so go back to the great depression. if it had not been for government, that desert of jobs, that absence of jobs would have lasted far longer. the wpa has left in its legacy of monuments, of things we still enjoy. and eventually it was world war ii. but that was a government job -- it created jobs. unfortunately, rather than that being devoted to investing to make our country stronger, it was necessary to spend that to protect ourselves from enemies abroad. >> joseph stiglitz, nobel prize winning economist and professor at columbia university. thank you for joining me tonight. it's an honor to have you here.

>> nice to be here. coming up, andrew breitbart as a standup comedian is a very, very bad joke. that's next in the "rewrite." and herman cain is the latest republican presidential candidate to stop by trump tower for a meeting with the candidate who never was. donald trump. [ male announcer ] drinking a smoothie with no vegetable nutrition? ♪ [ gong ] strawberry banana! [ male announcer ] for a smoothie with real fruit plus veggie nutrition new v8 v-fusion smoothie. could've had a v8. [ male announcer ] that onion after taste after you again? new crest complete with scope dual blast technology blasts away bad breath germs and food after tastes. new crest complete with scope dual blast. blast your way to fresh breath. new crest complete with scope dual blast. so i got my nephew i neto build a website., i hired someone to make my website... five months ago. we are building a website by ourselves.

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wow, this is fantastic. ge capital. they're not just bankers. we're builders. they helped build our business. time for tonight's "rewrite." andrew breitbart's own worst enemy, andrew breitbart worked the stage at a tea party conference in chicago this weekend. this obviously wasn't the southern baptist branch of the tea party that breitbart was pandering to because they took particular delight in his use of profanity. especially sexist profanity directed at women breitbart and his audience hate intensely. the nasty word he threw at nancy pelosi delighted his audience more than anything else he had to say. >> it was orchestrated by a -- by the name of nancy pelosi.

>> now, comedians who wruse the full range of expression that includes very colorful street language, you know, like all the words i can't say on this program, those comedians are all smart and respectful enough to not do it on a stage with seven american flags behind them. the greatest and most verbally free spirited modern comedians, all of them have publicly exhibited more respect for the american flag than andrew breitbart. professional comedians know better. they don't fesstune stages with american flags then go out there and do their thing. andrew breitbart's ugliest unfunny punches were thrown at

my friend. >> onslaught of propaganda led by by the exorable janine -- i actually had something really mean to say about her, but -- >> go ahead. >> really? i live in l.a. so i know about her, and she's -- she's hollywood's sympathy [ bleep ]. she's, every single job, it's, i kind of feel sorry for her, why don't we cast her as the loser in the movie? >> i know many of you now are seething with hatred of andrew breitbart. i'm not. i feel sorry for him. i really do. you heard him say, i live in l.a. so i know about her. the only thing that's true about that is that he lives in l.a.

andrew breitbart knows nothing about janine. when i see him on that stage, i see little andrew breitbart who grew up in los angeles in the shadow of show business and craved getting through the studio gates. he never made it through the studio gates into show business and intensely resents every other local kid who did, like sean penn, for example, who he visits hatred upon at every chance. you saw little andrew breitbart up on the stage with that microphone loving it. absolutely loving it. you saw andrew breitbart trying to be an entertainer. you see in that clip how he sees himself. funny, entertaining, deserving of a stage, deserving of a microphone, deserving of a spotlight. a star. the star he could have been if the local industry show business had just let him in.

you've heard the cliche that politics is show business for ugly people. now we see the tea party conferences are show business for andrew breitbart. there you see an angry, frustrated resentful little boy's dream come true. he's on stage. getting laughs and applause. little andrew breitbart is so proud of this performance that he put it on his website. that's where we found it. breitbart says he lives in l.a. so he knows about janine gerafalo. that's like saying you live in new york so you know about david letterman. andrew breitbart is one of millions of people who live in l.a. and knows nothing about janine gerafalo and other actors and celebrities they've never met or talked to. he proves that in janine's case by portraying her as someone who gets cast in movies and tv shows only out of sympathy because

why? apparently because her career isn't going so great? in fact, janine gerafalo is a very, very successful actress and standup comedian who over the last 20 years has always had far more offers than she could accept. she's always been acting on more than one project at once. more than one project every year, from the "ben stiller show" to "saturday night live," to "mr. show" with bob and david, to the best comedy in the history of television, "the larry sanders show." yes, she did squeeze in episodes of "seinfeld" in the middle of the "larry sanders" run. i met janine gerafalo when we cast her in "the west wing" in 2005. there was no sympathy involved. she was our first choice for the new role we were writing in the series. the only question was, would janine gerafalo accept our offer? we were lucky. she did. she made every line we wrote for her better on the screen than it

was on the page. after her run on "the west wing" it was certainly not out of sympathy that rush limbaugh's favorite tv creator and executive producer, joel sirnow, cast janine gerafalo on "24" as an american protecting fbi agent. janine gerafalo will always have a special place reserved for her in andrew breitbart's profanity laced standup act because janine gerafalo was right, right about the most important question that has faced this country in the 21st century. the question that gripped this country like no other could in 2003. does saddam hussein have weapons of mass destruction? she did her homework, studies everything she could. she worked very hard studying all the information that was

publicly available to her and she got that question right. she was smarter than i was on that question. my answer was, i don't know is a dam hussein has weapons of mass direction. she was smarter than the director of the cia on the most important question he ever had to answer in his life. he got it wrong. he said it was a slam dunk that iraq had weapons of mass destruction. janine gerafalo was smarter than th the secretary of defense on that question, smarter than the secretary of state, smarter than the vice president, and, yes, janine gerafalo was smarter than the president of the united states. she was also smarter than andrew breitbart on that question and she was much smarter than this guy. >> if you are wrong, all right, that the united states, and they

will, this is going to happen, kbo goes in, liberates iraq, people in the street, american flags hugging our soldiers, all right? we find all kinds of bad, bad stuff, right, in iraq, you going to apologize to george w. bush? >> i would be so willing to say i'm sorry. i hope to god that i can be made a buffoon of that will will say you were wrong. i will go to the white house on my knees on cut glass and say, hey, you were right. >> there's bill o'reilly guaranteeing janine gerafalo, guaranteeing her that they will find weapons of mass destruction in iraq. and the honorable and decent janine ger rafalo has no trouble, no reluctance promising to apologize in sight including the president of the united states if o'reilly and the president turned out to be right and she turned out to be wrong. and i know janine gerafalo would have made good on that promise.

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herman cain is the latest republican presidential candidate to make his way to new york city to meet with noncandidate donald trump. unlike mitt romney, last week cain did not hide from the cameras today during his visit to trump tower. in fact, he stopped to take questions including whether he would be receiving trump's

endorsement. >> mr. trump is the type on person if he wants to endorse you, you don't have to ask him. and if he gets to that point, i happen believe, and i would do the same thing, that he's waiting for the field to narrow down a little bit more before he decides whether or not he wants to put his endorsement on any particular candidate. we did not even get into that. >> herman cain also racked up another victory this weekend, one week after winning the florida straw poll. he was the resounding choice of the national federation of republican women, winning its straw poll on saturday with more votes than the top five challengers combined. it should be noted the winner of the group's last straw poll in 2007 was rudy giuliani. joining me now, msnbc contributor jonathan capehart, opinion writer for the "washington post" and "the last word's" senior trump correspondent. jonathan, thanks for joining me tonight. >> hey, lawrence, good to be here. >> you got the man, himself, on

the phone today by which, of course, i do not mean herman cain. >> right. i got the man, the donald on the phone today after his meeting with herman cain which lasted about an hour and 15 minutes in trump's 26th floor office in trump tower there at 721 5th avenue. they met at high noon which is the same time i met with mr. trump a week ago tomorrow. mr. trump said that their conversation ran the gamut. they talked about politics. they talked about cain's story which mr. trump said he was very impressed by, very impressed by his roots, his family, his story. and all the things that herman cain has been able to achieve in his life up to the point of running for president. >> jonathan, where does the herman cain candidacy go from here? what other -- what kind of a future does it have? >> right now the future looks bright. think about it, would you rather be rick perry right now or

herman cain? i bet you know you'd want to be herman cain. >> hadn't thought of it that way before. >> right. it's all good news, you know, puppy dogs and dandilions for herman cain. we're talking about him meeting with donald trump, not issues rick perry has had to deal with since he got into the race, from immigration, to hpv, to the latest thing about his ranch. i think because herman cain has been so low in the polls up until he won that florida straw poll a week ago, he's been on the rise. can cain sustain? that is the key question. >> jonathan, i have to ask you, what do you make of herman cain's objection yesterday on television, obvious objection to the perry ranch, hunting ranch, the name of it, then his quick retracting of that as soon as the perry camp put out a statement that was actually what was already in the "washington post" articles? the whole dispute about exactly when did they paint this thing over? >> uh-huh. well, look, i think, you know,

herman cain was reacting to a story that hit in the "washington post" yesterday. there have been follow-up stories in the "post" and "the new york times." i can't get into herman cain's head as to why he's pulled back, but let's keep in mind, he is the only african-american in the republican race for the nomination. i think, again, because he's on the asen densy that he has to tread maybe a little more carefully. you know what, another republican debate is coming up. there is going to be plenty of opportunities for perry to be held accountable for that ranch sign and for herman cain to stick it to rick perry to make sure that he's held accountable for tt. for what he knew and what he did and didn't do knowing that that horrible offensive sign was there on the property he was renting. >> jonathan capehart of the "washington post" and msnbc. thanks very much for joining us tonight. >> thanks, lawrence.