>> will he or won't he buzz is everywhere? >> it's now or never. >> is it too late. >> chris christie has republicans waiting and waiting and waiting. >> the governor chris christie is seriously reconsidering. >> chris christie is rethinking a run for the white house. >> narrowly favor his not running. >> it may be too late. >> his family is reportedly on board with it. >> chris christie's wife is on board. >> i'd be surprised at this point. >> promising one thing and doing the opposite, sounds pretty presidential to me. >> but christie cannot win the right wing. >> i wish him luck. >> the flavor of the month. >> the swimming pool looks is lot better until you jump right in. >> let us take a look at you p. >> are there republicans that are going to be all over him? >> put you under the microscope. >> conservative alternative to mitt romney? >> he's going to turn off a lot of conservatives.

>> perry catching a lot of heat. >> his 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 mor 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? >> not running. i'm 100% certain i'm not going to run. i'm not going to run. you have to in your heart want it more than anything elsement i don't want it that badly you have to believe in your heart and in your soul and in your mind that you are ready. and 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 going to not be able to support him. i think that that is absolutely a liability for him if he gets in the race. >> why do you think that they won't be able to support him? >> because most of the conservatives believe that we should enforce our borders. they do not believe people should be here without documentation. they do not believe global warming is a crisis or a threat. yes, it might be a little bit out there. but they don't see it as a crisis or a threat. as you go down the line, he's going to turn off a lot of conservatives with those positions. >> nbc's reporter is reporting that chris christie is giving a presidential run, quote, serious consideration and has asked several republicans who are 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 the same thing -- it's a family discussion between christie and his wife, mary pat, and he could still decide to run. joining me now, national affairs editor for "new york" magazine, john heilman and howard fineman. thank you both for joining me. howard, you were chuckling as we were ramping back into the latest christie fever, christie indecision 2012 discussion. what's so funny about all this? >> i was just chuckling at the definitive politico report. >> definitive, maybe. >> definitive maybe. here's what i know. i'm in john's town here. i'm calling new york sources. but what my people tell me is that he is seriously considering it, that chris duhame, also close to karl rove, and others

have been going around saying -- i said this on the show last week. they're saying to professionals around the region and around 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 saying, if he's gone radio silent, that definitely means he's seriously considering it. that's all we can say about his decision-making process. >> john, this is your jurisdiction. new jersey is definitely considered part of the "new york" magazine jurisdiction. what should christie do with his moment? >> first of all, i'll confirm what howard is saying. it's interesting, 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 and private as well as in public. two weeks ago, the nature of the

conversation started to change. that he started to take it seriously. the thing i tried to write about this this column, the thing that's 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 in a democratic state. i might not be reelected three years from now. god knows what 2016 and 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 by people, he feels like he has to go through the process of seriously considering getting in. >> i think politics is different from 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 more of a generational thing where you builded up your

contacts, you travelled the country. you went airplane stop to airplane stop, train stop to train stop. it's different now. >> and losing once was just considered good batting practice for next season. >> now in the digital age and i think with the speed-up of media in part and the change in the nature of politics, it's come to be view that had you've got your moment, you've got your window. that's what happened with barack obama. he caught the moment and that's sort of the new template. and that's probably what chris christie is out there in new jersey thinking about right now. >> and the opposite is what happened with hillary clinton. she went through this exact same thing in 2008 and 2003. she said, no, i'll wait till 2008. and look what happened. she didn't get the shot in 2008. she's not going to get the shot in 2012. her best moment could be wasted. christie is probably thinking of that as the negative example. >> mario cuomo had that moment in 1992. he didn't run. there was a lot of presumption at the time that, hey, george

h.b. bush is going to be reelected. this is not won to waste it on, the '92 campaign. >> that kind of thinking is over, too, about the power of incumbency. in our toxic atmosphere at a 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. >> here's one of the things that i think may be going on here which was exhibited at the rag library. he was asked twice last week. the first time, it was dismissive, classic christie. it was that wise guy new jersey thing. and his tape, by which he meant every single time i've said, no, i'm absolutely not running. then he's asked again and asked by a very emotional woman who seems to almost be on the verge of tears. and 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 if

i'm joining this thing 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 heard. he wants them to feel that 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 at some point this week saying what he's always said, i'm not going to. >> if nothing else, he wants to show them against the day that he might actually have to be able to run again that he took 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 temptation and it's the warning sign. the temptation is, look, there's still 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 -- 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 national domestic policy. what happens if i get up in the hot glare of the lights in the first debate and what happens to me happened to rick perry? it's a very delicate balance for him to try to figure out which side to come down on. >> christie knows he's never once been in a public debate about social security, about medicare, national defense, all these big and complex issues. he probably also knows he just needs one good index card worth of material to win a republican debate on any one of those subjects, to sound smart enough. but 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 that you shouldn't have said, is christie smart enough to know where every one of those things is buried in

his resume? >> i think 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. and 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. and if he were to get in it, he's a candidate tailor-made of 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 didn't gear up in new hampshire, he can't afford to skip new hampshire. he's got a lot to think about at one time. >> how much of this is your fault? and by you, i mean, the new york media? the guys across the river in new jersey, he can come over here and do "morning joe." if this guy was the governor of kansas, would this be happening? >> no, under no circumstances would it be happening. i think we do, the new york media, not me personally, we take our cues from these big billionaires. and they're telling us about how

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 is if you have a republican who is actually a threat to win places like new jersey, new york, some of the northeast states, then you have a whole new table to -- >> the obvious thing is getting from here to there. and there's also vice presidential stuff going on here. >> i could do this all night. but we have other guests and other things to happen in this show. howard fineman and john heilemann, thanks for joining me. coming up, rick perry's new campaign crisis. could the racially charged offensive title written on a rock at the entrance of a ranch be the end of a presidential campaign? and later, the occupied 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

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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. that's coming up. a lot of times, things are right underneath our feet, and all we need to do is change the way we're thinking about them. a couple decades ago, we didn't even realize just how much natural gas was trapped in rocks thousands of feet below us. technology has made it possible to safely unlock this cleanly burning natural gas.

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can we not use the word if i'm reporting? >> you can do anything you want, barbara. you're barbara walters. >> that has nothing to do with it. >> this is an issue that will go on until we die, if you can use the -- >> it is the subject at hand. >> when you say the word, i don't like it. i don't like it when -- it brings up feelings white people say the word, it brings up feelings. >> 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, quote, 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 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 although 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 isn't a more vile, negative word than the "n" word. and for him to leave it there before 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 family'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 -- >> you think it's unfair? >> i think we should worry about the wars and assassinations, the economy, not trying to find out some way that you're going to blame perry --

>> i don't believe rick perry's a racist. i think it's a side issue. it's unfortunate. and he's 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 -- that 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 let me say this and i still don't want to. thank you very much for joining

me tonight, jim. >> sure. >> i leave the title up there long enough for everyone to read it every time. >> okay. >> i found the herman cain reaction fascinating. he reacted to the story as we knew it in "the washington post" on television yesterday saying that this is absolutely wrong. and 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's 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 auger against herman cain.

i think for perry's part, however, this has just 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. and 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 itment they kept it covered up. that would have been the end of this thing. but they bungled it pretty badly. it's another brick in the little red wagon that rick perry is having to pull around. >> but in the reporting we have in "the washington post" and "the new york times," there is a real dispute as to when that thing was exactly 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 sit 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 when he was a young guy back in the '70s, he would get in his pick-up truck and go down to the clear fork on the river and take his tent and his rifle and he would camp. he knew the name of that place. that's a name that's been around forever. it wasn't added to that property at that particular time. so he's particularly insensitive 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? but 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's a poippointed the fi african-american supreme court justice in texas. but it doesn't surprise me because they're clunky and they clearly did not vet their own candidate effectively. they should have done their own rerng and find out what stories are out there that could have been harmful. then they have all this history of issues in west texas of not that many african-americans that rick grew up around. he brings that with him to his

candidacy. >> jim moore, thank you for your texas expertise. >> you bet. coming up, the wall street protests gaining momentum nationwide even after massive arrests in new york over the weekend. yesterday, joseph stiglitz spoke to the protesters. he joins me next. and later, why andrew breitbart is the very worst stand-up comedian ever. that's in "the rewrite." montrose, california. ♪ in here, anarchy meets order. working with at&t, doctors set up a broadband solution to handle data and a mobility app to stay connected with their business. so they can run the office... even when they're not in the office. it's a network of possibilities -- helping you do what you do... even better. call at&t and see what we can do for your business. i've tried it. helping you do what you do... even better. but nothing's helped me beat my back pain.

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still to come tonight, nobel prize-winning economist joseph stiglitz gave a rousing speech yesterday at the occupied wall street protests. he joins me next. and later, the trump primary continues with herman cain stopping by trump towers in new york earlier today. "last word" senior correspondent spoke with trump after the meeting. he joins me later. [ female announcer ] so you think your kids are getting enough vegetables?

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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 onto the bridge by the police who then rounded up 700 of them for disorderly conduct and blocking vehicular traffic.

the arrested protesters were put in plastic handcuffs and bussed 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 afterlcio and the united federation of teachers. as is customary in such large-scale protests, many well-known people have spoken publicly in support of the mosters, 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 protest on sunday is the latest

indicator that this protest is something we have never seen before. >> if we continue with a distorted economy, we won't succeed in growing and we won't succeed in creating a just society. [ cheers ] >> joining me now is columbia university economics professor joseph stiglitz who served as chairman of the council of economic advisers under president clinton. thanks for joining me tonight. >> nice to be here. >> with a career in academia, in university life, you have had many opportunities to be in protests, in loud, noisy protests about many things. what brought you to lower manhattan this weekend? >> well, 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 and particularly our youth are now feeling. >> professor, you did a "van fi 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 is 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, allowed the banks to get deregulated. it restricts our democracy. 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 bullhorn. 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 -- 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 peculiar way which may have been useful as they repeated everything i said and then 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 illiterate republicans who

insist that government cannot do anything to help create jobs? >> i say, go back to the great depression. if it had not been for government, that desert of jobs, that absence of jobs would have lasted for longer. the wpa has left a legacy of monuments, of things that we still enjoy. and eventually it was world war ii. but that was a government -- 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 abro abroad. >> joseph stiglitz, nobel prize-winning economist and professor at columbia university, thank you very much for joining me tonight. it's an honor to have you here. >> nice to be here.

coming up, andrew breitbart as a stand-up 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 to meet with the candidate who never was, donald trump. ♪ ...harvested the same... ♪ ...and roasted the same as our other premium coffees. ♪ it only makes sense it would taste the same. so, try it for yourself. buy a pack of 100% natural starbucks via® ready brew. we promise you'll love it or we'll send you a bag of starbucks coffee. it's the starbucks via® taste promise. look for it at starbucks stores and where you buy groceries. it's the starbucks via® taste promise. so if i didn't know better i'd say you're having some sort of big tire sale. yes we are. yeah. how many tires does ford buy every year? over 3 million. you say you can beat any advertised price on tires? correct. anywhere? yes.

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right, totally. uh... that's what i was thinking. hmm. covering the things that make the outdoors great. now that's progressive. call or click today. time for tonight's "rewrite." andrew breitbart's own worst enemy, andrew breitbart, worked the stage like a foul-mouthed stand-up comedian 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 profani profani 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

[ bleep ] by the name of nancy pelosi who a half hour later -- >> now, comedians who use 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 from lenny bruce to richard pryor to robert carolina, eddie murphy, chris rock, all of them have publicly exhibited more respect for the american flag than andrew breitbart. professional comedians know better. they do not festoon their stages with american flags and then go out and do their thing. andrew breitbart's ugliest, unfunny punches were throne at my friend, janine.

>> the onslaught of propaganda let by the inexorable janine. i actually had something really mean to say about her. >> go ahead. >> really? well, i live in l.a. so i know about her. and she's hollywood's sympathy [ bleep ]. every single job is like, oh, 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. 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 actually know nothing about janine and actors and other 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 is a very, very successful actress and stand-up 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." and she did squeeze in episodes of "seinfeld" in the middle of the "larry sanders" run. i met janine when we were lucky enough to 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. and the only question was, would janine accept our offer? we were lucky. she did. and 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 sernau, cast janine on "24" as an america-protecting fbi agent. janine will always have a special place reserved for her in little andrew breitbart's profanity-laced stand-up act because janine 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? of mass destruction? janine garofalo did her homework, studied 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 if saddam hussein has weapons of mass direction. janine garofalo was also smarter than the director of the cia on the most important question that 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. janeane garofalo was smarter than the secretary of defense on that question, she was smarter than the secretary of state, she was smarter than the vice president, and yes, janeane garofalo 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,

goes in, liberates iraq, people in the street, american flags hugging our soldiers, all right? we find all kinds of bad, bad stuff. >> mm-hmm. >> 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 people will say you were wrong, you were a fatalist. and 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 janeane garofalo, guaranteeing her that they will find weapons of mass destruction in iraq. and the honorable and decent janeane garofalo that i know has no trouble, no reluctance promising to apologize to everyone 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 janeane garofalo would have made good on that promise.

janeane gerafalo may not be very tall, but she's a big enough person to apologize when she's wrong. i wish, i really, really do wish that i could say the same thing about little andrew breitbart. [ indistinct talking on tv ] [ snoring ] [ male announcer ] vicks nyquil cold and flu. the nighttime sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching, fever, best sleep you ever got with a cold...medicine. ♪

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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 of person that if he wants to endorse you you don't have to ask him. and if he gets to that point, i happen to 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 the resounding choice of the national federation of republican women, winning its strapoll 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? >> well, 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. who's on the ascendancy. it's all good news and puppy dogs and dandelions 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. but 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. and as your chiron says, can cain suss tain? 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, and 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 ascendancy that he has to tread maybe a little more -- a little more carefully. and you know what? another republican debate is coming up. and 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 that. for what he knew and what he did and didn't do, knowing that that horrible, offensive sign was there on a property he was renting. >> jonathan capehart of the "washington post" and msnbc. thanks very much for joining us tonight. >> thanks, lawrence.