at a general motors plant in michigan, touting his administration's success in saving the american auto industry, and telling a rousing crowd that despite the nay sayers, they saved jobs in the heartland. >> today i can stand here and say the investment paid off. [ cheers and applause ] >> the president hailed the retooled auto industry as more efficient and better than before. he toured the gm plant outside of detroit with south korean president lee. the power to create jobs in both countries. and as the president does so, it is worth revisiting a 2008 editorial by mitt romney. in a piece entitled let detroit go bankrupt, mr. romney writes if general motors, ford and chrysler get the bailout that

their chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the american automotive industry good-bye. so once again, the man poised to be the challenger to president obama in 2012 has to answer for words and deeds in his not so distant past. by the way, the romney campaign has just announced its third quarter fundraising. $14.2 million. a solid number. but it is less than the 17 million raised by rick perry. well below the $70 million that the president pulled in. so despite the head winds of a rough economy and a republican party dedicated to his defeat, is president obama still the man to beat in this race? joining me now, my esteemed colleague, chris hayes, host of chris hayes weekend mornings on msnbc, a man who can unravel an economic untruth faster than i can a snickers bar. the revival of the motor

industry. isn't this the cingular success of the obama administration? and if it is, why don't we hear about it? >> i don't think it is for lack of trying. they tried to show and i agree this is the signature success, in terms of concrete success, in terms of saying we took the action, it was not popular, it was opposed by people like mitt romney and his buddies, and look what happened. we really saved tens of thousands of jobs in the auto industry and the cascade of suppliers and dealers and all of the eco system that grows up around that industry in the midwest. they are directly responsible for making sure that didn't go under. i think in hindsight, it was the right decision. >> is it because the phrase bailout is so toxic that we can't use it? >> yes, in short answer, yes. the problem is that if you look at polling on the auto bailout, it is as unpopular as the bank bailout despite the fact they were different bailouts. one having to do with the real economy, one making creditors

that owed money take a haircut, they lost some money which didn't happen in bank bailouts. i think it was a more equitable, productive bailout on the auto side. but it represents this deep betrayal. and that power, that power of the word bailout ends up making it difficult for them to make the case on what they did with the auto manufacturers. >> do you think the psychological phrase bailout -- >> what the bailouts represented at the deepest level was a fundamental betrayal of the american social contract and it was as if you all of a sudden woke up one morning and saw a society in which you were told that success is rewarded and failure is punished. >> if you work hard, you can do anything. >> is in fact a lie, and in fact when you made a bad investment and you went under, no one was there to bail you out. when the politically connected wealthy bankers do the same, all of a sudden, there are special

favors for them. >> that notion you say applies to how people see the banks is brushed over and has infected our views. >> one of the fascinating aspects of politics in the obama era is the use of republicans to describe anything as a bailout. they talked about a bill that the house passed as the abortion provider's bailout. michelle mel kin talked about the immigrant student bailout, anything they don't like is bailed as a bailout because they understand there's a powerful resonance in that word. >> isn't there also something here as examplar, we hear about shared sacrifice. in the process of recovery for the auto industry, didn't we see sacrifice by unions and management and by boards of directors, everybody compromised, and the result was very positive. >> i think the model of shared sacrifice, and there are people that will tell you from each of

the perspectives, particularly those in labor movement say the labor unions got screwed and gave away too much. that said, you did see real accountability for creditors and management in a way you haven't seen in any of the financial bailouts. >> where's the compromise on wall street. are people out on the street because it was a good deal? of course not. >> they thought it was a bad deal and they were right in the sense there was no accountability, and that the people, the creditors were able to sort of get out of it scott free. and what we saw incompetent the auto bailout was in some ways, the auto bailout is one of the obama administration's finest moments insofar as it was obamaism, shared bring everyone to the table and sort of make all the stakeholders take a little pain to get a good result. that's the obama model. this is one of the models when it worked. >> and it worked. mitt romney, the presidential hopeful originally opposed that government sanction. he said if the government bailout the auto industry, its

demise would be virtually guaranteed. so much for the bain expertise of him. >> he should have put his money where his mouth was, bought the distressed accounts. >> doesn't that prove his objection to this, that philosophically in terms of economics, what mitt romney is good at is going into failing businesses, stripping them. >> private he can quit specializes in doing this, and the incentives in the financial industry are such that you can take a business that's making a perfectly good profit margin, employing lots of people, and there's money to be made in tearing it apart and destroying it and reducing it, liquidating it. the way the financial system works, there's money to be made. >> when there's a debate and he says i started staples, i started the sports authority, i started this child care center,

isn't that evidence of his success? >> right. then the other side of the coin of course is that tens of thousands lost jobs in other transactions in which what they were doing was they were basically coming in and saying no, we're essentially selling this business for parts. >> so bottom line, the auto industry is a good example of the obama administration's management, in the field of economics, and it has resulted in the saving of thousands of jobs. >> there are a host of criticisms one can marshall against implementation of the bailout, but it is very hard for me to rerun the counter factual, and imagine those three businesses being liquid ated in an incredibly quick fashion. them going under would have happened in a very chaotic and destructive fashion. it is hard to rerun the tape with that counter factual and come out with a better outcome.

>> chris hayes, we can see more of you on up with chris haze, saturday and sunday morpg here on msnbc. thanks, chris. with the president enjoying a boost of success in michigan? how will it effect his re-election campaign in a crucial swing state. for more, i am joined by kristin welker traveling with the president in lake orion, michigan. the president is visiting michigan for no less than the ninth time i think. recent poll of michigan voters finds 61% rate him negatively, which seems surprising given what chris hayes was just saying about the auto industry coming roaring back. >> reporter: not as surprising as if you look at other figures in michigan. one of them, 11% unemployment rate. as you know, the national unemployment rate is 9.1%. the unemployment rate here was even greater. the auto industry bailout did save a number of jobs here, including 1700 at this plant

alone, but another figure i think that's incredibly telling, about a fourth of detroit's population has left. a lot of those it is believed are the president's base, african-americans, people in the middle class have left to move to other places where there are more opportunities. so a lot of democratic strategists are concerned about the figures when they look towards 2012. they believe michigan is a critical state, and there are a lot of republican strategists who look at the state and see blood and say this is potentially one of the states we might be able to win. of course, that would be a long shot, but either way, the democratic base has lost some support here, martin. >> and along with touting the successful auto bailout today, the president is showing big fund-raising numbers, and another terrorist plot dismantled this week. it is a pretty good week for the president. isn't it proof despite the economic woes and the

republicans criticizing him, this is a president that can lead when allowed to lead and can prove quite successful. >> reporter: what's interesting is that we have seen a number of foreign policy successes, foiled terrorist plot from this week which you just mentioned, then of course osama bin laden and not what you expected of the president, but some say he remains vulnerable when it comes to the economy. we have seen the gop candidates seize on that already. they made this already a central part of the platform as they wade into the 2012 waters. >> kristin welker, thanks so much. and finally, a military note from the white house. president obama sent a letter to congress today, announcing the u.s. military will put 100 combat ready troops on the ground in central africa to help

the local military with resistance army and his commanders. the lra according to the presses is responsible for two decades of murder, rape, kidnapping across the central african republic of congo and south sudan. the initial team according to the president was deployed wednesday in uganda. additional forces will arrive next month. stay with us. babe , lo

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we're back with herman cain taking the gospel of 999 on road, launching a tour in tennessee. the poll puts cain at the top of the race. he told a boisterous crowd that the nay sayers made a mistake

counting him out. >> the voice of the people is more powerful than the voice of the media! >> so with his star rising with republicans, mr. cain was asked about two african-americans vying for the presidency. >> some people want to say there's still rampant racism in america. no there's not. i would recognize it if it were. i think that would further validate the fact that for the majority of the american people, it's about content of your ideals and character and it is not about color. >> perhaps it is to his advantage to deny the existence of racism in contemporary america, but which america is he living in? abc news poll shows 75% of americans think racism is at least somewhat of a problem. a full third of americans think it is a big problem. while mr. cain negates the

impact of race in america in politics, he has a way of kicking up racial controversy with his remarks like he did on fox news this week. >> look, i left the democrat plantation a long time ago. >> and let's not forget, mr. cain also claimed blacks had been brainwashed by democrats, and that president obama has no knowledge of the black experience in america. there's a problem in mr. cain's denial of racism as shown in this video from think progress. >> would you be comfortable having a muslim in your cabinet or as a federal judge? >> no, i will not. >> indeed, as we look forward to the dedication of the martin luther king junior monument in washington on sunday, it is good to know that racism no longer exists in america. let's bring in our panel. goldy taylor, columnist, and

jonathan capehart from "the washington post." good afternoon to you both. goldy, it is a great relief. racism no longer exists in america. do you agree with mr. cain. >> you have to wonder where he is living or which planet for that matter. >> planet cain. >> planet cain where everything costs 9.99. i think herman cain, the way he raises his candidacy, he play indicates a base, in the base he believes he is after is a right wing ultra conservative base that doesn't want to either see racism as a dilemma or see it as an attack on them. >> goldy, you're almost saying he is trying to diminish his own ethnicity in order to win that base. is that what you're saying in. >> that's exactly what i'm saying. i'm saying if he could shed his ethnicity today, if he could

become the color of water, he would do it, he would do it in an effort to prove that he, and people just like him, could fit in anywhere and have the same level of success, no matter what their race, ethnicity or gender may be. that doesn't happen to be the case. would he shed it? i think he would. >> jonathan, why does he want to dispense with the idea of racial bias, that he keeps bringing in racial imagery, like when he mentioned the democratic plantation which you and i know is a deeply offensive phrase. >> right, it is. i wish politicians would stop using slave imagery in their campaigns because it ends up belittling the sacrifices that were made for the civil rights advances that we have in this country, and they never measure up to the language that they employ. and i want to emphasize something goldy. what herman cain is doing is

play indicate the base. they don't want to hear accusations against it, then it is perfectly fine to hurl charges of racism against democrats and liberals trying to hold that up to the liberals and democrats. that's why you see him playing this two sided game. i suspect if he were to somehow miraculously get the nomination, we would see him swing back and acknowledge some of the pain that's still out there and racism still caused. when the infamous name of the camp came out? what was herman cain's initial response? he criticized it as insensitive, and then within hours backtracked. we're seeing a two sided mirror image game he's playing. >> goldy, do you think the particular issues he faces in

appealing to this base are because there are perceptions of the tea party being racist? there are people that have suggested that many of those rallies, i'm not saying this, this has been widely reported, many of these rallies felt as though they were uniform, one particular race, and that blacks were not particularly welcome. >> i would not say that the tea party as a rule was a racist movement. what i would say is that it leaves open ground for racism and bigotry to fester. and that probably much more insidious. for herman cain attempt to placate this base, that's the grand irony. searches he tries to shed or assimilate, there's never going to be an occasion he actually can. so can he win a gop nomination from the republican party? not on your life. >> here is the interesting thing, goldy. jonathan, i want to address

this. his fund raising numbers in the third quarter are estimated in the hundreds of thousands. the president raises 70 million, perry 17 million, romney, 14 million. does that tell you something about the willingness of republicans to really support this man if he's raised only tens of thousands of dollars or hundreds of thousands even? >> right. yeah. if money is speech, then cain isn't hearing a lot of anything. he is riding high in polls, number one in nbc news and "the wall street journal" poll, but fund raising numbers don't match up. now it will be interesting to see what they look like in the next filing period, assuming herman cain is still the flavor of the month. >> of course. i was going to ask, goldy, do the fundraising figures indicate that while people may be entertained by him liking black walnut ice cream or 999 or any other phrase, the reality they won't donate money to the

candidate. >> when a polster calls and asks if you will vote for a black candidate, i am not the one to say i'm not. the poll numbers are probably some of the softest we have seen in the history of modern polling. writing the check as jonathan said is indeed speech. if i'll write a check, that's a real commitment. what we see in fund raising numbers is people haven't fully committed to herman cain candidacy, even though in word they say they will. >> goldy and jonathan, thank you. i think what jonathan said earlier about taking out some of the appalling racist images of slavery is something that needs to happen soon. thank you both. >> thanks. from herman cain to rick perry. can the texas governor get his campaign back on track? stay with us. all she wants to wear is hoodies. hoodies and cargo shorts. getting dirty. then she left some crayons in her pocket and they went through the wash. i thought all her clothes were ruined. enter tide and tide booster. the stains are gone. it's kind of too bad.

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tears of a candidate's wife, here are the top lines. the week in review. >> mitt romney is a good moral person but not a christian. mormonism is not christian tee, has always been considered a cult. >> the fact some more on can stand up and make a comment like that. first of all, it is outrageous. >> this really is a side show. >> mitt romney is the man we need to lead america and we need him now. >> rick perry is looking at this and going oy. >> i know mitt romney believes the american pocket need to grow bigger. >> after the republican debate, perry went pop. felt like he needed some electroconvulsive therapy. >> the whole evening had an element of a clown show. >> our opponents in our party.

>> i have been shot at, missed, shot at and hit. the fact is those are just distractions. >> could you say falling like a nasa satellite? >> yeah, well, that is rick perry, he is falling like a nasa satellite. >> i will hold you to that wager. >> just tell me how you like your steak, martin. >> these days, the godfather of pizza needs no introduction. >> 999. >> but he is only the most recent flavor, ice cream flavor of the month. >> flavor of the week? >> we have been lurching from one romance to another. >> what a week indeed. for rick perry, hissy motional wife anita hayes said attacks on her husband have been prompted not by his poor performance in the debates but because of his personal faith, enduring a major media blitz today, governor perry told anyone who'd listen

he's still in the race as the true conservative. now there's this. a 41 page jobs plan that governor perry claims will create 1.2 million jobs, but also deconstruct the environmental protection agency. so is this the plan that will resurrect rick perry's campaign? jonathan alter, msnbc political analyst and columnist with bloomberg view and karen finney, also a political analyst and former communications director for the dnc. good afternoon to both. karen, if i can start with you, anita perry said the attacks were based on his christian beliefs. i can't recall anyone attacking his personal faith. is she diverting grief in an order not to confront the truth, which is that her husband may not be a good bet for president? >> i have to say, spouses always have a tough time i think seeing their loved one or loved ones in general attacked.

she has to buck up. this is nothing. in 2004 when i worked with elizabeth edwards, there were claims because of her weight, she was too dowdy to be with someone as attractive as john edwards. this is nothing compared to how mean it can get. you have to face the fact that on this one, i think the criticism is pretty well justified and has been substantive. it hasn't been about looks or hair or religion certainly. >> jonathan, rush limbaugh says romney isn't even a legitimate conservative. does that leave the door open for rick perry? he certainly has money. >> rick perry can come back. >> he can? >> yeah. >> but his wife whining which is what she was doing today doesn't help. it is like welcome to the nfl. you can't get in the arena and then complain about the process that way. nobody takes you seriously when you do.

>> can you imagine the reaction in 2008 if michelle obama at any stop on the campaign leaned into a microphone and started crying? >> you know, i mean -- yes, there would have been a very strong reaction. my own sense is that people should give the spouses a break generally because they're not the ones that are running, although in this case it's important to remember that anita perry says that god spoke to her and told her that her husband should run for president. rick perry said god did not speak to me, but he did speak to my wife. that makes me a little suspicious on its face, allows that in. >> karen? >> i was going to say having spent a lot of my political career working for hillary clinton. >> stop showing off. >> a famous spouse, i think the thing is i think generally a spouse has a right to kind of maintain her privacy and be off limits, if she doesn't choose to take a roll in the campaign,

like howard dean did during his time running for president. but if as the spouse you put yourself out there, go on the campaign trail, you become as much of a liability frankly as anybody else in the campaign, and that's something again in the context of a national campaign if you're ready for the spotlight, you have to deal with it. it is a little different than how they do things down in texas. >> spoken with experience. jonathan, rick perry today is trying to get us all to focus on the economy. yet business week points out unemployment in texas is now on the rise. what is this big claim for this jobs plan? is there any merit? >> it is important to look at plans to keep the campaign substantive. the problem with the plan is it is a bad one. we have china, for instance, moving very aggressively toward a green energy economy. we should just forget about it, the most promising technology in the world, then go back to oil

and gas. it is fine to do some additional drilling, but he wants to turn over the national parks for this. >> he mentions yellowstone, says he wouldn't do it there. >> that's fine. the other huge problem is he wants to dismantle the epa and turn over responsibility to the states. think about that for a minute. what that means is a race to the bottom. if you're a big polluter and realize you can't pollute in illinois or new jersey, you say let's go to texas. that might be good for texas, but not good for united states. he is not running for president of texas. >> the other thing about that is his plan really lacks the complexity to have a vision that says where are we now, where do we need to be going to maintain a competitive edge. i think you're right, it is very texas specific in thinking, but really ignores the challenges

that we're facing with china, with the global economy, with threats from sort of other countries, and with our own need. he had this rhetoric about we ought to make things in america and buy things that americans make. guess what, democrats on the hill have been saying that the last couple years, as has the president, so the shocking lack of just specifics and real understanding of the complexity of our economy was really pretty surprising. >> isn't it a problem that rick perry is so texas oriented? we had a potential this week to murder the saudi ambassador was broken. this president had foreign policy successes, bin laden is dead,al awe lack ee is dead. can you imagine rick perry handling foreign policy for this nation? >> considering he is very plausible future president, i can imagine it and it fills me with fear. at a certain point, we're not

talking here about candidates who are sort of around the center of our politics. i think mitt romney doesn't fill me with fear in the same way. he is more plausible president. but rick perry is kind of out of bounds i think for what people broadly considering themselves to be in the mainstream political life should be considering. i think it is one of the reasons why he is plummeting, is that even very conservative voters that would agree with him on many issues are noticing he is probably not up to the job. >> jonathan, not many inspire fear in you. thank you for joining us, and karen finney, too. someone better come up with a real plan to fix the economy soon.

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the nasdaq composite up by 41.points. americans spent more on auto, clothing and furniture, boosting sales 1.1%. the gain offered a hopeful sign for the sluggish economy. in the skype, microsoft deal becomes official, setting up a new clash of the titans. they acquired skype for $8.5 billion. this comes as google awaits approval for its deal to take over motorola mobility. the companies looking to integrate voice, data, video, social media, and entertainment. that's it from cnbc, first in business worldwide. martin, back over to you. >> thanks, julia. "the wall street journal today confirmed what most americans fear, bleak news for americans' income which plumm plummeted 7% in the past decade. economists say it won't catch up until 2021, the worst ten year performance since 1967.

it is perhaps no coincidence that 1967 was the last time social unrest led protesters onto the streets of american cities as it has done during the current occupy wall street that's spreading now across the country. is congress listening? or have they tuned out to win re-election. this congressman is a physician and champion for the uninsured. >> thank you for having me. >> thank you for being with us. let's talk about the occupy movement growing in almost every american city and look at what some republicans called the demonstrators. listen to this. >> i for one am increasingly concerned about the growing mobs occupy wall street in the other cities across the country, and believe it or not, some in this town have actually condoned the pitting of americans against americans.

>> this is about we don't like america, we don't like anything about it, we are far left loons. >> and the internet. it is a little ironic. >> they don't know why they're there, they're just mad. i see people angry in my district, too, but this attack upon business, attack upon industry, attack upon freedom, and i think that's what this is all about. >> a new time magazine poll finds the majority of americans have a favorable view of the protesters, that's twice as many as say support the tea party. so what's the objections on the part of republicans? >> i can't speak for all republicans. i can speak for myself. i think newt gingrich, a prominent republican put it well. there are two groups. there's a group that's very concerned about our economy and feel like wall street has gotten a free pass. they go out, protest, pick up their litter, they go home. there's another group which is

less careful and they leave their litter and seem to be almost a little antisocial. there's two groups. for some, the one detracts from the message of the other. i prefer to focus on the message of the other. >> actually, he didn't entirely say that. he said one group is a group of pot smoking hippies. which is the group, the legitimate or those that are dumping refuse all over the streets? >> martin, i haven't actually followed it. i know it is existing. what bothers me morris the underlying issues. >> if i may interrupt you, the fact you just admitted that you haven't been following it, isn't that indicative of the fact that congress is so out of touch with how ordinary americans feel? >> martin, if you want to draw conclusions that i don't say, that's your prerogative, but i didn't say that. the point is, i am very aware of the economic uneast of the american people. i don't have to go interview somebody in person in wall street to find out about

economic unease. i can my hometown. now, if you want to speak about my thoughts, but i ask you not to ascribe to me that which i did not say. >> what's the difference between your view between those that are members of the tea party who have been criticizing big government and those who are part of occupy wall street throughout the country that are saying they're sick of the indifference of government towards the suffering of the american people. >> the tea party people have a set agenda, which is to decrease spepdi spending, and there's a group of economists that agree that's the way to get the economy online. get some of the free cash off the sidelines to create economic opportunity. i have not heard such a well enunciated program from the occupy wall street people. it seems to be a nonspecific

sort of anger if you will about institutions without a specific remedy to what their anger is about. >> i can tell you that one of their specific complaints is that the bankers who brought the economy to such a terrible and perilous state in 2008 appeared to have got off scot-free. there hasn't been a single criminal prosecution. they're paying themselves massive bonuses. and if you look at america at the moment, we have the highest levels of poverty since the 1950s and unemployment is now at a staggering 9.1%. >> well, if they're saying that the bankers got away scot-free, i guess i, you know, clearly it appears that people were able to survive who arguably made very bad decisions, which the rest of the american people have had to pay for. and that's a reasonable complaint. now, if their solution is criminal prosecutions or somehow

withdrawing the safety net that the obama administration and others created beneath them, i haven't heard that, but that would be something to consider. >> thank you for that concession. just a final question. the president has placed a great deal of weight on his jobs bill. we know that independent economists have assessed that something like 2 million jobs could be created if this were passed and that also growth would increase by 2%. and, yet, we find in congress, a whole day spend debating another bill on the subject of a woman's right to choose. what's going on in congress? >> well, the whole day wasn't spent on that. we also passed on the day something called the boiler mac rule, which actually keeps epa from beginning a set of rules for boilers, which industry uses, that was conservatively estimated to cost tens of millions of jobs economy wide. so actually that day, we got a fair amount accomplished. if you go to gop.gov.jobs,

you'll see a list of things we've worked on in the house to create economic opportunity. >> congressman bill cassidy of louisiana, thank you very much for joining us this afternoon. >> thank you, martin. snipers royal to the ousted libyan dictator colonel gadhafi have come under fire today as fighting broke out in tripoli for the first time in two months. gun battles between gadhafi loyalists and forces attached to the transitional government ripped through the abu salim district of the city, where political prisoners were once held under the previous government. it's reported that at least 20 pro-gadhafi supporters emerged firing ak-47s as they tried to raise the former dictator's green flag. nbc's michelle kosinski is following this story and joins us live from the region. michelle, many assume that gadhafi's most loyal supporters had fled from tripoli, so i imagine of two months of relative quiet, this has come as something of a shock?

>> reporter: you know, it is a surprise. and we're here in cairo, where there were demonstrations today and people were fearing that violence would break out here, after all, that's what happened last week. but the violence was in tripoli today. you know, there are still these loyalists there, obviously, fiercely deciding to fight until the end. and he's been stirring the pot. i mean, gadhafi's been in hiding. and i think when we watch this story develop from the west, it's easy to think, you know, the rebels took tripoli back at the end of august. gadhafi's gone, he's not going to come back. but today's incident shows that these people are still out there. and gadhafi's been trying to stir the pot. he keeps releasing these audio messages, first urging citizens to go out and fight the rebels in the streets. when that didn't work, lately he's been urging people to just peacefully demonstrate. and it seemed like dozens of his supporters, armed, however, decided to take him up on that today. in this one neighborhood, they went out, tried to put up the green flag that was a symbol of his regime, and when the

traditional counsel forces saw this happening, they also showed up, also armed, and this gun battle ensued. but it was a small part of the capital, and it's ended now, martin. >> nbc's michelle kosinski, lye from cairo. thank you, michelle, and you be safe. we'll be right back to clear the air. [ male announcer ] robitussin, advil,

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but can also help heal acid related erosions in the lining of your esophagus. talk to your doctor about the risk for osteoporosis-related bone fractures and low magnesium levels with long-term use of nexium. possible side effects include headache, diarrhea and abdominal pain. other serious stomach conditions may still exist. let your doctor do her job, and you do yours. ask if nexium is right for you. if you can't afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. it's time now to clear the air. and there seems to be something of a pattern developing around president obama's administration. each week we have gridlock in washington. and on tuesday, the senate failed to pass a modified version of the president's jobs bill. yet on the very same day, the attorney general announced the successful disruption of an iranian plot to murder the saudi arabian ambassador. and the president was absolutely

clear this was a serious act of terror. >> we also know that he had direct links, was paid by, and directed by individuals in the iranian government. >> but it was thwarted, and it was just the late nest a series of foreign policy successes. just look at the president's kill list this year. at the top of that list, the death of osama bin laden, quickly followed by a drone strike that ended the life of anwar al awlaki, who was the head of al qaeda in the arabian peninsula. and it's worth remembering that bin laden was taken out just as congress was getting stuck in its gridlock over raising the debt ceiling. again, an outstanding foreign policy success, the most wanted man in the world taken out, at the same time a domestic agenda that stalls. you see, for all the abject nonsense that michele bachmann spouts about barack obama being a weak leader, this is a president who does lead when

he's allowed to lead. imagine what this country might look like if the debt ceiling debacle had not taken place and if the president's jobs bill was allowed to pass. according to one independent assessment, that bill would create 2 million new jobs and increase growth by no less than 2%. but sadly, that ain't going to happen. and the pattern of president obama's apparent failure at home and success overseas is probably going to continue until the election next year. thank you very much for watching. dylan ratigan's here to take us forward. dylan, it's all yours. >> thank you so much. show starts right now, martin. well, if you haven't heard, we're all rather mad as hell around here. good friday afternoon to you. i am dylan ratigan and