>> best reaction in history of game shows. they're calling him a real life slumdog millionaire in india. he currently enters data into a computer, earns him about $120 a month, went on an incredible run in india and won $1 million on "who wants to be a millionaire." time for a great tweet. i want to address this. is at @queensofmedia. she says i like willie geist, which is odd because he's a ginger. now, i come from ginger people, but this isn't ginger. i get a lot of e-mails saying maybe it's the dial on your tv's up. am i ginger, guys? no, i'm not a ginger, you can look for yourself. my toupee is not ginger.

"morning joe" starts right now. let me say one thing. i'm here with these doctors, and that's what i'm going to talk about. so don't even bother asking me all of these other questions that you all are curious about. okay? don't even bother. >> are you concerned about the fact that these women do want to -- >> what did i say? excuse me. excuse me! >> do you have any -- >> what part of no don't people understand? >> nobody could've written it. nobody would've believed it. >> excuse me. good morning, it's thursday, november 3rd. with us onset in washington, former governor of pennsylvania, and nbc news political analyst ed rendell. also political writer for the "huffington post," sam stein, and kelly o'donnell, and in new

york, mr. ginger himself, willie geist. >> it's not ginger! ask kelly, i'm not ginger. she knows. >> as ginger goes, he's not ginger. >> all right. ginger bread man. ed rendell, you were saying you can't script this thing. and now the republican campaigns are fighting each other on who's leaking this. and you've got haley coming out saying he's got to put everything on the table. it's just a mess. and we're going to read the news inning a second, but just more things -- he's got to clean this up fast. >> yeah. he's got to move quickly. but if anybody tried to write the history of this republican primary season, nobody would've believed it. and the only one who actually could've written it was barack obama. couldn't have been any better. >> oh, i know, his numbers keep getting better. and you were noting yesterday, barack obama's campaign team actually launched a negative ad against somebody. who was it? >> it was mitt romney, in a brutal ad. >> yeah.

they're worried about him, aren't they? >> and if i'm mitt romney, i put an ad on saying why are the democrats attacking only one republican? mitt romney because they fear he can win. mitt romney's strongest card with the republican voters is i'm the one who can win. >> i'm the only guy that can win. no doubt about it. well, talking about herman cain, his rough week is continuing with the "a.p." reporting a third woman formally employed by the restaurant association now says she was harassed by the republican presidential candidate and considered filing a complaint. however, no formal complaint was ever filed. and nbc hasn't confirmed that allegation. but the story comes after details emerge this week that two other women had complained of inappropriate behavior by cain while he was the head of that organization in the '90s. the cain campaign remains on the defense of denying this new allegation altogether. and instead, they are turning to blame somebody else.

texas governor rick perry, citing two different people with ties to the perry campaign who they believe leaked the information. republican pollster chris wilson who is now working for a political action committee supporting perry is now complaining he personally witnessed herman cain demonstrating inappropriate contact towards a woman employee working with the national restaurant association. and wilson told an oklahoma radio station that several people knew about the incident and it goes on and on and on. we've heard enough. sam stein, it is perry -- >> it is, though. enough. >> yeah, we've heard enough. >> this isn't the point. the point is not exactly who leaked the information, although that's great political fodder. the fact of the matter was, he was accused twice of sexual harassment. that's the big story. yes, people leak opposition research in politics. it's not a big surprise. obviously the story came from one of two places. either someone who worked for the nra or previously worked for

cain whom he told. but beyond that, let's not lose sight, this man was accused twice sexual harassment. that's the actual story. >> and the way he's responding to it, actually, is -- >> i think that's the significant part. >> the big story that suggests he just isn't ready. >> well, it's interesting to watch somebody who is super successful in business, they're not accustomed to being hit with questions. whereas you're a governor of a big state or member of congress where your life includes being poked at by people with tough questions. sometimes people in business have insulation against that. then he's got this very kind of lofty rise with all of the charm and all of the great charisma. i've met him a few times, very charismatic. and now to see a polite phrase like excuse me become such a we. the tone in which he said that is going to linger in the air for a while. not being able to answer it quickly, allowing it to drag out, and not answering it in a way that's satisfactory to people hurts him a great deal.

>> how about three or four different answers to it? it's always the cover-up worse than the crime. >> he should've known it would come out. >> it's interesting, he's esc e escaped gaffe after gaffe with no effect on his popularity, but this goes to the core of his popularity. you look at people who say they're voting for herman cain, it's his likability, he's a great guy, a genuine guy, a real guy. this goes to the core of that. it's not that he's an effective businessman or he has governmental experience. so i think he can absorb this less well than almost -- >> and what a mistake, him yelling at the press. excuse me, excuse me. that's just -- >> but conservative voters kind of enjoy that. >> yeah, he's already become the victim in some respects. and i think his campaign announced yesterday they've raised nearly $1 million since these stories broke. which is not an insignificant sum of money. >> they're not only playing against the press, like you said

before, they're playing against rick perry's campaign. cain's chief of staff mark block went on fox news and said that the texas governor was to blame and should apologize to america. >> the perry campaign needs to apologize to herman cain and his family and america for this despicable actions. and quite frankly political too. politico won't release any documentation, or will they admit they spoke to these two women? why, because they have nothing and cited unnamed sources. >> well, that's interesting. they're actually now accusing politico of not releasing documentation. they're actually the ones that could release documentation, but they're not doing it. >> yeah. all he has to do and, you know, maybe there are more legal complexities to this than we realize. but all he really does have to do is i waive my confidentiality so we can settle this in public with everything out there.

but he won't. >> but the restaurant association probably has no interest in waiving it other than to get their name out of the news. he may not be a direct party to it. legally, there may be some as you say complexities. >> but he should make the offer. >> make the offer. >> i don't think he wants to do that. >> let's move from washington to europe where greece's prime minister is calling an emergency cabinet meeting today as another greek lawmaker says the leader is "history." the meeting comes as the leaders of the party say they're not going to support the government in a confidence vote tomorrow. and the "wall street journal's" reporting that european officials have now given greece an ultimatum. declare -- if greece wants to stay in the euro zone or risk going it alone. french president nicholas sarkozy said no future aid will be given until that question is answered. and chaos surrounding the prime minister's surprise call for a

bailout referendum is overshadowing this week's g-20 summit, which kicks off in france today or this week. willie geist, it's looking terrible in europe. and as we've had one guest after another tell us this week, what happens in europe, what happens in greece is going to affect america on main street. >> well, just ask jon corzine about that. his company went bankrupt because of exposure to sovereign debt in europe. president obama went to the south of france for a g-20 summit, didn't realize he'd be walking into this when he got there. greece's own finance minister has come out against the idea of the referendum saying it would be suicide for the state of greece not to accept this eu rescue package. it would, in fact, mark the end, perhaps, of the greek economy and certainly the end of greece as the part of europe as angela merkel said just yesterday, does greece want to remain part of the euro zone or not? that is the question the greek people must answer. and nicholas sarkozy are saying

the greeks are not getting another dime of european money until they agree to accept it and to get rid of this idea of a referendum. >> what an absolute mess. i mean -- and wall street is going to continue to go down. it's going to impact main street. there's no leadership over there. >> and there is -- >> what does the president do? >> that's a tough one. for him to effect change on this would be a tall order. and to subject himself in the midst of it isn't easy either. with super committee and everybody else trying to find cuts, trying to find a way out. >> far be it from us to lecture anybody. >> yeah. >> we're a little better off than greece, let's start there. >> but we haven't taken any real action to deal with our problem. >> well, fundamentally and long-term, we're much better off than greece. and the problem that obama has are what you just suggested. they can't really do much except wait and see, and it's really

holding hostage all the world economy now. >> so what's happening with the supercommittee? >> well, talking to people day in, day out, i think we're in a window of time where there's a lot of pessimism. if there wasn't all along, i think it's particularly strong now. they've got a couple of weeks to resolve this, even less if you're talking about putting their pieces of the package of cuts together to allow the congressional budget office number crunchers to score it. talking to people in the last 24 hours, they think failure is likely and then -- >> really? >> what do they do? >> oh, my gosh. >> those are the kinds of impressions you're hearing. at the same time, there was kind of a bright spot yesterday in the house where 100 members, including 40 republicans came together, signed a letter, urging the committee to go big, that's the key phrase of the week. >> consider revenue. >> and consider tax revenue. >> and some of those 40 republicans were people who signed the no-tax pledge. >> that's key. >> an important breakthrough. >> is this going to fail? or do you think the super

committee may come through? >> i think kelly's probably right. it's going to fail. other than the effect it has on wall street or the world economy, there's time to fix this before the cuts go into place. they can sort of kick the can down the road except for the fact it looks pathetic. >> think about how badly the world markets and americans responded to the failure over the raising of the debt ceiling, governor. it seems to me they should be at least cognizant of the fact. if they're seen as failing again, this is not just bad for themselves politically or their political party, it's bad for america. >> democrats say they're willing to make cuts, but won't do it without revenue. and republicans are boxed into their position where the only way they want to talk about revenue if it's expanding the economy, increasing what you can tax. >> if i'm a republican and i want this to work and i want the big deal to work, as long as you get a cut in the tax rate, a

small cut, and you get rid most of the loopholes -- >> that's the way out. >> $1.4 trillion worth of loopholes. save the mortgage deduction, save one or two others. let's say you took $1 trillion a year out, that's $10 trillion over the next ten years. and you said that we did that to cut the tax rate. >> and willie geist, you look at a new quinnepiac poll. one more bit of evidence that americans have absolutely no confidence in their leadership in washington, d.c. >> i was just listening to kelly and governor rendell thinking to myself, wouldn't it be nice if for once congress and washington surprised us, surprised the american people. because the assumption is they are going to get together and they do all these things formally and nothing ever comes of it. what if they got in a room just

once and came out and said, we did it. we did this for the better of the country. but listening to what you're saying in terms of like kicking the can down the road probably fail. it's depressing, frankly, to people outside washington. >> you know, someone who has been on this show, i think, who has a real potential to make this work is pat toomey. whose conservative credentials are as good as gold. he wants a solution and a man of good faith. and if he said we're going to cut tax rates, get rid of the loopholes, not a tax increase. some of the revenue has to be used if we're going to get out of this thing. i think he could be the key person in this debate. just because -- >> what i'm hearing is they're going to have a bit of both ways. find about $400 billion in cuts, something they can probably mutually agree on, and that would limit the impact of the sequesters down the road and say we found about half, $500

billion, because we didn't do nothing, but it's probably not going to achieve what we want. >> but to joe's point, that would be viewed as -- >> it would be viewed as pathetic. >> i think until members of that committee do want to do something, it'd be a heck of a story too. >> from every democrat on the committee i've heard they will not accept a deal if revenue's not a part of it. >> correct. they shouldn't. >> and willie, of course, we buried the lead. the big story this week now. only a couple of days until the game of the century in tuscaloosa. wait, what's the line? >> it's still five. >> still? >> five for your boys. >> what are you thinking? >> it's a home game, i think they're going to win. that's not just pandering to you. i didn't realize this, joe, it's only the first time that a number one and number two have met in a regular season sec game. this is the game of the decade. >> at least. or the game of the century, perhaps. >> exactly. all right. very good. coming up next, presidential

candidate congressman ron paul is going to join us onset. also, we're going to have senator claire mccaskill. and dr. brzezinski. this is a big lineup today. but first, here's bill karins with a check on the forecast. bill? >> another beautiful day underway. yesterday afternoon was splendid. it won't be quite as perfect today. we'll have clouds to deal with. but this is the sixth dry day in a row since we dealt with our big storm last weekend. and when those temperatures are cool, beautiful this afternoon, low 60s, you can't complain this time of year. even people without power were slowly getting it on here will appreciate this forecast. buffalo, just a slight chance of showers for you. travel trouble spot. st. louis to chicago, state of illinois's getting a lot of rain right now. and eventually that'll work through tennessee, especially around nashville, about mid-morning and atlanta later on today. here's a look at the radar. you get the picture here.

i-70 probably the worst drive out there from kansas city to illinois. forecastwise, looks pretty calm down in the southeast this morning, showers this afternoon, and denver, 42 and sunny after 6 more inches of snow yesterday. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. [ male announcer ] want to achieve more with your money?

pnc virtual wallet gathers your spending and saving in one place. credit and debit purchases, checks, bills, and other financial information. it lets you see the details as well as the big financial picture. so you can do more with your money. see what a complete view of your money can do for you at pncvirtualwallet.com. ♪ pnc bank. for the achiever in you.

congratulations. congratulations. today, the city of charlotte can use verizon technology to inspire businesses to conserve energy

and monitor costs. making communities greener... congratulations. ... and buildings as valuable to the bottom line... whoa ! ... as the people inside them. congratulations. because when you add verizon to your company, you don't just add, you multiply. ♪ discover something new... verizon. i would just summarize our feelings in louisiana in a simple way. you all have a great team, maybe one of the best alabama teams ever. but it really doesn't matter who lsu's opponent is because as we say in louisiana, the honey

badger takes what he wants. and we're looking forward to doing that on saturday night. >> world's most deliberative -- >> no jobs bill, but -- >> there was passion on the floor. >> yeah. >> sessions was out too, he was swinging for alabama. >> really? so they're going back and forth. >> it was a colloquy to use a term of art. >> that's good. we can't get a budget deal to save america. >> it sort of makes you proud listening to that. >> yeah. no doubt about it. i've got to say, though, willie. i thought people where you're from were the ones that say the honey badger takes what he wants. >> well, they're talking about their star defensive back, matthew, the kid who takes what he wants on the field, tackles, interceptions. it's worth pointing out, though, he took some other things because he was suspended the last game for violating team drug policy. i'm just putting that out there. >> i've been saying, the honey

badger takes what he wants and -- he did there too. let's begin with the newspaper from the parade of papers. "the times --" fans devastated by last spring's tornadoes a reason to march on. every game alabama plays helps bring tuscaloosa back to normal. and willie geist -- >> i knew you were going there. >> for three hours on a saturday. for three hours on a saturday, you know. said that in poland in 1940, you know, after -- >> we love those narratives. >> after a soccer match just for 90 minutes. one of the worst -- i think it may be one of the worst sort of sports sayings. for three hours. >> and they're still doing it in new orleans six years later after katrina. >> i know. i know. >> maybe the city can heal for three hours on a sunday afternoon. no, they can't heal.

>> come on now. >> they can get drunk and watch football. >> exactly. "new york times" says senator claire mccaskill getting in fighting shape as she prepares for what's expected to be her tough reelection battle next year. get this mccaskill posting on twitter she has reached her goal of losing 50 pounds. >> holy cow. well, she can tell us the secret when she's on the show. the latest casualty of the euro zone crisis is italian prime minister silvio be berlisconi. he's releasing the album "love songs." >> it's the world's loss. >> it's a huge loss. i hope they get this greek crisis resolved. i want to hear this. >> late nights at the g-20 in

the south of france with silvio, you can be sure about that. >> a look now at the playbook, mr. mike allen. good morning. >> good morning, willie. >> you guys are writing about the youth vote that so helped put president obama in the white house in 2008. could be leaning, perhaps, a different direction this time around. >> that's right. the jobs message is giving republicans an opportunity there, one they couldn't have dreamed of just a few years ago. so you see president obama's reelection campaign already really focusing on those youth. that should be where they're starting. they should have those already in hand. instead, they're putting out a number of programs to start reaching these younger voters. and there's good news for a lot of people watching. younger is getting a little bigger definition to the obama campaign. voters up to 29, targeting them with specific programs and going after them in facebook programs.

encouraging the young people they had and have, but also looking for young people they can get. >> let's be realistic. how many of those first-time voters who came in 2008 because they were so excited about the idea of barack obama are going to go back out this time around? >> that's a big problem. and the -- like a lot of them are unlikely to go for romney or perry or whoever the republican nominee is, but it's that staying home. it's the not voting, it's that voting with their feet by staying home that's a real worry to the obama campaign. they need to do what president bush did in 2004, which is get out every last one of their voters. this could be a very specific, almost mechanical task of the obama campaign to identify those voters. they're trying to reach out right now to every single person who voted for them or connected with them in '08. they're trying to have a personal contact with them, get them into their network for this time. and try to get them to use their own personal social networks to

talk about obama 2012. it all started with that little "i'm in" tag on facebook, and it's going on with the campaign. >> lead story on politico right now about the president's personal reelection strategy. he says it's about going negative but keeping the president's hands clean in the process. how does he do that? >> yeah, i think you'll agree that everyone we talk to says this is going to be a filthy campaign. there's a great story where a democratic consultant says this campaign is going to be an mri of the soul. an intensely personal contest. the obama campaign is going to try to portray mitt romney as hollow. the key is to get their allies to do it, to get the staff to do it, to get the president splattered with this mug. the guy at top owns what's said below him. >> and they're already up with an ad. an anti-romney ad.

>> are they having a kegger over there at politico right now? there's screaming going on in the background from people who must be younger. >> well, i'm sorry, who's screaming in the background over there, mike? >> we always have good times at "politico." >> oh, that's not the answer, herman cain. i'm going to ask you again. wow. all right. >> jim vandehei. >> get back to the party. the theo epstein era has began in chicago. we'll be right back on "morning joe." ♪ ♪ [ multiple sounds making melodic tune ] ♪

[ male announcer ] at northrop grumman, every innovation, every solution, comes together for a single purpose -- to make the world a safer place. that's the value of performance. northrop grumman. and here's what we did today: supported nearly 3 million steady jobs across our country... ... scientists, technicians, engineers, machinists... ... adding nearly 400 billion dollars to our economy... we're at work providing power to almost a quarter of our homes and businesses... ... and giving us cleaner rides to work and school... and tomorrow, we could do even more. cleaner, domestic, abundant and creating jobs now. we're america's natural gas. the smarter power, today. learn more at anga.us.

my son and i never missed opening day. but with copd making it hard to breathe, i thought those days might be over. so my doctor prescribed symbicort. it helps significantly improve my lung function, starting within 5 minutes. symbicort doesn't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden symptoms. with symbicort, today i'm breathing better, and that means... game on! symbicort is for copd, including chronic bronchitis and emphysema. it should not be taken more than twice a day. symbicort may increase your risk of lung infections, osteoporosis, and some eye problems. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking it. [ whistle ] with copd, i thought i might miss out

on my favorite tradition. now symbicort significantly improves my lung function, starting within 5 minutes. and that makes a difference in my breathing. today i'm back with my favorite team. ask your doctor about symbicort. i got my first prescription free. call or click to learn more. [ male announcer ] if you can't afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help.

time for a little sports. the theo epstein era in chicago has begun. they fired mike quade after his first season. he wants to start 2012 with a "clean slate." quade and the cubs finished 71-91 last season, placed fifth in the nl central. according to reports, epstein has already ruled out former cubs hall of fame second baseman and fan favorite ryan sanberg to

succeed quade because he has no previous managing experience. there's a football game you might have heard saturday night. but here's what a lot of us are going to be watching. if you've got $20 and some time to kill, you're going to want to catch a pay per view celebrity boxing card that includes jose canseco versus lennie dykstra. both players have had interesting baseball careers. canseco wrote the book "exposing the steroid problem" and has since tried his hand at reality tv. and dykstra recently was charged with possession of drugs and grand theft auto. it's an incredible undercard. the octomom is also fighting amy fisher. joey will be fighting amy's

current husband. and kato kaylin is fighting salahi. >> she has her list of the top ten most respected people in america, you named them all. >> joe, you'll have to get the picture in picture going saturday night, you'll have the game going and then salahi in the upper radio iight. >> that's going on at the same time? >> sophie's choice. >> it is sophie's choice. a proud tradition at a small college in arkansas. first home game ever season at john brown university, the fans wait for the first point of the season, then they shower the court with t.p. got to love it. a 30-year-old tradition for the golden eagles. it does result in a technical foul against the team. but they take that technical foul for the tradition. the home team went on to win 101-58. >> got to love it.

>> they lost by one. vegas has knocked the line down to 4 1/2 for saturday's game. >> i'm worried. i don't know what we're going to do. >> they're edging toward the honey badgers. >> it is that honey badger. what's the saying again? shoots up -- >> oh, too far. >> oh, takes what he wants. i've never heard that before. is that a bergen county saying? >> wherever the honey badger lives. >> what's a honey badger? coming up next, mika's must-read opinion pages. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. look, every day we're using more and more energy.

the world needs more energy. where's it going to come from? ♪ that's why right here, in australia, chevron is building one of the biggest natural gas projects in the world. enough power for a city the size of singapore for 50 years. what's it going to do to the planet? natural gas is the cleanest conventional fuel there is. we've got to be smart about this. it's a smart way to go. ♪ it's a smart way to go.

or creates another laptop bag or hires another employee, it's not just good for business. it's good for the entire community. at bank of america, we know the impact that local businesses have on communities. that's why we extended $7.8 billion to small businesses across the country so far this year. because the more we help them, the more we help make opportunity possible. [ cat meows ] ♪ [ acoustic guitar: pop ] [ woman ] ♪ i just want to be okay ks ] ♪ be okay, be okay ♪ i just want to be okay today - ♪ i just want to know today - [ whistles ] ♪ know today, know today - [ cat meows ] - ♪ know that maybe i will be okay ♪ [ chimes ] travelers can help you protect the things you care about... and save money with multi-policy discounts. are you getting the coverage you need... and the discounts you deserve? for an agent or quote, call 800-my-coverage... or visit travelers.com.

i do view china as a potential military threat. they've indicated they're trying to develop nuclear capability. >> nation. we cannot allow china to develop nukes, especially since they developed them in 1964. i am telling you, if you don't act fast, they might end up building a wall to keep foreigners out. what? no! >> all right. welcome back to "morning joe." it's time to do our must reads. and the "new york times" again. and it's gail collins, and she writes about the day of the armadillo. does he want to feed illegal immigrants to alligators or electrocute them? did he sexually harass women when he was chief of the national restaurant association?

did he ever notice that being chief of the restaurant association was a high falutin way of saying lobbyist? really, by now, they're probably so numb you could come up to them and say, is it true that your candidate was once a pirate? and they would promise to look into it. sexual harassment is a serious subject, but herman cain isn't. honestly, i've tried. i read the book, i watched the debate, many interesting conversations, but i can't go there anymore. i do not believe that under any circumstances, the republicans are going to vote for a motivational speaker who seems to regard running for president of the united states as an expanded book tour. and you know, governor, that's sort of this position that a lot of people are in. we don't -- couple of weeks ago mika said enough with putting rick perry news items at the top because even though he was still

ahead in the polls, it seemed like his candidacy was a joke. and we're there with herman cain too. you just sit and think, there's no way this guy could win. so let's not put him, you know, in the top of the news. as gail collins says, i can't take this guy seriously, and yet he's at the top of all of the republican polls. >> two things, joe. number one, i think no offense to gail collins because she's a very good writer, but i think she's ignoring what the republican base thinks and feels. you know, those people aren't dumb. they obviously know herman cain's short comings, and they're to overlook those for something else, and that's someone who is the genuine article. which is why this personal stuff hurts him most of all. second thing, though, gail is basically right. in the end, you can't close your eyes and think about any of those republican candidates accepting the nomination in

minneapolis except for mitt romney. it's impossible to think of any of them doing it. >> i don't see how it happens. >> i don't see how it happens either. >> and you know, the biggest problem, though, is, kelly, you have a lot of conservatives that don't trust mitt romney. they don't think he's a conservative. they talk about all of his flip-flops, and so it puts the party, you know -- >> which is why the prolonged dance with other candidates. >> the prolonged dance. and republicans are about as depressed about this field as any field i've seen in a long time. >> i think when you look at perry for all of the difficulties he has had and the weaknesses he's exposed, he still is standing as a governor in a big state with a bit of a story to tell. if he could come back -- >> we said that last week, but look at what he did this past weekend in new hampshire. he can say what he wants to say, he blew himself up. i'm not saying he was drunk, but there was something serious going on there. for -- >> i watched that whole speech. i wasn't in the room, and i talked to a number of people in

the room. and they were not as taken by that in the moment. have you talked to people who said this? he was -- it was not one of those moments like the howard dean scream. if you were in the room when that happened, you did not recognize how it would play because of the difference between being in the room and watching it on television. now, having said that, it still has the impact it has. and so some of the things, the eye rolling and some of his animation and his kind of silly demeanor does stick. that hurts him. but he does still have maybe the best shot at trying to challenge. >> but again, and i think that's pretty much on the money. you say it all the time, joe. rick perry will not play in suburban philadelphia where pennsylvania is won or lost with those moderate republican and independent voters. and there's only one candidate on the horizon for them that has a chance of playing well there, and that's mitt romney. >> hold on, why does rick perry have to play there if we're looking at the context of a primary campaign? >> well, because i do think -- i

know yesterday you discussed this a little bit. and some of the base voters are saying we don't care about winnability. but that's not true about the mass republican voters. they care about winnability. >> you start in iowa, you go to new hampshire, south carolina, florida. once it starts rolling around to the northeast, there is a reason why in the republican party despite all of the preliminaries, john mccain wins, bob dole wins, gerald ford wins, you can go on and on, that moderate republicans win. by the time it rolls around to the big states and you start going to new york and pennsylvania, michigan, illinois, the midwest. you know, those people are not going to vote for herman cain. they're not going to vote for michele bauchmann. they're not going to vote for rick perry. they're just not. >> a good example of that is we had a republican primary for governor in 2010. tom corbin who was viewed a

moderate, now, he wasn't that well funded, but he got like 9% of the vote in a republican primary. and we're a closed primary state, independents, democrats, can't vote. that's about what the base -- this tea party base is in pennsylvania. >> we're living in a very different election system in that we have things called super pacs which can essentially fund a candidate even if he or she is down in the polls and really has no incoming donations on his or her own. and if there is one candidate who can rely on a network of funds like that is perry. he doesn't have to go out there and rely on funds, he has wealthy backers. >> which is why if you're barack obama you love it, he has to nuke herman cain, but he also has to nuke mitt romney. >> that's why mitt romney's being having the greatest week ever because everyone's focused on herman cain. >> except as governor rendell said -- >> the dnc ad.

>> yeah. >> it's a brutal ad. >> let's take a look at what the democratic national committee is putting out this week about mitt romney. >> governor romney, are you a member of the tea party? >> hey, i'm for the tea party. i believe a lot of what the tea party believes in. >> governor romney, you're campaigning as the man who can fix the economy, let's look at your record, sir. two u.s. plants were closed, 2,000 workers were laid off. >> of course they are. everything corporations earn ultimately goes to the people. where do you think it goes? >> upper income wall street is romney. >> is romney. >> don't try to stop the foreclosure process, let it hit the bottom. >> let detroit go bankrupt, bankrupt. >> when you were governor, massachusetts ranked 47th in job growth. >> i would have favored justices

like scalia and thomas. >> in the world stock market. >> all right. and, willie geist, sam stein corrected us, that wasn't a dnc ad. that was a bill by bill burton and his group. but again, the focus -- governor said same thing. but anyway. >> we're splitting hairs here. >> well, no -- >> broadly speaking, yes. >> bill's out there doing the president's bidding. and he's got an independent group. but the white house is -- you listen to david axelrod, and my gosh, he's singularly focused on going after mitt romney. the white house has decided none of these other guys are serious players. it all comes down to mitt romney. what do you think about that ad? >> well, i think -- i think it will be effective to people who see mitt romney as out of touch. that we talked about that photograph on the cover of "new york" magazine this week, from

his early days at bain capital. it is a little ironic, the populous message, the anti-wall street message given president obama's pursuit of wall street dollars over the years. i think if they're trying to create a caricature of romney with a top hat and monokl, i think they've done it with that ad. >> my ad against my primary opponent, i just had three quotes on a full page. just three quotes. nothing else and people would -- it's the most devastating thing. and if i were running against mitt romney in a general election, i would have that quote where he says just ride the housing market all the way to the bottom. and the other quote -- the quote about corporations are people too. there's pretty devastating quotes out there. >> i couldn't figure out mitt romney. i know him -- i got to know him when we were both governors.

he was a good governor of massachusetts. and he's an intelligent man. how can you be so tone deaf to go into nevada, the state with the most foreclosures in the country and make that statement. even if it were true in a macro economic sense, even if it was, don't say it. >> yeah. >> he has no ear. >> yeah. >> and those are -- there are some quotes there that are going to come back, i think, to haunt him. >> and yet he's a better candidate this time than he was four years ago. >> oh, gosh. >> he's more comfortable in his skin. but that nevada quote gets at what i think is the personification of a dangerous path for him. which is he has basically gone very, very, very far to the right and he's losing -- there's a front page article about how as governor he held all of these liberal positions. he's basically losing that moderate appeal he had and it could come back to haunt him. >> the only thing moderate about him now is the way he looks and acts, et cetera. >> in the context of the

republican -- >> right. he looks like he's running against a ship full of lunatics. >> that's not a nice thing to say. >> they're nice lunatics. >> i will say i spoke to republicans on the hill yesterday. republican communications association. and, you know, i come on the show every day and say what i say about my republican party. and then when you're exposed to twitter and everything else you think, wow, everybody -- everybody in my party is just like way out there. no, they're not. and you talk to a lot of republicans on the hill, and they will tell you the same thing, which is these presidential candidates are killing us up here. they're killing our bosses back in their home districts. they're helping the president, they're fretting because, again, you go back to past presidential years, you always had at least two or three or four solid

candidates. and the thing is i -- for instance, herman cain, i'm sure he's a good guy. he's not qualified to be president. and i -- you know, and i said -- >> people on the hill had never met him. >> but i said that to him. let me ask you guys, who knows more about not only tax poll but foreign policy and everything else? herman cain or dave camp? and i went through a litany. you can name 200 people in the republican party in the house of representatives that are more qualified than everybody running for president other than mitt romney. i guess you have to put newt gingrich in there, he was speaker of the house. >> and huntsman. >> huntsman. >> think of what the field could have been, mitch daniels -- >> jeb. >> chris christie, some giants. >> and none of them took the bait. >> what does that say about the process? >> something bad about the process. >> says republicans are in trouble this year. still ahead, presidential

candidate ron paul will be here. he's running, he's qualified, and he's going to have fun on "morning joe." we'll be back with willie's news you can't use. capital one's new cash rewards card

gives you a 50% annual bonus! so you earn 50% more cash. according to research, everybody likes more cash. well, almost everybody... ♪ would you like 50% more cash? no! but it's more money. [ male announcer ] the new capital one cash rewards card. the card for people who want 50% more cash.

what's in your wallet? woah! [ giggles ] ♪ [ multiple sounds making melodic tune ] ♪ [ male announcer ] at northrop grumman, every innovation, every solution, comes together for a single purpose -- to make the world a safer place. that's the value of performance. northrop grumman.

oh, yes, it's time isn't it? >> it is, mika. >> please. >> time for news you can't use. >> okay. >> remember the rick perry speech friday in new hampshire? >> yes, yes. >> yeah. >> monday's "daily show," there's a reason for showing you all this.

jon stewart made an unkind suggestion about what led to the performance of rick perry in that speech. >> that little plan that i just shared with you doesn't force the granite state to expand your tax footprint. if you know what i mean. like 9% in expansion. >> best-case scenario, that dude's hammered. worst-case scenario, that is perry sober and every time we've seen him previously he's been hammered. >> all right. so that was jon stewart's theory on that. yesterday governor perry responded to those charges good-natureredly to the san francisco chronicle, he pointed out he did not drink prior to taking the stage but would not mind getting together with jon stewart to throw a few back. it's not that i wouldn't love to sit down with jon and have a glass of wine if he'll buy. we'll see if he takes him up on that offer. >> okay. >> wine.

"forbes" put out the list of the most powerful people on the face of the earth yesterday. david cameron is number ten. mark zuckerberg, the ninth most powerful person on the face of the earth. two spots behind the pope. how is that for a 27-year-old kid? not bad. moving into the top five, you've got bill gates at five, angela merkel at four, hu jintao at number three. who would be number one? would it be president obama? would it be vlad putin? clearly "forbes" saw this video last week. >> it hurt him. >> well, not that video per se where it's frozen on the shot of the other guy he's playing. they dropped him down to number two. so that means our president can claim the mantle of most powerful man on the face of the earth. once again he lost the number one spot last year, but he's number one again. >> go team. >> hey, willie, do you have any stories about indian reality

shows or game shows? >> it's so funny you asked that. they're calling this the real life slumdog millionaire. it happened in india. this, of course, is the film version of that show. a clerk who makes $120 a month. the shop clerk was playing last night. he got the final question for $1 million. here it goes. [ speaking foreign language ] >> a million bucks. how about that reaction too? dousing himself in water. that's great. that's awesome. >> that's what i'm going to be doing this weekend watching the football game. pouring beer all over my head. >> i hope it's in celebration. >> you know, by the way, willie, you know eric erickson at red

stay. >> sure. >> over at cnn. >> yeah. >> i thought he was a good conservative, god-fearing guy. he wrote a hate-filled tweet. i think he's cheering for lsu this weekend. >> oh. seriously? a louisiana guy? >> he must be. are there no true conservatives left in america? >> we ask this question every day. >> ron paul's here. >> coming up. >> and you're here. where did you come from? >> well, i thought i'd roll in. my dad's coming, so i wanted to say hi. >> and of course, the great bob woodward straight ahead. 3 days, it's been 3 weeks. so, i used my citi simplicity card to pick up a few things. and i don't have to worry about a late fee. which is good... no! bigger! bigger! [ monica ] ...because i don't think we're going anywhere for a while. [ male announcer ] write your story with the new citi simplicity card. no late fees. no penalty rate. no worries. get started at citisimplicity.com.

to bring you a low-priced medicare prescription drug plan. ♪ with the lowest national plan premium... ♪ ...and copays as low as one dollar... ♪ ...saving on medicare prescriptions is easy. ♪ so you're free to focus on the things that really matter. call humana at 1-800-808-4003. or go to walmart.com for details. it's me? alright emma, i know it's not your favorite but it's time for your medicine, okay? you ready? one, two, three.

[ both ] ♪ emma, emma bo-bemma ♪ banana-fana-fo-femma ♪ fee-fi-fo-femma ♪ em-ma very good sweety, how do you feel? good. yeah? you did a really good job, okay? let's go back to drawing. an accident doesn't have to slow you down. with better car replacement, if your car is totaled, we give you the money for a car one model year newer. liberty mutual auto insurance. ♪ oh, beautiful ♪ for spacious skies ♪ ♪ for amber waves of grain ♪ ♪ for purple mountain [ male announcer ] for the first 100 years and for generations to come, thanks for making us a part of your life.

♪ whoa

the perry campaign needs to apologize to herman cain and his family and america for this despicable actions, and quite frankly "politico" too. will they admit they spoke to these women? why, because they have nothing and cited unnamed sources. >> welcome back to "morning joe." look at that live look at the capitol in washington, d.c. where we are. before the sun comes up. welcome back, sam stein still with us here in washington, and joining the table, republican presidential candidate and texas congressman ron paul. good to have you on the show, sir. and associate editor of "the washington post," bob woodward. we were at chris matthews' party last night and bob gave us the topics. >> he gave us the topics. he said it's the opposite and usually the shows call you up and say these are the things you're going to talk about for three minutes.

>> and there's a framework of questions put together by a 23-year-old producer -- >> we wake up and look at the papers -- bob last night was ready. we're laser focused on the supercommittee. so this is a perfect match-up here. >> look at this. >> we've got ron paul. >> we brought him for you. >> a guy who has been warning about the debt. and ron, let's start before we talk about america's debt. let's start with greece's debt. looks like a deal was made. now the greeks seem to be rebelling against hit once again proving they don't want to live within their means. what does it mean for the rest of us? >> we all face the same problem. nobody wants to admit the truth. the world is bankrupt, the system is bankrupt, it's not viable, and we're facing the same consequences because we spent way beyond our means and nobody wants to cut. all this talk is just talk. there aren't even cuts. even all the cuts are in the future five to ten years out. you have to cut back.

and that's not acceptable because there's too many people who have become too dependent. and they've been taught for many, many decades that deficits don't matter. deficits don't matter. and this keynesian idea that it's always the consumer that drives the economy, which i don't buy into. which means that the demand is that the consumers spend more money to stimulate the economy. well, they're broke and they don't have jobs and they have too many credit cards. so that can't be the solution. >> you know, bob, the problem is this, even if the supercommittee were to succeed by the low standards that we all have set for it, cutting $4 trillion. now, a decade ago, $4 trillion, that would have been significant. now $4 trillion doesn't even pay for what we've spent over the last four years. >> and they aren't going to go there. >> not even going to go there. >> they're talking about $1.2 trillion as the congressman points out over ten years, so that's maybe $100 billion a year.

and you get into the weeds on some of this, which i'm trying to do to answer the question, how is the economy being managed and what is the nature of the jeopardy we're in? take something you remember this from your days in congress. farm subsidies. okay. they talk and they say we can cut $29 billion in farm subsidies. and the republicans say okay, that's a great idea, let's do it. and then the white house comes in and says, no, let's only cut farm subsidies 2% of that for rich farmers. and so you're talking night and day, and they are not together on this, and you go through item after item and it gets blown up, and they don't agree on even the small bites. >> you know, $1.5 trillion, if that's what they're talking about cutting, ron, over a

decade is such a joke considering that last christmas the president and the republican congress agreed to a plan that raised the deficit immediately or the national debt by an additional $1 trillion. nope, nobody is serious on capitol hill. i mean, who is -- what's happened? >> well, i don't think you can accuse me of not being serious. >> well, when i say nobody's serious. >> because i think -- >> it's a very, very -- >> i think it's so dangerous and so bad and we're facing something the world has never faced before that my token effort to start off would be to cut $1 trillion in one year of real cuts. and i think it would be helpful. and i argue this because of what we did after world war ii. we cut spending 60% and cut taxes 30%. and we sent 10 million people into the workforce and guess what? it finally ended the depression. people went back to work again because the changes occurred,

the debt had been liquidated, and we were ready to go back to work again. so you just can't solve the problem of spending and debt with more spending and debt and printing of money. it's absurd, and they are not changing their mind -- >> in the word that's not been used here, which is the word in greece, austerity. here everyone's talking about, oh, this is a -- this is a manageable -- it's like they talk about iraq and afghanistan and say hard, but not hopeless. but when you again go to the numbers time and time again, there is not agreement on the smallest things. now, i think the campaign next year's going to get down to presidential leadership. can you manage the economy? does somebody have their hands on the steering wheel? and i think the sense people have now is there are no hands or 20 hands on the steering wheel, and somebody's got to come up and say this is the

plan, let's face it. and, you know, the public voters are not going to like the word austerity. but that's where we're headed. >> i don't disagree with you at all. sam stein, i wonder, though, if that person, whoever that person is who has to say that has to also say we are not going to get back to where we were. this is going to be a long process, and unemployment is going to last probably this long or this long and this is what we're going to have to do to reboot. who has the guts to say that? there's not a lot of hope in our current situation of rectifying it to back to before the bubble burst. >> i would argue to a certain extent he's been criticized for it. president obama has gone on and said this is going to be a long slog and that the economy that we once had, which was manufacturing based largely is not going to be the economy that we have in the future. let me just add a few data points to this because i think it's worthwhile to note. that in addition to the $1.2 trillion that the supercommittee wants to cut, they did achieve about $900 billion to $1 trillion of cuts in august.

and in addition to that, there is supposed to be, we have to wait and see for this, another $1 trillion in savings from drawing down the war. those still don't get to the crux of the matter. we have predominantly health care costs problem in this country. one of the ways to solve it is not simply just to cut, which is valid, but to get people back to work so that we can actually increase the tax base in this country. and one of the questions is, how do you get people back to work? and does government play a role? now, i know where you stand on that. government probably should not play a role. but i'm wondering in the interim for you, would there be anything that you would be proud of or support the government doing to stimulate job growth to expand the tax base? >> well, the government does have a role. they l ought to let us spend the money. i don't talk in terms of austerity and sacrifice. because i tell the people i visit with that it's not a sacrifice for you to get your freedom back and get the market back and you get to spend the money. the people who sacrifice are the people who have been living off

the government and the taxpayers. they don't need any more bailouts. it's not a sacrifice for people who want to take care of themselves. >> what does the government do between now and let's say three months to maybe get some job growth? >> is there anything the government can do? >> the only thing you can do is to show the people you're going to change the direction of the country. it's not a budgetary problem, it's a philosophy problem. you can't cut nickels and dimes from the militarism in the military budget unless you change the foreign policy. you can't cut entitlements unless you give up on the principle of entitlements. we have to decide whether we want to live within the confines of the constitution or continue to do what we've been doing, which means that the demands are growing and the anger is increasing. >> but no one really wants to bite the bullet on this. you're talking numbers $900 billion or $1 trillion cut here and so forth. and if you really followed the numbers and get beyond the smoke and mirrors, a lot of those numbers are rounding errors.

we now have an annual deficit of $1.6 trillion, that's in one year. and if you go out and say, well, let's cut a little less than that in ten years -- come on -- >> those aren't rounding errors, those are budget caps set, not rounding errors. >> ron, it seems to me, this is your time. this should be your time as a presidential candidate. i've been talking about deficits and the debt since 1994. and i've been talking about it nonstop. but you were talking about it before i came to congress, you've talked about it after i left congress. you've been talking about this for 20 to 25 years. i always go back to your quote. it was actually in september of 2003, when you predicted -- it's frightening, bob, he predicted exactly what was going to happen with fannie and freddie and the banks. he said this is going to create a housing bubble, it's going to be a housing bubble that's going to spread a virus through the entire economy, across the entire world, and when it pops, we're in big trouble.

so you've been predicting this coming debt crisis. what are people telling you out on the campaign trail? >> well, people i talked to the other day, i had 1,200 people come out at the university of iowa and they were enthusiastic about it. so no, i just think that time has changed. well, if this is true and they're coming my way, why am i not on the top? well, tell you what, we have a solid base, the country has changed dramatically different. i can compare to four years ago. >> you're sensing it on the campaign trail. >> yeah. just think of the success with the federal reserve. bernanke has to go before the people at press conferences. they're on the defensive now. 65% of the american people say we need to know how they're passing out this credit. $15 trillion worth of credit. they're bigger than the congress. $5 trillion went to foreigners. >> bob, you're all about transparency. and you know ron has obviously been focused on the fed for a long time. it is extraordinary the power

that federal chairman have behind closed doors. how did we get to a position where one of the most powerful people in the world is able to act -- it won't say with impunity, but certainly without the most basic democratic checks. >> well, it's all about money and following that money, the power of money. >> does that bother you? does that arrangement where the fed chief has so much power and they work in secret? >> well, it certainly -- but there's more and more transparency as we know. and right now, there's not much they can do because we effectively have zero interest rates. so their lever is gone as you well know. so in a sense, they're reduced to pronouncements in press conferences and quantitative easing and so forth, which is, you know, is something that's not the old interest rate lever which really has an impact or can have an impact on the economy. >> so congressman, why is herman

cain at the top of the polls? >> i think he's gotten, you know, some very big boosts. the week where he really soared, he won a straw vote in florida. and he was on the news constantly. and, oh, wow, look at that. that same week, i won the straw vote in california. >> yeah. >> zero coverage. >> why is that? >> i think i'm attacking the status quo like never before. i mean, the whole entitlement system, and i think there's a lot more support out there for what i'm talking about than they realize. and they're not going to give me a boost because i'm challenging the whole banking system, the military industrial complex, the welfare state, our foreign policy. i want to go back to following strictly the constitution. it's not in the cards right now except the growing number of people is very significant. so the movement is in our direction. because of this failure. you talk about the failure of the fed. this is significant. they don't have any cards left

to play. this whole economy has no cards left to play. so this is going to be reversed. just as -- >> so if you're given a date of austerity -- >> i'm the candidate of liberty where people have energy and incentives. >> but to get there, we're going to have a real long drought of austerity aren't we? >> no, the record shows that when you do it, it only takes about a year. 1921 depression you should look at as well as what my example was of world war ii. in a year, everybody goes back to work. 10 million people. >> you don't want to have the campaign slogan midnight in america. >> yeah, but. the people that come to my rallies are enthusiastic. they say this is the most positive thing we've ever heard. you know why? because we're admitting the truth and saying there's something seriously wrong, we have to make a difference. because if you're in total denial and we continue to lie to ourselves, there's no hope. it's sort of like getting better

from cancer and not admitting you have it and taking the medication. but the medication isn't nearly as bad as they'd like to paint it to be. it's not sacrificing. >> let's go from budget to afghanistan, something we talk about around this table all the time. bob, you've talked about it a good bit. congressman, obviously you've been very concerned for a very long time. >> right. >> with america's ever expanding military state. the white house is now talking about looking into -- looking into possibly drawing down an afghanistan quicker. could you explain why we are still in afghanistan after a decade? >> no sane reason for us to be there. and this drawing down in iraq is a complete farce. they're not drawing down. i mean, we have an embassy there, the biggest in the world, it's a fortress, 700,000 people, there are going to be contractors. we may take a few troops out and spin them around, more troops in kuwait. we are not vacating anything.

and -- as long as we're there, as long as we're there, believe me, there'll be incentive to kill us. >> can i ask you something on that? because i've been to a bunch of your speeches on the trail, and usually when you get to the foreign policy section of your speech you'll see half of the crowd cheer you wildly and the other half will start booing. i'm wondering if you can talk a little bit about republican politics with respect to foreign policy specifically. >> very convoluted. >> look at the past ten years and starting with the rise of the neo conservative wing and where the republican party stands now as a unit. >> i think what you're saying is a strictly republican meeting. >> yeah. >> but if i go to a campus, it's 95%. these young people bearing the burden, inheriting the debt and fighting these wars and the military. guess what, i get more money from active military duty, twice as much as the rest of the other candidates. they are sick and tired of it. >> did you know that, bob? in the '08 campaign while you

have neo cons trashing ron paul because he's saying bring the troops home, in the last campaign and in this campaign, military members and their families gave easily more to ron than anybody else because they understand the strain better than some politician or somebody in a think tank in washington, d.c. that this is putting. it is a readiness issue. it's ever expanding. >> but at the same time, i think you have to give credit to president obama on this. he is drawing down. now, the question is, and lots of other republicans say he may be doing that too fast in iraq, that he needs some troops there as an insurance policy. and there's a certain rationale there. but the white house is on the pentagon on spending on getting troops out of afghanistan and iraq. but you're right, joe, we're not taking the flag down. no president wants to --

>> we're spending $2 billion a week in afghanistan. and you talk about college campuses. i have yet to find people outside of washington, d.c., ron, that think it makes sense for us to spend $2 billion a week in afghanistan a decade later. >> it absolutely makes no sense. and there's no money. we're in this huge deficit. and if we can't cut the occupation of these countries, there's no hope for us. let me tell you, there's no hope for us. we better be willing to do it. we have to change policy. if the design is to police the world and nation build and solidify everybody's borderlines, believe me, we're doomed because we're doing exactly what the soviets did. we need to take care of our people at home. how do you get medical care at home if you're spending all of this money bombing people and rebuilding their countries? it's insane. >> and the rationale for staying in afghanistan is to keep al qaeda from coming back into

afghanistan. and as we know, al qaeda's had a bad couple of years. >> they have. >> and they are going back into afghanistan. >> but they're in iraq now, they weren't there when we went to war. so we're only giving incentive -- >> congressman ron paul, very good to have you on the set. please come back. >> great to see you. >> good luck. we'll be right back with former national security adviser dr. brzezinski. am i in trouble? did i do something wrong? the employee of the month isss... the new spark card from capital one. spark miles gives me the most rewards of any small business credit card. the spark card earns double miles... so we really had to up our game.

with spark, the boss earns double miles on every purchase, every day. that's setting the bar pretty high. owning my own business has never been more rewarding. coming through! [ male announcer ] introducing spark the small business credit cards from capital one. get more by choosing unlimited double miles or 2% cash back on every purchase, every day. what's in your wallet? the world needs more energy. where's it going to come from? ♪ that's why right here, in australia, chevron is building one of the biggest natural gas projects in the world. enough power for a city the size of singapore for 50 years. what's it going to do to the planet? natural gas is the cleanest conventional fuel there is. we've got to be smart about this. it's a smart way to go. ♪ [ male announcer ] know the feeling? try acuvue® oasys brand contact lenses with hydraclear® plus for exceptional comfort. it feels like it disappeared on my eye! [ male announcer ] discover why it's the brand eye doctors

trust most for comfort. acuvue® oasys brand.

you view china as a potential military threat to the united states. >> yes, they're a military threat. they've indicated they're trying to develop nuclear capability, and they want to develop more aircraft carriers like we have. so, yes, we have to consider them a military threat. >> yes, china has indicated it would like to develop nuclear

capability. perhaps as soon as the 1960s. worse yet, i understand -- that the chinese at this very moment are on the verge of developing a cookie that can predict the future. how do you defeat an enemy whose pastries know what you're going to do next? that's the scandal. >> wow. >> okay. welcome back to "morning joe." it is 24 past the hour. >> did you hear that? >> what? >> they're going to create a cookie that predicts the future. >> okay. >> stephen colbert says that china is actually thinking about also building a big wall to keep invaders out. >> okay. terrific. is it an electric fence? >> it'll be in the middle of europe. >> joining us now onset former national security adviser for president carter dr. brzezinski. i've been reading your book because i got an advance copy.

>> how exciting. >> it's available on amazon. >> no, not yet. >> no, and then -- i asked him if i'd done something wrong because he had that look and he said not yet. so i'm just going to be quiet. >> the day is young. >> this is going to be a bad day. >> can you believe, bob woodward, that the guy leading the republican field had no idea that the chinese had nuclear weapons since 1964? >> that's a surprise. >> and he's leading the polls. >> i mean, but -- you know, it's not his focus. and -- and it's not clear what his focus is. and it's going to be very interesting to see what happens in the next couple of weeks on all of this. herman cain has got that -- you know it, you've seen it, that ceo bluster that lots of ceos have, lots of other people have too. and is that what people want in a president?

don't you sometimes -- don't you probably always have to take the bluster out? >> i guess the question to dr. brzezinsk brzezinski, what does it say about american's focus on foreign policy? >> they did have their nuclear explosion in 1964. and they've had the capability to build nuclear wes and they have built some nuclear weapons. and they have been remarkably restrained in the deployment of missiles that could reach the united states. we have literally hundreds, actually thousands of weapons targeted on china. the chinese may have a couple of dozen, maybe a little more. icbms targeted on western united states, a my cities along the western rim. >> you want to be careful. we're not sitting with the

missiles ready to go. >> well, they're part of the targeting system -- few levers and so forth. >> yes. that's right. but the president has to give that authority, even to get it on the floor. >> i know a little bit about that. >> this just in, by the way, dr. brzezinski has now given herman cain his new slogan. put this on the bumper sticker "stumbling toward accuracy." that's right. >> that sort of -- >> let's talk about what's going on right now in europe. specifically in greece. the g-20's together, but all eyes are on greece. what does it mean for the rest of us? >> well, what it means for the european union, it's really not a union. it will survive. you know, the european union was preceded by the european community. the irony is, the european community, which was smaller than the european union, much more western europe was much tighter.

then it became the union, but they don't have a union, they have a very loose confederation. they can develop common policies and insist on them. so either greece stumbles into default and leaves the union with enormously negative impact on that union and threatens them sequentially, particularly italy and spain, or greece accommodates and more or less tries to survive under the new restraint, probably cheats along the way, but accommodates at the same time, and we stumble forward. >> bob? >> big impact everywhere. i mean it's like the domino effect. because what goes on there affects europe. what affects europe affects the united states in the world and it's scary. i was driving my 15-year-old daughter to school and some of her friends yesterday and asked them, do you know about greece? and they said, oh, yes, ancient greece. and i said maybe you better

focus on modern greece because the impact of that could be giant. and you know, we're sitting in a situation of immense economic vulnerability for this country. and something can tip it and you look at the volatility of the stock market, somebody does something that might happen and they think it's going to work and the stock market shoots up and then everyone says, oh, maybe it's not going to, and it shoots down. enormous vulnerability. >> but in a way, there's a paradox here. precisely because the european union is not a union. and is therefore not established, geared toward making significant decisions and enforcing them. the worse, the better might not be that bad because it is forcing european leadership to really concentrate on what you just said, the potential consequences of inaction. and that, i think, is the stimulus that's forcing the

french and the germans to collaborate, the british to go along, and we to be sympathetically helpful even though there isn't much we can do about it. >> let's talk about the deal that was struck with syria agreeing to a plan from the arab league. what is the future for syria? where do they sit right now? >> well, they'll either evolve toward the kind of turkish/saudi patronage or iranian patronage, because they need outside support. >> isn't it more likely with the power structure there they're going to go more toward the iranian model? >> well, if they are desperate. but in the long run, the syrians are smart enough to know their futures are better if they have more accommodation. this offers more prosperity, more opportunity. some years ago, assad was actually seriously toying with the idea of reforming the system, opening it up, making it economically more pluralistic,

less statist, but all of that has fizzled out. >> we always hear -- and tell us how accurate this is. for the past five years or so, you've heard that assad wants to be a reformer, he wants to move forward with his country, but they are keeping him chained to the proverbial radiator and won't let assad be assad. >> that sounds very nice because let assad be assad may be what's happening right now. >> you hear he's just a young reformer -- >> that's how he started. there's no doubt there was some significant difference of opinion between him and his immediate supporters, including his vice president and the establishment. and the syrians did open up their economy. not totally, but significantly. and the disparity between the two conditions accentuated, and then assad saw a minority group,

and that also is a problem because they're always terribly insecure. >> the current national security adviser, every now and then they call all the former national security advisers together in this club. and get together. i don't know they've done this recently, but suppose that happened, went around the table and said what are the two or three countries we should worry about the most that we're not really giving enough attention to? what would be on your list? >> you mean in the middle east? >> anywhere in the world. >> well, pakistan obviously comes to mind immediately because it has -- >> that's the -- >> that's the most explosive. and beyond that, it is the general condition in the middle east where for the first time in 40 years, the united states which has been the principal promoter of peace and not necessarily the maker of peace, because i think we promote it more than we actually made it. there's only one president who made some serious progress towards peace.

and we have now decided not to be the promoter of peace, the fact that we haven't announced it. but the fact we have in effect decided to stand with one of the two parties with conflict. and that, i think, means that there's not going to be any serious progress towards peace. and the question is whether we can stumble along as we can right now or whether it'll explode. >> on that front, though. jay carney had stern words for the netanyahu government yesterday about settlements in east jerusalem. let's not look at that. >> how stern were they? >> deeply disappointed. >> deeply disappointed, we regret, we pray that you might reconsider. >> let me ask you -- i'm curious because -- >> i'm overwhelmed. >> there's three data points recently about israel that are sort of telling, i think. one is the settlements, the other is test firing those missiles. and the third is this report from the "a.p." that netanyahu's uh looking at or trying to get

officials to sanction a plan to take out the nuclear program. what do they mean? >> well, what i personally think is that next year, the move into the elections is going to be the moment that people like netanyahu, will be the moment of opportunity. >> yeah. >> to put the squeeze on the united states. and either to do something on their own against iran which then engages us anyway through iranian reaction. or better still get us to do it. and so i think we're pointed in that direction. but there are a lot of very intelligent israelis, including the former heads of the air force and so forth who think that's absolutely lunatic. and if we were a little more engaged to promote some sort of accommodation, i think we could perhaps avoid that. but i despair that in a situation of intense

partisanship, high vulnerability of the administration, we may just be passive or gone along with it. that, i think, would be a disaster much greater than afghanistan. >> why do you keep going? you keep doing this? decade after decade, keeping in touch with what's going on trying to think about it? >> well, because alternatives are so painful, unpleasant, and cruel. we do have a historically justified commitment to israel because of holocaust. that defines the context. but beyond that, we have the practical problem of balancing our own national interests with israel the interests. even sort of justice and stability in the region and how to tackle all of that requires a continuous engagement and a lot of guts. and i think in the last few months, we've certainly lost our momentum and our determination. >> so dad, before you go, as the president is working to get pieces of his jobs bill through and we're awaiting the results

of the debt supercommittee, i wonder if you think the administration is addressing the job situation enough, and the income disparity we're seeing in this country in a way that will be effective. and how do you think he should be addressing, confronting, or dealing with this occupy wall street movement? >> well, the occupy wall street movement is potentially a forerunner of civic unrest and civic conflict. and that is not desirable, obviously. i think we're a democracy. we should be able to solve our problems peacefully and not by force. but it is a reflection of impatience and more pervasive sense of injustice in our society. and every single statistic tells you that we have become one of the most socially unequal societies. not on the disparities between the rich and poor are wider here than almost all other countries except for china, brazil, and one or two more. but secondly, the opportunity to

rise up the social ladder is now slower in america than even western europe. so we have a situation in which we have to show compassion and identification and outrage at the social disparities and, you know, on your program, actually, i sort of vented an idea which occurred to me as one way of creating social pressure and reinforcing people like gates and warren buffett. to differentiate between those very rich with a social conscience and using their wealth to do something for society and those who grab the money, often achieved mostly by large scale speculation and go and hide and spend it on themselves. and i think one could so to speak put more pressure on that second group. you may have some alleviation of the pressures for the kind of things happening on wall street. that's not the solution. >> okay. it would be a good thanksgiving. i have some pictures of your granddaughters for you i'll show

you on the break. thank you very much. >> thank you, dr. brzezinski. >> this book. i'm excited. >> i can't wait for his book to come out. >> tell us everything. >> you can't tell anyone. >> why can't i tell anybody? >> we don't kill hamlet in the first act. >> i can tell, can't i? it's so good. >> what's to tell? >> strategic vision. >> there you go. >> and the subtitle is america and the crisis of global power, which is double play. america has a global power -- ♪ [ female announcer ] give a little cheer to a family of a soldier. just cut out the cheer from your specially marked box of cheerios, write your message, and we'll see that they get it.

all your important legal matters in just minutes. now it's quicker and easier for you to start your business... protect your family... and launch your dreams. at legalzoom.com we put the law on your side. and launch your dreams. diabetes testing? it's all the same. nothing changes. then try this. freestyle lite® blood glucose test strip. sure, but it's not gonna-- [beep] wow. yep, that's the patented freestyle zipwik™ design. did it just-- [both] target the blood? yeah, drew it right in. the test starts fast. you need just a third the blood of one touch.® that is different. so freestyle lite test strips make testing... easy? easy. great. call or click-- we'll send you strips and a meter, free. free is good.

freestyle lite test strips. call or click today.

all right. coming up, senator claire mccaskill, there is a lot to talk about, including how fabulous she looks. losing 50 pounds. this is a serious story. i am so excited for her. >> all right. nice to see you. >> next.

welcome back. joining us now, democratic senator from missouri claire mccaskill. >> who is this lady? i've never seen her. >> i don't recognize her. >> you are not claire mccaskill. >> really -- >> let's talk about really important things before we talk about you losing 50 pounds.

>> actually, that's pretty important. >> that's extraordinary. no, not to the people of missouri. let's talk first about the cardinals. extraordinary. >> can i just say to you -- >> and you know, it just shows you. i know it's cliche, but really you can never give up. there are days over there that i want to give up because this is really hard and people are dysfunctionally political and it's a food fight about elections instead of fixing stuff. but you just can't give up. this team was amazing, and i was at game six. the best world series game of all time. >> it was. and mike barnicle e-mailed me at 1:00 in the morning, and said you just saw one of the three or four best baseball games ever. and the cardinals had the best run. 10 1/2 games out in august, it really is from beginning to end the most remarkable run. let's also talk about missouri going in the southeastern conference. >> i'm kind of sad about that. >> i'm sad about it. i'm not nervous, but i'm sad because i've obviously grown up a big fan, i grew up in

columbia. my dad told me i could go anywhere i wanted to college, but keep in mind that if i went to k.u., i had to pay for it myself. i ended up paying for it myself because things didn't work out for my family to pay for it anyway. but it is hard for me to give up all of those rivalries that have been part of my growing up. you know, the o.u., the k.u., lsu, florida -- >> you don't want to -- >> vanderbilt, arkansas, although i like playing -- >> vanderbilt, you can make fun of willie once a year now. >> it's true. it's true. >> is willie still up there? or did he shove off? he shoved off about an hour and a half ago. >> i want to ask about the jobs bill. >> i want to go to the weight thing. >> no, i want to talk about the jobs bill. senate's going to vote on a $60 billion infrastructure bill. this is the piece-by-piece. does it have a shot of passing? >> no. >> what are we doing here? >> well, i think what we're

trying to do is -- frankly what we're trying to do is make sure the american people understand the contrast that's going on right now and how hard we're trying to work at this. i do think it does soften the field a little bit, plows the field for us to get back to a two-year extension of the surface transportation bill, in terms of jobs and economic development. >> we had a big breakthrough yesterday. >> a huge breakthrough. we had a bunch of republicans sign a letter saying that we needed to go big in terms of the supercommittee, that we can't nibble around the edges, that we need to look at our long-term debt and do something more than the bare minimum. and they said we should consider revenue. and a bunch of them have signed this thing, the man who shall not be named, grover norquist -- >> we not only name him, we have him on the show. >> grover norquist.

>> i don't get this. i don't get how we -- we have to be able to compromise on all of these things. we have to compromise on entitlements, we have to compromise on revenue. we have to compromise, compromise, compromise, and quit worrying about winning elections. because if you compromise with someone, then you are admitting you can work with them. >> right. >> and both parties are so anxious to prove that the other party's unreasonable. >> so democrats are obviously saying we're not going to go after entitlements unless there's tax increases, republicans are saying we don't trust democrats on spending cuts for a lot of reasons bob was talking about earlier today. how can we be assured? i'm a conservative guy, i signed grover's pledge, i never voted for a tax increase and i'm very proud of it. but we're in 2011 now and i would look across the table and say, claire, we can expand the tax base and sell this back at home by lowering the overall tax rate as long as we bring -- because that's what people in

missouri want, as well. we'll close the loopholes, but i'll be damned if i'm going to vote for my first tax increase in congressional history just to get a bunch of phony cuts a bun democrats. because they do that to republicans every time, they did it to 41. oh, you know, $2 of spending cuts for every $1 in tax revenue, grover says it and he's dead right. and all of these deals in the past you always get the tax increases. you never get real spending cuts. so how do we make sure this time -- because, again, you want it. people in missouri want it. how do you go back and tell people? these are real cuts. >> well, i think that just as this is a different time than when you signed the pledge with grover way back a long time ago -- >> the 1880s. >> oh, yeah. this is a different time i think for the vast majority of the democrats, too. i'm not going to sit here and bull and tell you that there aren't some people in micah cuss

that are still in denial. >> right. >> i mean, i'll never forget one of our meetings that somebody stood up who was an appropriator and said we can't cut another dime. >> is that amazing! >> are you kidding me? >> senator, do you ever go and know the house republicans like the 87 new ones who came in from the 2010 election, they are -- their feet are in concrete. their heads are in concrete. they are not going to add revenue. and they have promised this. unless you come up with some sort of real tax reform. but that's going to take a year or two to do it seriously. and i thought joe's point that there -- and this happens time and time again, the taxes stick, the cuts really don't. >> they don't. >> and you get into it, and then the congressional budget office, bless them, comes in and rescores it and says, oh, yeah, that's really not going to

happen. we didn't mean it, and you come up with smoke and mirrors again. >> i got to tell you the only thing -- one thing that is really different this time and one of the reasons i sponsored amendments with republicans for tax and lids with jeff sessions and also bob corker, i know how much missourians want us to cut spending. this is now politically important. if you talk to anybody who has been polling in this country for the last two years, there is a huge sentiment out among the people that i work for, they don't understand why everywhere they look people are cutting back. the city council is cutting back. the school board's cutting back. the state government's cutting back. and meanwhile, we are not. so, i think there is real political push now to make good on the spending cuts that will hold people accountable like there has never been before since i've been holding elective office. >> okay. so, couple years ago we were at an event -- i don't know if you remember. >> you were really rude. really rude to claire mccaskill. because i always am -- >> no. >> differential. >> it was, claire, my favorite

senator, who lashed out at me on stage. >> i was being funny, but i did lash out. >> do you remember what you said? >> i think i might have told you to maybe shut your mouth about being thin and healthy. >> right. and now look at you. 50 pounds later. >> holy cow. >> congratulations. >> it's amazing. >> to be able to do it hodgestly on your schedule with the events and traveling and all the different types of bad food available in this country, i want to know, first of all, how you did it and what inspired you to take this on right now. >> honestly, i knew -- first of all, i'm caring for my mom at home and she has adult onset of diabetes and she's 83. and i realize how hard things are for her, and i don't want that. i want to be active and fit for as long as possibly can. secondly, karl rove carted going up on tv with ads against me, and it's a year and a half away. and i realize, you know, i'm in the fight of my life here. >> yeah. >> i better get some energy.

i better get some focus because they're coming after me bigtime, so it's about scheduling -- >> i've heard -- you look fabulous, too. you look healthy. i don't mean that in any -- >> i need energy. >> yeah. >> have you written karl a thank you note? hey, karl rove, if you're watching, the karl rove diet, seriously, i'll buy it! >> do you know when he's going to get the thank you note? the first wednesday of november. >> there you go, when you win. >> so, how did you do it, though, really quickly? >> i did a lot of talking with my scheduler and said si have t have time to do the treadmill every single day. and now i take two days off, because i'm trying to maintain. five days a week i make sure i work out and i'm just being careful about what i eat. i don't eat bread and pasta except on very, very special occasions. and i don't drink alcohol except on very, very special occasions. i feel great. >> except when you wake up and go to bed. >> america's fight with food and

it's very novel that you've taken on, i'd love for you to be a part of this. >> i'd be happy to. >> go karl rove. go claire! >> she's my favorite, senator mccaskill. paul ryan on the other side. with a manual transmission? because there are those who still believe in the power of a firm handshake. the cadillac cts-v. manual or automatic, that's entirely up to you. we don't just make luxury cars, we make cadillacs. and here's what we did today: supported nearly 3 million steady jobs across our country... ... scientists, technicians, engineers, machinists... ... adding nearly 400 billion dollars to our economy... we're at work providing power to almost a quarter of our homes and businesses... ... and giving us cleaner rides to work and school... and tomorrow, we could do even more.

cleaner, domestic, abundant and creating jobs now. we're america's natural gas. the smarter power, today. learn more at anga.us. to bring you a low-priced medicare prescription drug plan. ♪ with the lowest national plan premium... ♪ ...and copays as low as one dollar... ♪ ...saving on medicare prescriptions is easy. ♪ so you're free to focus on the things that really matter. call humana at 1-800-808-4003. or go to walmart.com for details. spark card from capital one. spark cash gives me the most rewards of any small business credit card. it's hard for my crew to keep up with 2% cash back on every purchase, every day. 2% cash back. that's setting the bar pretty high. thanks to spark, owning my own business has never been more rewarding. [ male announcer ] introducing spark

the small business credit cards from capital one. get more by choosing unlimited double miles or 2% cash back on every purchase, every day. what's in your wallet? this guy's amazing.

♪ [ multiple sounds making melodic tune ] ♪ [ male announcer ] at northrop grumman, every innovation, every solution, comes together for a single purpose -- to make the world a safer place. that's the value of performance. northrop grumman. [ kid ] dad? who is honus...wagner? no idea. let me see that. that's a honus wagner autograph... the hall of famer? look at this ball! yeah, found that at a yard sale. i thought pickles would like it. [ dog barks ] that a new car jerry? yeah... sweet, man. [ male announcer ] the audi a8. named best large luxury sedan. ♪

[ female announcer ] who'd have thought that the person you'd grow up to be -- how creative or confident or kind -- was shaped before you lost your first tooth? ♪ the first five years are forever. ♪ that's why pnc is devoting $250 million and ten more years to helping families discover learning opportunities all around them. pnc. grow up great.

[ ben harper's "amen omen" playing ] we believe doing the right thing never goes unnoticed. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? and started earning loads of points. you got a weather balloon with points? yes, i did. [ man ] points i could use for just about anything. ♪ keep on going in this direction. take this bridge over here. there it is. [ man ] so i used mine to get a whole new perspective. ♪ [ male announcer ] write your story with the citi thankyou premier card, with no point caps, and points that don't expire. get started at thankyoucard.citi.com.

let me say one thing. i'm here with these doctors, and that's what i'm going to talk about. so, don't even bother asking me all of these other questions that you all are curious about, okay? don't even bother. >> the fact that the women do want to come forward, are you concerned about -- >> what did i just say? excuse me. excuse me!

what part of no don't -- hold on. >> wow. welcome back to "morning joe" in washington. bob woodward still with us, joining us columnist for "the washington post" jonathan capehart. >> who does it sound like to you, excuse me? >> dave chappelle. >> and rick stengel will be revealing the new issue of "time" magazine, another great one. >> it's a great cover of "newsweek." you think, bob, that herman cain -- "time" magazine. i don't know what i said. you think that herman cain may not be ready for prime time? you do not yell at reporters. >> well, you know, it can also be very popular to snap at reporters, and so we'll have to see where he goes on all of this. but it's -- i think more important is the remark about china showing that he's 50 years out of date in terms of what --

you know, the rise of the chinese military is one of the things this country has been worried about for a decade. >> right. no doubt about it. doesn't know that the chinese have nuclear weapons since 1954, and you go down the long litany of things that the guy does not know, but you brought up something very fascinating earlier. if i -- if i got a company, i want a tough ceo that knows how to turn the -- a guy like steve jobs. there's a reason steve jobs didn't run for political office. there's a reason that guys like lee iacocca that turned chrysler around didn't go to iowa and trudge through the snow. >> you have a ceo that runs a business. >> does not work in politics. i can tell you the successful politicians are the ones that know when to keep your -- >> you can't lose your cool. if you look at reagan as an example of this, you know, reagan would get tight every now and then. you could tell he was deeply unhappy, but he wouldn't bark.

>> no, he wouldn't. you know, he did that in one of his first debates and his california team went to him and said if you ever do that again, we're walking out. and they said, it was a testament to the reagan discipline, he never again let anybody see him angry from 1966 on, unless it was a calculated anger. i think it's safe to say there's nothing calculated by herman cain. >> oh, my god, it's making it up as you go along in the worst way! >> or the best way. >> no, it's just not good. it is unbelievable. what did my dad say? >> your dad said, you know, he could be stumbling for a vacuum. >> seriously. put that on a bumper sticker. this is what jonathan capehart writes in "the washington post," the cain campaign is an insult to my mother. at an all-white school in hazlett, new jersey -- >> look at jonathan, look at a picture of him, i would never

guess that you went to an all-white high school. are you serious? i would have never even -- i would have -- i never saw that coming! let's look at the picture of him again. are you kidding me? >> continue. >> all right. and then again before i took off for college in northfield, minnesota, my mother delivered a lecture not unfamiliar to other kids of color and women for that matter. you have to work twice as hard and be twice as good to not be seen as inferior, deficient, and not as up to the task, whatever the task might be, as your white classmate. it ain't right. it ain't fair, but that's the way it is. on a near daily basis herman cain the front-runner for the nomination of the president of the united states denigrates the high level of expectation and preparation demanded by my mother and mothers everywhere. sarah palin was rightly eviscerated for her lack of knowledge for just about everything when she was the gop

2008 vice presidential nominee, and cain can't even rise above this decided low bar set by palin is an insult to my mother, who demands excellence of us and to every american who believes his or her nation deserves better from those who lead us. >> so, jonathan, this is a follow-up on our discussion yesterday, saying if sarah palin had made these mistakes -- >> yeah. >> -- she would have been torn to threads. but by herman cain standards, sarah palin is harriman. >> it's a great line. it's true. i went back to look at sarah palin's interviews with charlie gibson and katie couric and she was asking all the basic questions for someone running for vice president and she couldn't answer and you compare that to, say, herman cain's answer on china or on releasing prisoners from guantanamo or on -- or on the border fence. >> but hold on, i want to go back to this, this is a fascinating point.

in the charlie gibson interview, there was a question about the bush doctrine, i was aware of the bush doctrine day in and day out. and i listened to it, and i thought, do you know what, i think she pretty much nailed it. for the next week there is a huge debate, did sarah palin blow the question on the bush doctrine. and, yet, by that standard, herman cain shouldn't still be in the race. >> right. exactly. you're exactly right. i remember when she was asked that question about the bush doctrine and she got defensive and said, well, what do you mean, charlie? and then he has to explain to her and i remember sitting there thinking, i can answer that question. exactly! exactly. >> and sarah palin still got hit. but herman cain -- >> yeah. >> -- is apparently living by a standard that other republicans and democrats don't have to live by. >> can i say -- i just want to -- >> i think i may disagree with you here. go ahead. >> i don't know. i heard your line of questioning

around the table, i believe it was yesterday, why is it that he's not -- herman cain is not being criticized? and i have to tell you, i wonder if there are republicans, white republicans, who are just afraid to criticize black candidate for president. and i have to say, and i said it with a hand grenade, and i have to say, we're talking about president of the united states. we're not talking about some piddly position. he needs to be held accountable. if he does not know that china has nuclear weapons, if he makes jokes about border fences -- >> do you really think that they'd be worried about that? because we have a black president. >> but remember -- but -- i'll throw another hand grenade on the table. >> oh, no. >> do you think barack obama may have gotten preferencial treatment? >> i think it has more to do with the fact that the national media loved the story. >> loved the story, yeah.

>> loved the story. the historic nature of it. if hillary clinton had been the nominee, i bet she would have also gotten the same type of treatment. the historic nature of the election. if -- let's say if sarah palin had actually become vice president, the historic nature of it. >> but herman cain he is being held accountable. >> really? >> oh, sure. >> hey, bob, he's the top of the polls. >> yeah, sure. but this has been a couple of weeks where it's, you know, people are learning as our old editor at "the washington post," ben bradlee, used to say, the truth emerges. >> the truth emerges. >> and it is emerging on this, and people are going to make their judgment. >> all right. let's go to new york. willie geist has rick stengel there and he's got the new cover of "time" magazine which i think is incredibly appropriate for the times and the conversation today. willie? >> a great topic and a great cover, rick, why don't you go ahead and reveal it. we'll show the cover. >> thank you.

it's about social mobility in america and the decline of social mobility in america. it's pegged to a conference that we're co-convening on thursday and friday called opportunity nation about trying to increase social mobility in america. and the sad truth is, i mean, we've been talking a lot lately for the last few months about income inequality. but one of the core virtues of america, the thing that we've always prided ourselves on, is this idea that we can move up the ladder. and nowadays we have less social mobility than european countries. we have less social mobility than france, and this is a -- this is a depressing thing for americans. and we write about the reasons for it. there's a piece by our economic columnist about why that has happened in america. it's happened over the last 40 years. it's not just income inequality but it's the -- it's the fact that people on the bottom fifth cannot move out of that and that you are a prisoner of your zip code, a prisoner of the education of your parents.

fareed zakaria is writing about why education is the way that we can move up the ladder. and then we have a fantastic collaboration with the pew on a poll which is basically about all of our economic livelihood and basically how the difference between older americans and younger americans, about how they perceive the future and the present. >> we're talking about the american dream, that the core of who we are. when did this start, this decline in upward mobility? >> well, there's an interesting statistic, if you're born in 1970 and the bottom 20% of social -- socioeconomic scale, you only have a 17% chance of getting out of that. that's lower than european countries are now. one of the things -- i mean, tocqueville when he came to america in the 19th century, he said americans can tolerate a lot of social inequality, because they are aspirational, i don't care if that guy is rich, because i have a chance for being rich.

we don't have that anymore, that's one of the core tenets of the american dream. >> you mentioned fareed's piece about education, we talk about it an awful lot on this show, what is happening to the public school. >> and a great chart in fareed's story, about european countries the generation under 35 in european countries going to higher education. we used to lead the world in percentage of people that went to college, we're now, you know, in lower, you know, seventh or eighth or ninth. i mean, all of that is changing. and if you look at this 9.1% unemployment rate that we have now, college graduates have a much lower unemployment rate than kids who haven't graduated from high school. >> the correlations are incredible. if you don't graduate high school even college, the unemployment rate is sky high. sam stein is down in washington with a question. sam? >> more like a point than a question. at the risk of being laughed off -- >> are you going to talk about data points? >> i'm going to botch my candidacy for president. to tie it back to -- we're

talking about one of the real appeals of herman cain was he personified social mobility. he was the valedictorian of college and he rose among the business ranks and became ceo and i think the aspect of the primary is mitt romney is the exact antithesis of that, he was born in privilege, i think that explains as a party and part of the press that we're more inclined to appreciate herman cain's rise up the polls and why mitt romney may be sort of frustrated at 25% because we look at them through the prism of the social mobility aspects. >> maybe so. bob? >> yeah, but i think you're saying that it's harder, but social mobility is not over. i mean, people can still move up. it may be more difficult, but let's not -- you're not snuffing out the american dream, are you, at "time" magazine? >> well, no, maybe the question has it been snuffed out? >> i mean, bob, it hasn't been snuffed out.

you are still -- >> i think a lot of people -- >> in the 1960s, rick, you declared god dead and now you are killing the american dream. >> stop it! no, no, no, it's ridiculous. but it has been to an extent, to many people, rick stengel, snuffed out. >> no doubt about it. >> it's a lot less easy than it used to be, and, again, we pride ourselves that we can pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, but it's less and less so. one of the studies that the opportunity nation folks did about is that you are now so limited by the zip code that you live in. that basically the zip code you're born in for 40% to 50% of the people is the zip code you end up being in, that is the zip code of low-income people, you're not actually able to emerge from that. so, we have this mythology that we have great social mobility and we have less of it. and going forward it's not a good thing in any way. >> it's amazing. i wrote a column on this a couple months ago after my dad passed away. he'd been unemployed for a year and a half. never a trace of bitterness.

never a trace and my parents still saying, like your mom, work hard, do you know what, work hard. we'd go past the biggest houses in town and they'd have cars that we couldn't afford. because they believed it could happen to their kids! and, bob, that's the real danger here, isn't it? >> oh, well, sure. >> the second you lose that belief that your kids can do better than you, resentment, bitterness, anger comes. >> but if you ask kids and you say, do you think you are going to have as good or affluent or interesting a life as your parents, a lot of them are going to say no, and it's because of the times we live in, in the sense of -- i mean, there's not a lot of good news on the front page of the newspapers or on television. it is a dangerous, convulsive world. >> i don't know if it's a direct no or if it's i hope so. and that's i think the

difference from, absolutely, son or daughter, you will do better than i did. and now it's i hope so, it's this sort of resigned, like, maybe not. >> yeah, the nagging down. >> all right, rick stengel, another good one. thank you very much. >> thank you, rick. >> the new cover of "time" magazine "can you still move up in america" the question is asked. coming up next we talk to the chairman of the house budget committee, paul ryan, yes, i have a few questions for him. >> oh, i bet you do. he's a republican. what's wrong with you? >> yes, i do. >> golly. >> i can't wait. but, first -- >> are you going to ask him about his workout regimen? >> he's got one. >> he's got a great one. >> let me tell you something, he's here now at 17 past the hour. he could not be at the top of the hour because he was working out. >> he was working out. let's get a picture of paul ryan. can we get a picture of paul ryan? look at how healthy this guy is, and now go to the picture of wisconsin hell, our own bill karins who has this sort of

sickly, milky -- >> white and pasty. >> white and pasty. that is sad. >> i don't think either of us want to go to the beach with you guys. good morning, everyone, here's what we're dealing with today. airports looking all right. we're in the middle of one of the driest stretches we've seen in the mid-atlantic and new england. we're halfway through it. we'll give you dry weather through this weekend and halfway through next week as well. philadelphia, minor delays, as i mentioned. raining in chicago. the worst weather out there is from springfield to st. louis all the way back up through peoria. some of the rain will swing into indianapolis shortly. dry weather from new england from boston down to d.c., really nice weather, you can't complain. now we're getting into the first week of november here and temperatures in the low 60s. around the middle of the country, it's a cold morning from colorado to nebraska. of course, we had 6 inches of snow yesterday in denver. it will be 42, and it there been a slow snowmelt for you. anybody traveling or waking up on the west coast, a little changes for you on your friday. we've got rain heading to areas that don't get a lot, l.a., san

diego, and maybe even phoenix. you're watching "morning joe," we're brewed by starbucks. ♪ momma going to take my kodachrome away ♪ [ male announcer ] you are a business pro. your core competency is...competency. and you...rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle...and go. you can even take a full-size or above, and still pay the mid-size price. i'm getting an upgrade. [ male announcer ] as you wish, business pro. as you wish. go national. go like a pro. now through january earn a free day with every two rentals. find out more at nationalcar.com.

instead of appealing to the hope and optimism that were the hallmarks to his first campaign, he has launched his second campaign by preying on the emotions of fear, envy, and resentment. this has the potential to be just as damaging as his misguided policies. sowing social unrest and class resentment makes america weaker,

not stronger. pitting one group against another only distracts us from the true sources of inequity in this country. >> wow. okay. joining us now -- >> wait, wait, wait, can you not even read this straight? with us now is republican from wisconsin, budget committee chairman, paul ryan. there's a lot of times -- >> i'm not even going to -- >> i know this will shock viewers here. there are a lot of times i hear liberals say things on this show and i sit here and smile. >> you do? >> you have no inside voice. >> wait a minute. >> you do not. >> i will say there was a moment recently when you were with were very patient when i was talking about wall street and obama's relationship and very much like republicans' relationship with spending, somewhat hypocritical. and you were patient. >> paul ryan will tell you that republicans have been hypocritical over the past decade. let's talk about the speech that you gave there at the heritage foundation, made a lot of waves

both on the left and on the right, but you accuse the president of sowing -- >> preying on the fears of fear, envy, and resentment. >> talk about that. >> look, i think he can't run on his record because the results are fairly dismal, and i'm very concerned that his rhetorical shift has turned away from being a uniter toward more of a divider preying on resentment and envy, pitting people against each other and to me i reject the premise of his view that one person's gain necessarily must come at the expense of another person's loss, and what it does is it stokes resentment within our society. this also hurts jobs. i can't tell you how many business people lately have been coming up to me and saying in wisconsin all this class division discussion just scares me, and it hunkers me down and i'm not going to invest. that combined with the bad policies of uncertainty, of tax increases, to me the president is using this rhetorical shift because he doesn't have a good record to run on, and he's not willing to adjust his policies to reflect the realities of our

time. >> well, paul, also, though, you also understand the resentment of a lot of meshes that see wall street -- >> absolutely. >> -- that see wall street bailed out in 2009, see the whole concept of too big to fail actually explode. so, now you've got banks that are bigger than ever, wall street profits that are bigger than ever. >> right. >> and you do see disparity between the rich and the poor, and it's a problem for our financial system. you understand the resentment of americans out there? >> my point is there's a legitimate fear and anxiety out there, we shouldn't we exploiting it or encouraging it, we should try to heal it and we should focus on economic growth and prosperity on social mobility and upward mobility. you know, your earlier discussion about people worrying whether their kids are going to be better off than they are, that's a real fear in america today. a lot of people are out of work. we had 6 million people who haven't had a job for over six months, so there's real economic anxiety and we should not be

preying on that or exploiting that. we should be addressing it. and the quote that you cut off before i was going to say is let's get after corporate welfare, let's get after the crony capitalism, let's stop subsidizing the wealthy and their health and retirement benefits and let's stop picking winners and losers on the tax code up here based on who is powerful or who has good connections, those who we should be doing well getting the debt under control and get the economy growing. >> do you agree with the congressman or do you support crony capitalism, is that what you've become? >> i think sometimes don't you think, congressman, though, if you call out a president for preying upon people's fears, that's exactly what you're doing? >> well, mika, look, actually, no, i don't. because we've offered alternatives. look, we put out very specific -- we have 15 bills sitting over in the senate right now that create jobs waiting to be acted on. we passed an actual budget this year, which is something we

think you should do. the law says you should. and all we get in return are these sort of strawman arguments from the president. he goes around the country saying republicans want dirtier air and dirtier water and no health insurance. >> you passed a budget, the democrats have not passed a budget in the senate. >> it's been 918 days since the senate passed a budget. now, the law says -- >> 918 days? >> right. >> since the united states senate has passed a budget? >> yes. and as you know, joe -- >> what are they doing, paul? what are you doing? you have to pass a budget every year, right? >> yes, the law says you have to pass a budget by april 15th. it's tax day for americans. >> why aren't democrats passing a budget for over 900 days? >> you're going to have to ask them that question,io. b i would have to say instead of talking about the record or lack thereof, we're getting this rhetorical broadside which fuels division within america and we shouldn't be doing that. we should be talking about.

we should have a legitimate policy debate about our different ideas and we're not having that legitimate policy debate, we're having scapegoat, blame game, strawman arguments where affixing positions to their political adversaries that they don't have by trying to win the debate default and nullify the notion that there are good alternatives. we've got 15 bills sitting in the senate right now to create jobs that are just sitting there and they're running this do-nothing congress campaign against congress, that's not straight up. >> jonathan capehart has a question. but, first, bob, i want to ask you about a question about a system so broken that the united states senate does not pass a budget for the country. they are supposed to be in charge of for over 900 days. >> and they solve it -- the congressman can by passing continuing resolutions, right? temporary stop-gap measures with no kind of overall theory of the case.

is that correct? >> absolutely no vision. >> yeah. i recognize your voice. >> thank you. >> you have such a distinctive voice so -- >> it's midwestern but not wisconsin, illinois. >> no. well, you can't win them all. >> so, paul, do you agree that there's a lack of vision? >> it shows a lack of vision. and discretionary spending which is 39% of our spending, you can do what he said. but it's entitlement programs growing so fast, 10,000 people are retiring every day, and that's the drivers of our debt. and meanwhile we're getting closer to a debt crisis with a european-like situation and we're not doing anything about it, and that's what's frustrating to us. we passed a budget, here's how we would fix the problem, and what are your ideas? and we've heard the crickets chirping over there ever since those days and that's why it's been frustrating on that front. >> and so we're at a deadlock,

and isn't the reality that neither the congress nor the white house, the u.s. government collectively, can do much in the next year to fix the economy? is that correct? >> i hate to hear that. i don't like conceding that point. i think there are things we can do to what i call get an insurance policy against a recession, against a double dip. we could still have a double dip because of the european problems that could come and wash up on our shores. if the greek situation is not handled well. and so, look, corporate tax reform, business tax reform, it's not the end-all, be-all of economic growth policies, but it's something we think the president agrees with us on. he says so, so what we're saying to the white house is let's go work on that. we agree on that. we got the trade agreements done, that's a good start. >> so, when you say, sir, you hate to hear that, that's a yes, in other words, there isn't much that can be done the reality is? >> my fear is you're right. i don't want to succumb to that. and i want to see the supercommittee actually do its job. i would like to see some -- some tax reform where we can get agreement with the white house,

that's good for jobs. and i think if we get a decent down payment in this the select committee which, by the way, the reason we have a select committee is because there isn't a budget process, at least we can get a down payment on debt and deficits to get us a step in the right direction to calm down the credit markets to show the americans even in divided government can actually still kind of govern. >> yeah, somebody else here, paul, with a distinctive voice, he's from north jersey. >> i went to college in minnesota, it's still not good enough. congressman ryan, you know i have great respect for you, but when you talk about in your speech sowing social unrest, what do you say to folks who get i believe rightly angry when they wonder where was the concern when people were talking about death panels and blocking anything that the president was trying to do, when people were questioning the legitimacy of the presidency of barack obama, questioning whether he was a citizen and how that was --

>> oh, yeah. >> -- and how that was, you know, sowing unrest and sowing discomfort? what do you say to people who take -- who take issue with your words now and your concern now as opposed to then? >> you're always going to have heated rhetoric on the extreme ends. did you see our senate majority leader, or minority leader or our speaker talking about the birth documents? do you see me talking about that stuff, the birther stuff? no. the leaders aren't saying that thing. you have people on the extreme saying that but in this case the president of the united states is sowing the divisive rhetoric -- >> but the senate minority leader said his number one job is to make sure that president obama is a one-term president. >> what we should do if we don't agree with the direction that the president has taken the country, if we don't agree with the policies, it's not enough to criticize, we need to offer principled alternatives and show the country how we would do things differently and that's precisely what we've done with our budget and our tax

proposals, with our energy proposals, with the 15 bills that we've passed the house to send over to the senate to create jobs and economic growth. we're not just criticizing, we're proposing alternatives. that's the alternative you have as leaders. >> therein lies thes s disagreement, because i would argue the president is trying to address the problem as well. having said that, we've run out of time. and joe wanted to know because he tweeted he was going to lose 40 pounds. >> 800. >> 800 pounds? >> once you're over 800 pounds -- >> what do you do in the congressional gym? the treadmill? >> we do insanity every day, the mixture of great workouts. and you got to put the pork down, no desserts, all right? >> put the pork down, did you hear him? >> i just can't do that. i'm sorry, no can do. you're telling me -- if you eat with your hands, you're telling me i actually -- >> put the fork down when it comes to the dessert course. >> that would be nice if he actually used a fork. all right, congressman paul

ryan. >> thank you, paul. >> thank you. >> good to be with you. up next, what role might religion play in the 2012 presidential election? we'll discuss that next on "morning joe." ♪ going to be president ♪ sent her back to college for her sophomore year ♪ ♪ co-signed her credit card -- "buy books, not beer!" ♪ but the second that she shut the door ♪ ♪ girl started blowing up their credit score ♪ ♪ she bought a pizza party for her whole dorm floor ♪ ♪ hundred pounds of makeup at the makeup store ♪ ♪ and a ticket down to spring break in mexico ♪ ♪ but her folks didn't know 'cause her folks didn't go ♪ ♪ to free-credit-score-dot-com hard times for daddy and mom. ♪ offer applies with enrollment in freecreditscore.com™. i want healthy skin for life. [ female announcer ] don't just moisturize,

improve the health of your skin with aveeno daily moisturizing lotion. the natural oatmeal formula goes beyond 24-hour moisture. it's clinically proven to improve your skin's health in one day, with significant improvement in 2 weeks. for healthy, beautiful skin that lasts. i found a moisturizer for life. [ female announcer ] aveeno daily moisturizing lotion. and for healthy, beautiful hair, try nourish plus haircare. only from aveeno. sure. cake or pie? pie. apple or cherry? cherry. oil or cream? oil or cream? cream. reddi-wip uses real dairy cream. nothing's more real than reddi-wip.

in the house of representatives, what have you guys been debating? john, you've been debating a commemorative coin for baseball?

you have legislation reaffirming that in god we trust is our motto? that's not putting people back to work. i trust in god, but god wants to see us help ourselves by putting people back to work! all right, now, 38 past the hour. live look at the white house. joining us now here in washington, the president and ceo of so jujournsojourners, th jim wallace. also with us the president of the southern baptist conventions ethic and religious liberty commission dr. richard lent. >> i thought you guys walking in here were going to come with boxing gloves. >> oh, dear. >> but i found out you were friends. >> we were excited about it. >> we thought there would be a huge row. >> that's what we do here, not really. >> we're trying to model civility. >> oh, dear. there we go.

>> okay. so, there are obviously you guys joke, if you can't sell each other's vote. do you agree on what the big moral issues will be over the next year as we go into the election? we'll start with you. >> well, we probably would agree and disagree on some of them. for instance, one of the things i'm going to be talking about and continuing to talk about is that you cannot separate the economic crisis from the moral crisis. we spend $750 billion a year on means-tested programs trying to make up for absent fathers. we have another $250 billion in state money that goes. this is a crisis. we need to -- we need to revalue fatherhood, revalue marriage. we need to -- marriage absence, single parenthood is costing the government, costing the taxpayers billions and billions and billions of dollars. 81% of african-american single mothers when they get married

are lifted out of poverty. 61% of white single mothers when they get married are lifted out of poverty. we need to end no-fault divorce. we need to say to the men of america, you can no longer get along -- get away with extended a adolescence, we are no longer going to pick up your mess. >> jim, what do you think americans are going to be focusing on when it comes to religion and politics? >> i actually agree with richard on fatherhood and marriage is an anti-poverty measure but reminded him of those who are below the poverty line, as you know, 50 million americans now below the poverty line. three-quarters of them work. they have jobs. they just don't make enough to support a family. >> but if there were two of them, they would. >> even if there's two of them, nutrition programs are critical. so, our circle of protection, as you know, evangelicals and catholics, the matthew 25

christians cross boundaries, and i would think it would be a powerful thing if christians can focus together not on their own interests but other people's and say poverty is going to be a fundamental focus for both of us. >> let me ask you about that, richard, and i've said this before on this show when i started running for congress in '94 the young evangelicals wanted to work with me were talking about abortion, gay marriage, traditional political issues for a lot of evangelicals. by the time i left eight years later, they were talking about poverty, aids in africa, the matthew 25 christians. and we really have seen that with younger -- the younger generation of evangelicals. and, by the way, let me explain to everybody here, it's where jesus was asked how the sheep would be separated from the goats, and he said, if you feed the poor and clothe the naked, the people in prisons, et cetera, et cetera.

>> one of the things that's been underreported in the last 40 years you've seen the globalization of evangelicalism through the deep professionalization of missions. 40 years ago, you know, we were called the support missionaries, we loved missionaries, they were the heroes when they came back on furlough, but we weren't supposed to go do missions. but 40 years ago lay missions started. and i'd say probably 15% of the membership of evangelical churches in america have been overseas on missions, and that's why we've been stirred to lead the charge on human trafficking, to lead the charge on global human rights and -- >> and, by the way, nick christoph with "the new york times" because when you have people like sam brownback uniting with progressives on things like this. >> what happens is the people go over there, for instance, my church in franklin, tennessee, the church i'm a member of, we have about ten mission opportunities this summer where people are going to take their vacation time and spend their own money and go to china,

they're going to belize and they come back unchanged. >> what has changed, again, not just with young evangelicals, but i know both you guys saw it, southern baptists, i'm a southern baptist, you saw it around the turn of the century that, again, the matthew 25 christians that are saying, do you know what, i got to give a couple of water to the master's name, that's more important than we going knocking on doors and passing out pamphlets. >> let me say two things, it's the globalization, evangelicals and young people are global. they go downtown in their own neighborhoods, plus they are reading their bibles. a new baylor study shows the more you read the bible, the more you care with social and economic justice, not learn about, but read the bible. >> you can't read the gospels, as i say, lookt red letter sky, you can't do it without jesus talking about it time and time again putting yourself second.

>> last night we agreed we both support international aid. we're keeping hundreds of thousands of kids from being hiv babies. we are feeding millions of people. we are vaccinating 10.4 million malaria bed nets are going to be cut. so, we together, want to support that foreign aid. it's 1% of the budget or less. >> one of the great things america's ever done was the petfar initiative and the millennium challenge account. >> support that together against cuts to that kind of things. we were the ones who formed the circle around the poor across the political boundaries. we spoke last week at a conference on immigration reform. took the same side. we're both for reform, because the undocumented people are in the biblical category of the stranger in matthew 25. we agreed on both things last night. >> all right. we got to go, but real quickly --

>> you both talked about the importance of marriage, and last week, a report from the center for american progress talked about the fact that there are 2 million children who are being raised in families, gay and lesbian parents who over the course of 18 years cost them $200,000 more than a straight couple. what should be done to correct that wrong or to right that wrong? >> well, the foster care system is really a prison for kids, i think. and i want to see kids in loving, caring homes. and so the more we can put kids in loving, caring homes, i think that's good for kids. >> no matter whether they are straight parents, gay parents. >> and i disagree with that. >> he disagrees. >> a father and a father are not the same thing as a mother and a father and two mothers are not the same as a mother and father. >> the two parent families --

>> i wish we could go on, we're way over. mike huckabee, the reverend mike huckabee has the power to heal. >> no! >> he felt the spirit moving you over the past year? >> i did feel better about myself after it happened. >> we'll be right back. ♪ stand my ground [ indistinct talking on radio ]

[ tires screech ] [ crying ] [ applause ] [ laughs ] [ tires screech ] [ male announcer ] your life will have to flash by even faster. autodrive brakes on the cadillac srx activate after rain is detected to help improve braking performance. we don't just make luxury cars. we make cadillacs.

pnc virtual wallet gathers your spending and saving in one place. credit and debit purchases, checks, bills, and other financial information. it lets you see the details as well as the big financial picture. so you can do more with your money. see what a complete view of your money can do for you at pncvirtualwallet.com. ♪ pnc bank. for the achiever in you. ♪ ♪ ♪ we're centurylink... a new kind of broadband company committed to improving lives with honest, personal service, 5-year price lock guarantees and consistently fast speeds. ♪ you know what else is early? medicare open enrollment. now through december 7th. can i stick with my old medicare plan? sure! or find a new plan with better coverage, less cost,

or both. medicare plans give you free cancer screenings and wellness visits and 50% off on brand-name prescriptions when you're in the doughnut hole. it's part of the healthcare law. so it's time to look, compare... and choose the right plan for you. learn more at 1-800-medicare or medicare.gov. hey, welcome back to "morning joe." you know, the prime minister of greece could be hours of stepping down from that position. hours away, and we're now going to go to the person who a lot of people are talking about could possibly be his replacement, cnbc business correspondent. >> no, i don't want that job. this could be a messy job. this is a very serious story, the bbc is reporting that

papandreou could step down within the next half hour. his people, of course, are denying it. the reporters we have on the ground in greece are telling us that basically every politician, everyone who has a dog in this fight also has a reporter that they're calling and sort of spinning their story to, that's why every headline we see coming out seems to be conflicting. you know, the bottom line is that it doesn't seem like prime minister papandreou is still going to be in power by the weekend. what does that mean? well, the markets are interpreting it very positively if you look at yoeuropean marke and u.s. futures right now, they think that there won't be this referendum which makes it more likely that the greeks will get the 8 billion you'euro tranche money. and if it happens, it's a domino effect all around europe that nobody wants. >> how frightening is it you have the president of the g-20 for the most part is helpless, what do you think? >> it is very tough, because, you know, from a merkel and sarkozy's point of view, they feel they stepped in and did everything they can, they promised the money, greece has

to come up with austerity. the people don't like it. if you poll the people in greece, 60% will say they don't like the bailout package so it's really chaotic and it's definitely something the market will be watching for a long time to come just when we thought we had it solved. >> all right, prime minister francis. >> i like the sound of it but i don't like the duties very much. i don't want to clean up the mess. as mika's nose, it's fabulous. >> it is beautiful. >> we'll be right back. ...was it something big? ...or something small? ...something old? ...or something new? ...or maybe, just maybe... it's something you haven't seen yet. the 2nd generation of intel core processors. stunning visuals, intelligent performance. this is visibly smart.

and here's what we did today: supported nearly 3 million steady jobs across our country... ... scientists, technicians, engineers, machinists... ... adding nearly 400 billion dollars to our economy... we're at work providing power to almost a quarter of our homes and businesses... ... and giving us cleaner rides to work and school... and tomorrow, we could do even more. cleaner, domestic, abundant and creating jobs now. we're america's natural gas. the smarter power, today. learn more at anga.us. [ gnome ] awwwwwwww. i just feel bloody awful. she told tiffany, stephanie, jenny and becky

that she was coming to a place like this! but somebody didn't book with travelocity, with 24/7 customer support to help move them to the pool daddy promised! look at me, i'm swimming! ♪ [ gnome ] somebody, get her a pony! [ female announcer ] the travelocity guarantee. if your booking's not right, we'll help make it right, right away. from the price to the room to the trip you'll never roam alone.

they've indicated they are trying to develop nuclear capabilities. >> nation, we cannot allow china to develop nukes, especially since they developed them in 1964. i'm telling you, if you don't act fast, they might end up building a wall to keep foreigners out. what? no! madeleine albright, also best-selling author dipak chopra will be back on the show. >> they've got a single together. >> separate interviews. i look forward to the former secretary of state. up next, "what have we learned today." look, every day we're using more and more energy.

the world needs more energy. where's it going to come from? ♪ that's why right here, in australia, chevron is building one of the biggest natural gas projects in the world. enough power for a city the size of singapore for 50 years. what's it going to do to the planet? natural gas is the cleanest conventional fuel there is. we've got to be smart about this. it's a smart way to go. ♪ it's a smart way to go. ♪ we're centurylink... a new kind of broadband company committed to improving lives with honest, personal service, 5-year price lock guarantees and consistently fast speeds. ♪

going to fall over. hey, by the way, time to talk about "what we learned today." >> calm down. >> what have you learned? >> i learned that china is trying to get nuclear capability. >> yeah. very good, what did you learn? >> stumbling toward accuracy would be a fine policy for foreign policy, but not when you're running for president. >> what have you learned? >> i've actually heard my father say it before. >> willie, what have you learned? >> mika is always stumbling towards something, isn't she? i learned that our president, the president of the united states, is back on top of the "forbes" most powerful list and mark zuckerberg is only two