from real people... 5-year price-lock guarantees... consistently fast speeds... and more ways to customize your technology. ♪ good morning. i'm chris jansing and, boy, oh boy, things are only getting worse for herman cain and the republican candidates in general. the associated press reports that a third woman considered filing a sexual harassment complaint against cain. well, fed up with reporters, the gop front runner lost his cool at a campaign event in virginia. and the blame game has escalated. now the perry campaign is saying that romney's people are behind the story, after the cain camp blamed rick perry for a smear campaign. >> apologize to herman cain and his family and america for this despicable actions. and quite frankly, political too.

political won't release any documentation or will they even admit they spoke to these two women. why? because they have nothing and cited unnamed sources. >> joining me now, "new york times" columnist charles. >> i hardly know where to begin, charles. when did this get out of control? >> the day it broke it got out of control. the cain campaign has not responded to this crisis in the way that you would like him to and that is with some sense of control, some sense of command of the facts. you know, he says he can't remember what happened 12 years ago, but over 12 hours what he can remember continuously changes? and for me, even the idea of sex scandals don't really excite me, but sexual harassment is a very different thing because it is about abuse of power. if you are positioning yourself to be the most powerful man in the world, it becomes very

relevant whether or not you did what they said you did, and you must be able to manage a crisis if you are the most powerful man in the world and he has demonstrated that he cannot do that. >> and a pollster that worked for the national restaurant association was actually a witness, he said, to the sexual harassment in one case. take a listen. >> everybody was very aware of it. and so it is -- it was only a matter of time because so many people were aware of what took place, so many people were aware of her situation and the fact that she left after this. >> so many people were aware of this. e.j., if that's the case, how could a campaign be so totally unprepared? >> well, that's the real mystery. by the way, it's good to be with you and charles, whose work i've admired for a long time. we don't know precisely what happened in those sexual harassment incidents, but we do know how the campaign has

responded. and they have been absolutely flat-footed. there is an old sega described to robert kennedy, you put a lantern on your problem. he had ample warning. he could have gone out there and said here's what's true. i did not feel i sexually harassed anyone, we made a settlement, it's over. he didn't do that. he came up with statement after statement, one contradictory to the other. i think they made a fundamental political error yesterday, which is they blamed it on perry. now they're blaming it on romney. he is looking for conservative support. if he could blame the liberal media for pushing this story out, that might actually help him with conservatives. but if he's now blaming conservatives, this could give it more credibility that the very conservatives whose votes he needs to hang on to. >> we've actually done a clever little graphic, i believe, to show all the different finger pointing that's going on. and as you point out, it started with the liberal media, charles.

you tweeted something i have to read today. >> okay. >> did cain learn nothing from weiner, referencing anthony weiner. the camera is not your friend in the midst of the storm. shut up! oh, wait, i mean keep talking. what do you think the republicans who want to win the presidency and see an opening are thinking about all of this? >> well, i mean it's hard for me to take the cain candidacy serious, i'm sorry. >> but you're bringing romney into it. you're bringing perry into it, and he is at least now he was in many polls the front runner. >> right. here's the thing. romney has a solid 20. his 20 doesn't change. the other guys go up and down because they're chasing tea party vote, far right vote, but romney's 20% is romney's 20%. he can't add to it, but he's not losing those people. what cain and perry are doing is

fighting for the same group of voters. so if -- >> so if cain loses 20% of his 30% or all 30%, if he just drops out, are you saying rick perry gets that whole 30%? >> i'm saying it doesn't go to romney, so perry has a chance to take advantage of that. some of the other lesser candidates have a chance to take advantage of that. but what perry sees, i'm not saying that his campaign is responsible for this, but what they are fighting for is the same block of support. and so that's -- you know, that's why it would make sense for cain to say this guy is the one who's attacking me. although on the whole, it has nothing to do with who snitched on you, it has everything to do with whether it's true or not. once you can prove that it's not true, then it becomes important to say it's not true and this person smeared me. it's not a smear if it ends up being true. >> there you go. let me quickly play, you've

probably seen it many times, but this was herman cain reacting to more questions about the sexual harassment yesterday. >> are you concerned about the fact that these women do want -- >> what did i say? >> are you concerned about -- >> excuse me. excuse me! >> what part of no don't some people understand? >> is he done, e.j., do you think? >> i really think so. i think that one of the things that people liked about him is he seemed refreshing, he seemed warm and open. he's just not looking good in that clip. that's exactly against the image he was projecting. i tell you who might be having second thoughts at this moment, it's tim pawlenty. as charles said, romney is stuck at 20% or thereabouts. there is an opening for a conservative. perry was the candidate and then he blew it in the debates.

conservatives are still looking around. and if pawlenty could have hung around, he might be that guy now. there's got to be an opening here for gingrich and santorum somewhe somewhere. >> e.j., charles, great conversation. thanks, guys. decisions are being made right now at the g-20 meeting in france that could determine whether the entire global economy goes back into recession. president obama got there this morning. right now he's in what's called the working session trying to keep the greek government and its economy from collapse. so here's the question. how can greece, a country about the size of louisiana, threaten the world economy? i'm joined now by nicholas, a professor and director of international studies at the university of alabama. how badly did i just butcher your name? >> no, you did fine. it's actually the university of alabama at birmingham. >> thank you very much, i appreciate that. let's talk about it because people keep coming up to me and asking me these questions. all year long the stock market has been held hostage by

uncertainty in greece. people are looking at their 401(k)s and say how can this little country where i wanted to go on my honeymoon and take a cruise have an impact on whether i can retire or not? try to explain to folks why this is so important. >> well, it's actually a result of a globalized world. we've been talking about globalization and now we see the downside of globalization. basically what it means is it creates uncertainty. uncertainty is bad for business in europe, which means that if the government falls, let's say, then the euro weakens. if the euro weakens by necessity, the u.s. dollar will rise in value. that necessarily means that our exporters are hurt. it also means that the stock market may think twice about european companies, and that creates volatility. some people will lose. hopefully not many. >> how did greece get to this

point? >> it's a long story, but to make it short, there are two major factors. one is a corrupt political system that for years kept borrowing money in order to finance deficits and, therefore, keep a lifestyle they could not afford. now they have to pay the bill. the other issue is the european union and political leadership over there that knew what was going on, but chose to say very little. plus it didn't have a response plan in place, just in case something like this happened. so everybody was caught unprepared. delays upon delays, and we end up being where we are. >> let me ask you really quickly, help us get into the mindset of the greek people. this bailout referendum that could go down in defeat, what's going to move it in the right direction? will there be pressure from the greek people? >> there will be pressure going

both ways. most people don't realize, they see this bailout package as a 50% haircut to a good portion of the groeek debt. unfortunately what the greek people see is 12 years of continued austerity and by that we mean you lose more of your salary. salaries have already been cut back by 30%. people will lose their jobs. in this situation, they don't have a hope of finding another one. and that creates decembspair. i think that's what's happening right now. what they need to do, the greek government as well as europe, is try to convince people on the street why this is a good thing and why this will lead to prosperity, but not by sacrificing half a generation to do it. >> very important things going on right now in the south of france. thanks for helping us to understand it. here at home, there could be some movement in tackling the

nation's soaring debt. 40 republicans are breaking ranks, joining 60 democrats in the house, calling on the debt supercommittee to consider all options in trimming the nearly $15 trillion national debt, that could include taxes. i'm joined now by senator mark warner, democrat from virginia. senator, good morning. >> hey, chris, good morning. >> is this a good sign? does it at least crack the door open a little bit and make you more hopeful that we might resolve what has clearly been one of the big sticking points here? >> well, it does make me more hopeful. i've been part of the gang of six. we've got 45 senators saying we need to do this. now we've got 100 members of the house, almost equally divided, democrats and republicans. this all ties in. we just went from your previous segment on greece now to the u.s. debt crisis. they are intertwined and directly affect people's retirement, their ability to get jobs, the whole financial structure of the world, like it or not, is interconnected right now. and one of the most important

things we could do in the united states to kind of regain consumer confidence, business confidence and candidly the world's confidence is show that at least in america, we're not going to wait to get in a greek-like circumstance, we're going to act now, try to find a way to get $4 trillion off of our debt, have that with a mix of both revenues through tax reform and entitlement reform and we ought to take advantage of this opportunity with the supercommittee to do that. >> there's a couple of polls out right now and i'd like to get your reaction to them. the first one is the new quinnipiac that just came out. 48% said the solution should include only spending cuts and not tax increases. and two out of three americans don't think a deal will get done. a lot of pessimism out there about what is going none washington. what would you say to the american people? >> i would say if you had to look at our recent track record, i understand why people are pessimistic. there is a reason why congress only has a 9% approval rating.

i'm part of the 91% that thinks congress is not doing their job. this debt deal has become a proxy for whether our institutions are up to the challenge. i do think, though, that americans will support something that as long as everybody has some skin in the game. i think if you explain to the american people that, yes, spending is at an all-time high, 25% of our gdp, revenues are at a 70% low, only 15% of our gdp, that 10% difference we're basically borrowing from china. if you look over the last 70 years, the only time our government has been in budget balance, and it's only been about five of those years out of the last 70, is when spending and revenues have been roughly at 20%. that means we've got to decrease spending, we've got to find a way to increase some revenues. as long as there's a fairness approach, as long as we've got a balance in this, i think the american public would welcome that. >> there is a senate vote, as you know, this afternoon on a piece of the president's jobs bill with the $60 billion for

infrastructure. but as you also know, republicans are expected to unanimously vote it down because it would be paid for with a new tax on millionaires. they argue the president is more interested in picking fights than in compromise. what's your thought about this battle? >> well, i don't think anybody believes that we can -- even though i'm as focused on the debt as i am, that we can simply cut and tax our way out of this problem. we also have to have a growth agenda. part of that growth agenda that traditionally we've all supported is we've got to invest in our infrastructure. if some of my colleagues don't like the way the president has paid for it, figure out ear way to pay for it. but it says we probably won't make a large amount of progress on a growth agenda until we can break the log jam around the overall question of revenues an entitlement reform. >> one more quick question about jobs in our last minute because you just got back from a big announcement on the billion plus

change campaign. can you tell us a little bit about that? >> sure. what it's saying is as government is cutting back, more and more nonprofits are having to pick up the slack. we've been trying to encourage corporate america to step up and provide more pro bono services. today we announced 50 companies have committed a billion dollars worth of value to invest in pro bono organizations, or not-for-profit organizations. we'd like to see that grow and get up to 300 companies. that's good for america's bottom line. it's candidly good for corporate bottom lines as well because there's an awful lot of folks that are pretty upset at business at this point. if business can show an ability to give back, that helps everyone. >> senator warner, it's good to see you. thank you so much. >> thank you. more violent clashes between police and occupy wall street protesters in california. there had been a day of peaceful protests yesterday, but then a small group of demonstrators in oakland started a large bonfire in the middle of a downtown street. police moved in with riot gear

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right now a house subcommittee is getting ready to vote on whether to subpoena white house documents about solyndra. the now bankrupt solar panel company got a half billion dollar federal loan. republicans say they need a subpoena because the white house is stone walling, refusing to release documents, but the energy department says they have already handed over 80,000 pages. now a conservative group linked to the koch brothers is spending millions on ads to use solyndra against the president. >> the true engine of economic growth will always be companies like solyndra. >> wealthy donors with ties to solyndra give obama hundreds of thousands of dollars. what does obama give them in return?

half a billion in taxpayer money to help his friends at solyndra. >> it looks like jon huntsman's daughters are rising stars thanks to their spoof video of a herman cain ad. >> i give a foreign policy speech that lays out the vision to transform our role in the world and i get minimal hits. they do something and they get a quarter of a million hits in a couple of days. >> the girls talked to me on tuesday. >> how can you not have some fun. >> we thought let's just have fun with this. >> did you show your dad or mom before you put that up there? >> not until we released it. >> no. we sent it to them at the exact same time. right now a little more serious topic, president obama at the g-20 summit in france. nbc news white house correspondent chuck todd is traveling with the president. we were talking just a short time ago, chuck, with the importance of this meeting. what's the president's game plan here? >> reporter: well, you know, the president in many ways is a

little bit on the sidelines here. he's playing the role of mediator, cheerleader, therapist. in talking to obama administration officials, they're saying because this is about the french president, sarkozy, and german's chancellor, they're the ones orchestrating this deal. what they're trying to do, just to put it in terms that i think viewers will understand, is europe is trying to create their own version of t.a.r.p., calling it a firewall. it's about a tril updollar fund that will be available to stabilize banks and governments. the u.s. version was just about financial institutions. this one here in europe would be about helping governments, including and the first one would be greece, but it's not just greece, it's italy, portugal, spain, ireland, a lot of these countries that have had too much debt and accumulated a huge portion of that. now with the uncertainty about what's going on in greece. is the prime minister having to resign or not, is he going to stay? are they going to have a referendum? right now that has spooked a lot

of these european leaders. it's politically unpopular, was we learned with t.a.r.p. in the u.s., this bailout is not popular with the french public, not with the german populublic the greek public. so the president's role is to stiffen your spine, this is how we dealt with it, this is how we did it because he's got his own political agenda here. he needs europe to stabilize if the american economy is going to get better. >> chuck todd in france for us. thank you for that, chuck. newly released security video shows the moment when a philly tugboat crashed into a tour boat. look at this. it goes right over it. two hundrgarian students were killed when the tugboat drove over the boat. he pled guilty to in voluntary manslaughter. he has been sentenced to a year and a day in prison. at the time of the accident he was on the phone with a family

discussing complications from minor surgery his son was undergoing. nina is using high-tech marketing to engage customers at her new york based business. her customers can learn about wines and get discounts. and nina is not alone. they are everywhere. for more watch "your business" sunday mornings at 7:30 on msnbc. the postal service is critical to our economy--

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forbes is out with its annual list of the most powerful people on the planet. they include politicians, business and religious leaders, the rich, the famous and a few infamous. number five, bill gates followed by the german chancellor, chinese president, russian prime minister vladimir putin and back at number one on the list, president barack obama. let's get the details from the editor of "forbes" magazine. always good to see you. so president obama has had some problems with poll numbers. obviously they're not getting a lot done in washington, but he's back at number one. why? >> it's really a statement about america. i mean barack obama, yes, is having a lousy fall. his numbers are down, he's probably 50-50 to get re-elected. he can't get anything through congress. but the president of the united states is still in charge of the world's greatest economy. the world's greatest military power and last year we had

number one, hu jintao, the president of china, but president obama also benefits this year from the fact that hu is stepping down. he's being put out to pasture over the next couple of years so he drops down as several of his responsibilities go away and, thus, both president obama and president putin, who's back for the foreseeable future in russia, move up. >> the highest woman on the list, angela merkel, who is involved in some pretty consequential negotiations. >> she's the de facto leader of europe. as germany goes right now, that's how the eu goes. it's amazing, actually, there are a lot of women in the top 25. we have four women. the president of brazil, the president of india and we have hillary clinton. so really an impressive showing. >> by the way, hillary clinton at 16th. the former president at 50th.

so a little one-upsmanship in that household. >> what's amazing about the clintons are these are two people -- we looked at a lot of spouses like bill gates who's on our cover. we looked at whether or not melinda gates has a lot of power within his organization and foundation should be on. should michelle obama be on. neither made it. but hillary and bill clinton are amazing because both of them are on and have nothing to do with each other. that might not have been true in previous years. but right now if bill clinton decided to move off to tahiti, hillary clinton would still legitimately be in that spot and bill clinton through the clinton global initiative. he has the power not because he's ex-president and not because his wife is secretary of state, but because he has a big seat at the table, basically a mini u.n. going on there so it's very impressive that they're both on and they have nothing to do with each other. >> i've got to tell you, as always, it's fascinating. i started clicking through the pictures and little descriptions yesterday and it's addictive. so people can find it at your

website and at "forbes" magazine. randall, great to see you. herman cain pointing fingers as the sexual harassment scandal escalates. is he just hurting himself and the party. details next. n i'd be like, you rule! and my kids would be like, you rule! i'd be like, yes, i do rule! ohh! that rules! oh, load up the sleigh; this is going to be a great christmas. yeah. ring dinga-ding, ring dinga-ding, ring, ring, ring me up. [ male announcer ] no need to wait with our christmas price guarantee. we're so confident in our prices, if you do find a lower one later in a local print ad, we'll give you the difference on a walmart gift card. save money. live better. walmart. an accident doesn't have to slow you down. with better car replacement available only with liberty mutual auto insurance,

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oil or cream? cream. reddi-wip uses real dairy cream. nothing's more real than reddi-wip. welcome back. i'm charles parker. we've got our eyes on a little spin in the middle of the country and with that we're getting some rain now coming up through illinois, moving into indianapolis and toward cincinnati as well. there could be some severe weather across the southeast, especially this afternoon, so for today beautiful day. once again along the east coast, that storm will end up in north carolina. a windy, rainy day tomorrow. there again your chance for showers and storms across the southeast. quiet in the middle of the country. much cooler in texas, 61. and generally quiet across the wet. 40 in denver so a lot of melting snow there. this storm in the northwest will dive down into california tomorrow and make its way into the plains over the weekend as

potentially a blizzard. chris, back to you. >> carl, thank you so much. here's a look at some other stories people are talking about right now. about 20 million americans are now living in poverty. it's a record high for the u.s. according to census figures, one out of every 15 people is now considered america's poorest of the poor. the figures indicate that poverty levels have increased in suburbs twice as fast as in cities, mostly because of the hard-hit economy. according to a new analysis, more than 90,000 new cancer cases a year in the u.s. could be caused by physical inactivity and long periods of sitting. although experts have known that physical activity decreases the risk of chronic diseases, including cancer, this new data on how many cases could be prevented if people were more physically active is significant. closing arguments set to begin today in the manslaughter trial of michael jackson's doctor, conrad murray. kristen dahlgren is outside the court house in los angeles for us. kristen, what are jurors going

to hear today? >> reporter: good morning, chris. well, both sides really making their final pitch to jurors. the prosecution arguing that dr. murray was a careless and greedy doctor who gave michael jackson that powerful sedative, propofol, without the proper safety equipment and then left the room. the defense arguing that michael jackson was a drug addict who gave himself the fatal dose. expect the prosecution to say that dr. murray should have been in control of that sedative at all times. now, here's the timing on this. the judge says he expects both sides to take about three hours for their closing arguments, so after six weeks of this, chris, the jury conceivably could get the case later today. back to you. >> kristen dahlgren, thank you for that update. well, which american cities are the cleanest and maybe equally importantly, which are the dirtiest? we'll have the list when we go down to the wire coming up in 20. free money is back. a new survey finds that most companies have restored matching 401(k) contributions after slashing them at the height of the recession.

cnbc's mandy drury is here with what's moving your money. this is open enrollment time for a lot of companies, so people might want to look at boosting their retirement contributions. >> absolutely, chris. this is all despite the fact that at times the stock market can seem like a bit of a roller coaster, but new analysis says that three-quarters of companies that had stopped providing matching 401(k) contributions during the height of the recession, for example, back in early 2009 have reinstated them. it essentially amounts to, as you say, free additional money in your retirement fund. towers watson found that most companies have reinstated the match at the same rate they offered previously an even a handful even improved the matching benefits. that is finally some good news. >> now here's the bad news because you upset me like a week ago when you talked about peanut butter prices going up. but now bacon, that's where i'm going to draw the line. bacon prices are way up. >> yeah, absolutely. bacon prices, beef prices. you know, u.s. exports of beef and pork are on pace to set

records this year. and domestic demand, ie demand right here in the states, is also rebounding with surprising strength, indicating that despite the fact that we hear reports of slower growth and high unemployment, it really hasn't choked off appetites for these juicy cuts. as a result, the prices, this is the bit that hurts, domestic retail prices for many beef and pork products, like bacon, have been increasing in recent years. the average price for sliced bacon in september was 34% higher, 34% higher than just two years ago. beef, roast, for example, 15% higher over the same period. as for live cattle prices, they're about 13% higher this year, making cattle among the few widely traded commodities besides gold, obviously, to be up by double digits. so if you like it, you're going to pay for it, i'm afraid. >> bacon makes everything taste better as far as i'm concerned. mandy drury, thank you. >> thank you. you know, you have to believe herman cain is relieved that he has no public appearances today, because it looked like yesterday he was losing it.

>> 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. >> but are you concerned about the fact that these women do want -- >> what did i say? >> are you concerned about -- >> excuse me. excuse me! >> step aside, please. >> what part of no don't these people understand? >> harold ford jr. is an nbc news political analyst and former congressman and jose diaz belart is here. okay, gentlemen, i don't know, unless he drops out now, harold, he's got to get back on the campaign trail. what does he do? >> he's got to get a clear, consistent answer that he feels comfortable talking about and repeating. then you can perhaps move on. i think his challenge has been

set on your show today, yesterday and other shows on the network is that they have not had a single answer. every answer seems to add a little or take a little away. then you have other facts, other disclosures coming out. it would be helpful if all the parties could speak and answer forthrightly and fully what happened and allow the story to move on and allow his campaign to react accordingly, whether you stay in the race or get out of the race. that's probably premature to say either of those things. particularly get out of the race. but it's helpful to everybody if the facts come out and herman cain needs to stick to his story. >> yeah, because he has had a lot to say. let's play you another clip of herman cain. >> i'm not going -- >> her man cane has never sexually harassed anybody, period, end of story. >> as far as a settlement, i am unaware of any sort of settlement. i hope it wasn't for much, because i didn't do anything. >> 12 years ago i was falsely

accused. >> but i do remember the formal allegations she made in terms of sexual harassment. >> jose, that speaks to what, you know, harold was just talking about, which is that it was this story that over the course of 12 hours went from one end of the spectrum to the other. look, you've been in the news business a long time. you and i have reported on a lot of these scandals. is there a way out for him? >> you know, here's a novel idea. how about saying the truth and nothing but the truth and all of the truth. because the fact of the matter is that if you just say everything up front, you know, this hounding, as he has called it, by the press would probably diminish after a bit. it reminds me kind of the weiner story. instead of coming out and saying yeah, this happened, he dragged it along for a while. i'm not equating any moral equivalency between the two, but if you just come out and say,

listen, yes, this happened, this is the entirety and what harold was saying, why not ask the other parties to be able to speak and say their side of the story. that will go away or at least we'll know what happened and we can go on from there. but until we in the media and the folks that are watching us get pretty much the answers to the questions they have, we'll keep asking the same questions. >> and by the way, the person asking the question most recently apparently was jenny thomas, wife of the supreme court justice. listen to this. >> that is the d.c. culture, guilty until proven innocent. maybe i misspoke. what i meant was china does not have the size of nuclear capability that we have. they do have a nuclear capability. i was talking about that total nuclear capability. so that's what i meant by that. >> i play that, harold, because we're talking so much about sexual harassment, which is serious, and sexual harassment

itself is horrible. but it's also taking away from the fact that this is a candidate who it didn't seem knew that china was a nuclear power. didn't seem to know that they had nuclear weapons. >> it's unfortunate. well, let me say this. these facts, these questions that the candidate cain is being asked right now he should answer and i would agree with -- i didn't mean to leave out the term honest and full and forthright, i'm thankful jose included that and i agree with him. but there's no doubt, the questions about foreign policy, about economic policy, tax policy, housing policy, i mean that's what you elect a president to do, part of it. his character, those questions have to be answered as well. but this is not the first time, as we know, that candidate cain has not answered in a sufficient way about foreign policy. he was asked about leadership in the middle east and across asia, and he said i'm not going to be forced into answering about

uzbekistan. if you run for public office, most questions are fair. having run for office five times or six times, i can tell you there are questions i didn't want to answer and questions i thought that were unfair. but questions about china and its nuclear capacity, questions about the relationship with the soviet union, vis-a-vis other relations in the middle east are questions you want a president to have knowledge of and be comfortable talking about. i think he fails that test more miserably than other tests. >> when we see the next poll, because there has not been a poll since this entire thing out, is he gone? is he done? >> i don't know. it's interesting he's gotten more money from people who are reacting a different way to this story. but, you know, it may very well be that another ford, president ford when he said polling wasn't part of the soviet empire at the time and that really hurt him, maybe the fact that the economy is just so, so difficult right

now, that is something of less importance to many voters. but the fact is that, you know what, the most important thing i think we can have from our politicians is just people to be honest, one way or another. you can disagree with them but i think as long as they're honest, people can make up their own opinion about other policy ideas. it's just a matter of let's hear some answers. >> i think everyone has been falsely accused -- a lot of people have been falsely accused of things, not at the level herman cain has been. so people are fair. they're going to wait to hear the facts. i think some of the bigger questions are his questions around the 9-9-9 plan. do those things add up? the fact that you are unaware of china's military capacity and capabilities, our number one economic challenge and foreign policy challenge if you're president, i believe. if he can't answer those questions, i think that raises as many in my mind questions and concerns about his candidacy as some of the other things. >> harold, good of you to come in. jose, always great to see you.

thank you, you can watch jose on noticiero weeknights at 6:00 p.m. eastern. we'll be right back. and it holds all day. ♪ take the fixodent 12 hour hold challenge. guaranteed, or your money back. ♪ 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. ♪

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v8 v-fusion. could've had a v8. the american academy of pediatrics is standing by its recommendations to limit screen time for children under 2. the organization says play time is more valuable for developing brains than tv, and that babies are too young to benefit from educational programs. the aap says children learn best from human interaction. hi, everybody, good morning. i'm thomas roberts. in the next hour of msnbc, herman cain and the blame game regarding allegations of sexual harassment in his past. the cain camp opening fire on rick perry and his team for leaking that information, but is it true. more chaotic scenes from the occupy oakland protests

overnight. police forced to clear downtown streets. will this occupy movement shift west to the bay area? and it's the video everyone is talking with, a father whipping his daughter some 20 times with a leather belt. why did the young woman allow this tape to go viral? hillary adams and her mom are my guests in the next hour. we have that and much more coming your way so stay tuned. >> thomas, thank you. it is one of the central themes highlighted by the occupy wall street protesters, the american dream is vanishing. thomas just mentioned what happened in oakland. it was a mostly peaceful day of protests that dissolved into violence. police dispersing crowds with tear gas. residents in new york are fed up with the makeshift camp outside their front doors and are calling on the mayor to kick out the protesters. "time" magazine's current cover story is taking a look at occupy wall street. joining me is the assistant managing editor. you start out your article

pointing out that america's story really is the idea of the american dream, that there is the land of opportunity here and you ask does america still work like that. what did you find out? >> well, the answer is no. if you start in the bottom portion of the soesh ycioeconom ladder you have only a 17% chance of getting to the top. that's a system that doesn't align with the mythology that we have, that anyone can get ahead if you just work hard enough. >> let's look at some of the specific numbers. the top 1% take home 21% of the income accounting for 35% of its wealth. wages have been falling for much of the past year. for the first time in 20 years, the percentage of the population employed in the u.s. is lower than in the u.k., germany and the netherlands and you talk specifically about technology. what is the role of technology as we look ahead? >> well, technology and education are very much related. as long as we're making educational gains, then new technology is great. we can use it, we can move up

the food chain, create new jobs, but that link has been broken. because we're not makinged occasional gains the way we used to and in fact we're only in the middle of the pack internationally now in terms of our educational system, we can't get the benefit from technology and so jobs are disappearing. >> at the same time we have these occupy wall street protests and all of them just about are pretty much rooted in some sort of economic discontent. what's going to happen long term? that has been the question. there does seem to be a frustration in places like oakland. you just can't be here protesting. what do they do next? >> well, i think this is about fairness yand equality. we've seen people protesting a lot of different things, rich bankers, what's happening in washington, but the common thing is the wealth gap in this country has grown too wide and this is connected to mobility. when the rungs on the ladder get wider, it's harder to move up them, so we're going to have to address that. >> it's a great article. people can find it in the magazine. thank you so much. >> thank you.

justin bieber is taking to twitter to respond to a paternity lawsuit filed by a fan who says the pop star is the father of her baby. our tweet of the day. with this album i'm giving portions of the proceeds to #charity. i'm trying to help give back. nothing will stop me from that focus, nothing. in a second tweet bieber writes so i'm going to ignore the rumors and focus on what is real, an opportunity to help by doing what i love. judge me on the music. love ya all. >> and check out jimmy fallon's new song suggestion for bieber. ♪ you simply did it and i'm a dad ♪ ♪ my lawyer's tripping because things look bad ♪ ♪ you only said this to get my cash ♪ ♪ and now selena gomez is going to kick my -- ♪ ♪ it's not my baby, baby, baby ♪ no, it's not my baby, baby, bye ♪

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upcoming possibly one of the most depressing celebrity boxing matches in history. jose canseco and lenny dike extra will duke it out this weekend. dykstra lost millions on questionable investments. most recently he was kwhaurnld drug possession and grand theft auto. congratulations, knoxville, tennessee. you top the list of the cleanest cities in america. auburn-opelika, alabama, mi sewella, casper and springfield round out the top five. but the dirtiest city, poke tella, idaho. i'm chris jansing. thomas roberts is up next and i'll see you back here tomorrow. you name it. i've tried it. but nothing helped me beat my back pain. then i tried salonpas. it's powerful relief that works at the site of pain and lasts up to 12 hours.

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the herman cain campaign points the finger at team perry in the sexual harassment scandal that is threatening his run for president, this as a third accuser comes forward. occupy oakland turns violent, shutting down the city as demonstrators set a bonfire in the middle of a downtown street. police firing tear gas and flash-bang grenades to clear the crowds. president obama on the world stage at the g-20 summit in france, but will greece's plan to pull out of a bailout derail the talks? and what is the ripple effect for americans here at home? plus a texas judge repeatedly beating his screaming daughter. the video so disturbing it's already gotten over a million views online. we'll have the daughter and her mom live here in studio to explain why they're releasing this appalling tape and doing it now. hi, everybody, nice to have you with me this morning. i appreciate your time. i'm thomas roberts. herman cain is staying away from tv cameras today as the scandal surrounding him takes another turn and ropes in another campaign. cain already showed signs of frustration on wednesday morning be