here? with us here, michigan governor rick snyder, michigan republican chair, robert showstack, and democratic party national chairman debbie wasserman schultz. i'm andrea mitchell in rochester, michigan. it turned into a he said they said. two women have publicly accused herman cain of sexual harassment and their attorneys are trying to get two more to go public. will it become an issue in the big debate? chris alyssa is live in washington for the daily fix. what's the latest you're hearing from the attorney of one of the accusers? >> there's a lot of moving parts. we have four total women. there's an effort to get all of them to come forward. that seems to me unlikely, but who knows in this situation. i would say you said may become an issue. i would be stunned if it was not asked of herman cain by the madroderator

moderators. i think he will respond like yesterday in the press conference. the key thing to watch, how do the rivals react. they ramped up criticism, michele bachmann, newt gingrich, more willing to say he needs to answer this and answer more, needs to say more. do they do that in a debate setting, and how does herman cain react. it will be a telling moment in the debate tonight. >> and earlier today on msnbc, sharon bialek, one of the accusers, the first woman that came forward publicly had this to say about the counter attack against her. >> if i was coming in this for money, i wouldn't be sitting right here. i would have sold my story and left. that was not the motivation. it still is not the motivation. i was simply trying to give mr. cain a platform to come forward and do what is right and apologize to myself and the other women and possibly even more women who might now have the courage to step forward.

>> herman cain, of course, chris, he came out swinging. he was really tough. he lawyered up, he's standing firm in his denials. this was him at his news conference last night. >> you don't need 100% of the voters, you need 51%. it is natural that some voters will be turned off by the mere mention of the accusations. so rebuilding the trust on the part of some people, yes, that would be a challenge. but i want to continue to represent those that have chosen to support me and those that are willing to look at the facts and not hearsay. >> so we see how combative he is about this, chris, and this is what we can expect if it does come up tonight as you expect it will. thanks so much. chris cillizza for the daily fix. chuck todd and maria bartiromo,

host of closing bell will be co-moder ating the debate. the premise, your money, your vote, it is an economic debate. it becomes unavoidable things come up. you could argue workplace issues. sexual harassment has in the last 20 years since clarence thomas, anita hill controversy has become a major issue for corporations and for employees and their bosses. >> for sure. i think the charges also sort of speak to leadership, speak to character, integrity, and the american people do want to hear and see his body language as far as how he responds. no doubt about it, the debate tonight is certainly focused largely, largely, on the economic issues that i think that the american people want answers and solutions to. >> and have we seen, chuck, in the latest polling and in the battle ground matchups, michigan which has not gone democratic in

a presidential election year -- >> probably since '88. >> not gone republican since '88 when george herbert walker bush was running. now it appears the democrats are losing their edge here. it is a tossup. >> it could be, and particularly mitt romney, a favorite stepson if you will. obviously he didn't win office here, had relatives, in-laws run for office, his father was governor of the state, so there is that aspect. not everyone is convinced another republican could put it in play, per se, but the economy is tough here, and the auto bailout as debbie dingell said, democratic strategist married to john dingell said it is about 50/50 here in michigan, even though the republican party officials in michigan are in favor of it, against the republican grain here, here it is sort of 50/50. >> what about the bigger picture

also in terms of the elections, whatever warning signs that both parties may have gotten from voting yesterday. we saw the ohio vote which was to reject republican governors moving against collective bargaining agreements for public employees, and also saw it in mississippi. really interesting rejection of what would have been the toughest anti-abortion law. >> i do draw a string here. if you put mississippi, ohio, and the healthcare law that went down, it was voters and in arizona, recall of the state senator, even maine, seems like voters said hey, don't go too far. don't push your ideology all the way to the wall. i may be pro-life, but don't take away some of the access to birth control. i may be worried about immigration, but let's not single out a group. i may be worried about unions. that's what you seem to see. voters are in a collective restrain. >> take a breath, arizona, interesting recall of an official one of the leaders of the tough immigration law.

maria, you're seeing people really looking more seriously now at candidates and at issues. this is an election year, and people are hurting economically, people are really worried about what's happening in europe and possible impact here. you see a lot of this now finally coming into focus. >> you do. like what's going to happen on the stage tonight. >> people are smart. people recognize these issues are not brain surgery. it used to be people would keep information from the public and say look, you could know this but you can't know this. but there's been an explosion of information and people have become empowered with information, so they know that there's a path forward and we will get out of this at some point, this slump in america. that's what we will focus on tonight. how the guys' plans differ in terms of job creation. for the most part, candidates have come out with tax reform plans as a way to fix jobs. my question is is that the openly path, tax reform. are there other ways to get people back to work and that's what i want to hear.

>> tax reform is a long-term process. we all covered it in 1986 when bill bradley was the mover in the senate. takes years to get tax reforms through and to see the effects of tax reform into the economy. >> and we need jobs now and yesterday. the regulatory environment is another issue we are drilling down on. many of the candidates continue to say regulatory environment created barriers for businesses to create jobs. we're going to peel back the onion and say which barriers and exactly which laws might you move to change, and that is supposed to be creating jobs. >> we have to learn something about what do they know about the european crisis. i don't think we know how much they know about that. and then digging deep on housing, which they haven't had to do. >> the issue of the u.s. contributes 20% to imf zone. they have given euro zone $150 billion. the american people don't want to bailout anybody else at this

point. we want to get into the europe issues as well. >> maria bartiromo, can't wait to see you tonight comoder ating this debate. and chuck todd, seeing you later. don't miss your money, your vote, republican presidential debate, moderated by maria bartiromo. still ahead, michigan governor rick snyder joining us, and republican chair robert showstack, and gop hopes to turn michigan red forman the first time since 1988. send your thoughts on twitter@mitchellreports. live from oklahoma university in rochester, michigan, only on msnbc. the postal service is critical to our economy-- delivering mail, medicine and packages. yet they're closing thousands of offices, slashing service, and want to lay off over 100,000 workers. the postal service is recording financial losses,

but not for reasons you might think. the problem ? a burden no other agency or company bears. a 2006 law that drains 5 billion a year from post-office revenue while the postal service is forced to overpay billions more into federal accounts. congress created this problem, and congress can fix it.

the economy will be taking center stage in michigan today as republican candidates gather for the cnbc debate. will they go after each other or take on president obama primarily? robert schostak, chairman of michigan's republican party joins me now. what's the best strategy for the candidates tonight? is there a likely instinct to go after each other, to have one guy's flat tax going after the other's flat tax or should they keep their eye on the ball and go after barack obama. >> i think it is clear about jobs and the economy and the focus needs to be that, and drifting off that would probably not be the best idea. barack obama hasn't delivered stimulus plans one after another, it is just a campaign effort on his part, and i think they need to focus on what we care about here in michigan and around the country and putting

our people back to work. >> what about the auto bailout, hasn't that worked and saved they say 80,000 jobs in the auto industry here in michigan and neighboring states. >> what has saved the auto companies is pretty simply the product. we're putting out much better product. it is very competitive on a worldwide basis. >> but the companies wouldn't have existed without that. they survived because of the bailout. >> the white house would argue that it is a federally funded dollars, it was the only alternative available and that's just not the case. they used federal dollars, used taxpayer dollars. why not allow the capital market to do it. debt or financing is a form of financing for chapter 11s, and many of the republicans, fiscal conservatives saw that as the inappropriate use of federal dollars. i happen to agree with him. >> does mitt romney have a natural advantage in michigan where his father was governor where he grew up? >> look, he has strong name

recognition, went to high school here. has family still here. >> 39% of the vote last time he ran for president in michigan primary caucus, primary matchup. >> and because of his name id. but we have strong candidates that have been campaigning here awhile. we had several at mackinac last month and september for the conference. rick perry gave a strong presentation up there. herman cain has been here, newt has been here. i suspect as the field is presented, romney is in a good position, but others are on his tail. >> what about herman cain? are you distressed as a party chair at what this race has become and all the energy and focus being on herman cain's sexual harassment allegations. should he have handled it better from the get go so this didn't dominate all of the discussion for this whole time? >> well, it's certainly not up to me to judge how he should manage that issue, how his

campaign should handle it. >> does it help the party or hurt the party? >> i think herman cain has to deal with it in a way he feels most appropriate and the candidates that are on the stage with him, if they choose, will address it, and at the end of the day, one of our guys or gals will end up at the top and earn the respect and votes of michigan. >> mitt romney and haley barbour both said he should put all of the information out, make full disclosure of whatever else is out there and deal with it head on. >> and i think he did that yesterday. >> you think he did that by denying he did anything wrong? >> he walked in front of the press, gave his perspective on it. i think he gave an honest perspective, and trying to bring it to closure. >> do the candidates tonight have to address the larger economic issues facing americans, not just joblessness, but the foreclosure crisis, the fact people have lost so much of their wealth.

>> they need to address debt ceiling issues, spending issues, solution to the housing industry. that's why we have this debate here, and cnbc about jobs and the economy, obviously a leader in these issues, and these are moderators that understand the issues. an answer will be a challenge and question back at them. they need to get that. >> thank you. up next, national democratic party chair woman debbie wasserman schultz will preview tonight's talking points. this is the place for politics. [ male announcer ] cranberry juice? wake up!

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individual mandate. in mississippi, voters defeated an amendment that would have outlawed all abortions and likely many forms of contraception. but in bellwether virginia, a tight race in the 17th district remains too close to call. provisional ballots being counted today. we have a political reporter with us. let's look at the reports and what signals you see from the electorate in the various states, particular what we saw in mississippi and ohio. >> i think the main message is voters rejecting overage from both sides. you saw that result, striking result in ohio being voters said the kur tailing of collective bargaining rights went too far, but also rejecting parts of the healthcare law. and down in mississippi, a republican governor was sweeping his way to victory. you had a lot of republican voters crossing over and voting

against this personhood measure, even drilling to a state senate race in arizona where voters recalled russell pierce who was the senate president and sponsor of the controversial immigration proposal. so all across the country, voters reigning in and taking hold of their politicians and their issues. >> this is obviously a big win for the labor movement. is it also a warning signal for governors like scott walker and rick scott around the country and of course for kasich in ohio? >> i think so. if you looked at governor kasich's comments last night, he acknowledged this was a signal. he said he was going to go back to the drawing board, have to think about this. so he was very conciliatory in rhetoric last night, but the labor movement is already saying actions speak louder than words. will kasich try to broker a deal. what will it mean for scott

walker. they are trying to fund raise off the victory in ohio saying donate to us to recall scott walker, so the movement is still trying to capitalize on this going forward. >> i know in virginia they're still counting provisional ballots, is it likely republicans will get control of the state senate? this would be a big victory for governor bob mccdonald. >> they have provisional ballots to count. looks like the virginia republicans will pick up two seats, make it a tie, give republicans the tie breaking vote there. overall, a mixed result for president obama and tim kaine looking to 2012 there because the battle ground counties in the state of virginia were very, very close. we're talking 86 votes, one percentage point. parties reading too much into this are probably mistaken.

>> thanks, dave for that political briefing. a grab bag of results from last night. the last time a republican carried michigan in a presidential election, the candidate was george herbert walker bush. the year, 1988. but our nbc battle ground map shows the state is now a tossup. florida congresswoman debbie wasserman schultz chairs the national committee and joins me in advance of the big debate. thanks for being with us. >> thanks for having me, andrea. >> michigan is now in play. you have michigan, ohio, pennsylvania, all in play. tough economic times. the president has his work cut out for him. >> well, these are states that are always in play, very, very tough and competitive states. president obama is absolutely going to do well in michigan, particularly when contrasted with the likes of mitt romney who in this state essentially gave the back of the hand, the back of his hand to the automobile industry and wrote an

op-ed in "the new york times" saying we should let detroit go bankrupt and not provide the loan that president obama championed that help get the automobile industry turned around and now making a profit. over a million jobs would have been lost in the pipeline. now we've had manufacturers in this state growing jobs, adding to the economy, getting the economy turned around. last night in particular was a repudiation, total repudiation of the extreme policies of republicans. they've had power in the last 11 months, and they were wholesale rejected across the country last night. >> republicans here in michigan say that even with those jobs saved, they say the jobs would have been saved anyway, and at least half the number of people, half those polled in michigan still are against the auto bailout. they believe it was an improper use of federal money. >> president obama has a decent approval rating here for a reason because the majority of

middle class working families here understand that president obama has rolled up his sleeves, made a commitment to moving our economy forward, to creating jobs and ensuring we strike a balance when it comes to how we do that. republicans engaged in extremist policies that focus on helping the wealthiest, most fortunate americans. president obama stood up for the automobile industry while mitt romney was willing to let them go down the tubes. >> are you concerned about the president's overall job numbers? nbc news "the wall street journal" poll is upside down, only 44% approve. 51% disapprove. >> we are not focused on polls. we are a year from the election. the president is focused like a laser on passing the american jobs act, making sure we can put people to work. we need help from republicans. the sad thing is that mitt romney and the rest of the republican field care about one job, barack obama's, and democrats and others want to put americans back to work. we need republicans to work with us. if they won't work with us,

president obama will move the economy forward on his own. he knows we can't wait. he has been signing executive orders to help people work out mortgages, remain in their homes, get more people working, make college loans more affordable. he is not going to stand by and watch republicans contribute to the country stagnating. >> debbie wasserman schultz, thank you very much. good to see you. >> you, too. and still ahead, live from rochester, michigan, we preview the debate with michigan governor rick snyder. and president obama takes down spending. and the end of the road for joe paterno. those first young men. the pioneers. the aviators. building superhighways in an unknown sky. their safety systems built of brain and heart, transforming strange names from tall tales into pictures on postcards home.

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the headlines now on andrea mitchell reports. joe paterno is stepping down at the end of the season in the wake of that child sex abuse scandal involving his former

defensive coordinator. in a statement today, paterno says he wishes he had done more to follow up on the incidents involving his colleague. the football legend spoke to students that rallied in support of him last night. >> i lived for people like you guys and girls. >> this afternoon, a local artist there painted over a portion of the mural that had the accused coach. he did it at the request of one of the coach's victims. arraigniiran will not stop nuclear plan. they are accused of conducting secret experiments. they insist it is for peaceful means. the u.n. disagrees. thousands took to the streets of london to protest public university cuts and increased tuition. and demonstrators in the financial district of the city

with occupy wall street rallies also taking place. an epic storm slamming alaska today, sending water surging into a building. forcing isolated villages to find higher ground. meteorologists warn the storm could be life threatening. sexual allegations against herman cain will be the elephant in the room perhaps at tonight's debate. dan balances, political correspondent at the "the washington post," clarence page columnist with the chicago tribune. thanks for joining us. clarence, first to you. he said he addressed the issue, that he has never done anything improper. is that good enough? will that solve the problem for herman cain as he goes into the debate tonight, and what do you think his fellow republicans will do? >> well, fellow republicans are buzzing about how damaged is herman cain by all of this. his basis rooting for him.

he's rallying them. you could tell by his language directed at attacking the media, attacking the democratic machine, quote, unquote. a lot of pragmatic republicans are thinking now about what cain stock, his electability is in question. who is the frontrunner if he drops out of frontrunner status. >> and dan, as you prepare for the debate, what are you looking for when you see eight republicans on the stage, they are tasked with talking about the economy and being specific. they're going to be questioned very intensively on their tax and spending plans, but what else are you looking for in the way they interact with each other? >> looking for a number of things. obviously you look at how herman cain handles himself. he will no doubt get at least one question about the controversy. it is not clear it will be a real factor in the debate, given the other important issues people are asking about in this one, but there's a question

about how he will handle himself. he had difficulty defending elements of his 9-9-9 plan. obviously the question of rick perry, how he does is important. can he begin to make a come back. newt gingrich had a little boom. people will be watching him. most important is mitt romney. mitt romney performed well in the debates, if he has another one, it will make it all the more difficult for others to figure out who is the alternative and can they stop him. >> clarence page, who goes after mitt romney tonight? where do you see the fight lines developing? >> well, they all do, whoever appears to be frontrunner or top tier, the rest will gang up on them. i don't know if we'll see as much ganging up on herman cain because right now we have four women, two of them named

publicly, who have accused him of sexual misconduct, of sexual harassment, and one of them is calling for all of them to come together in a joint news conference. that story is not over. we're going to hear more buzz about that. so candidates want to jump on herman cain while he's down. there's more buzz about newt gingrich now. i'm thinking about how four years ago, john mccain was written off like newt gingrich has been lately, and mccain made a come back and got the nomination. newt is looking better by the day to a lot of republicans. >> with newt looking better and better to a lot of republicans as perry's declined, does perry go after newt? what does rick perry do to try to regain some momentum? >> i think all of them are going to focus more on mitt romney than one another for this reason. each of them wants to be the alternative. at this point there's a vacuum

in the republican field as to who the alternative to romney will be when you get to caucuses and primaries. everybody needs a piece of the vote on the stage except what romney has. they want to show they can be the strongest candidate against romney and the person best in a general election race other than romney. >> dan, is it to herman cain's advantage to say i've said all i'm going to say, i never did anything wrong and i'm not going to distract people's attention from jobs and the real issues here and 9-9-9, try to get back on program? back on message? >> it would be shocking if he does anything other than what he's done to now. a debate is not the place, not a great forum to try to answer these kinds of questions, so i think he will have a pretty standard answer and attempt to move past this as quickly as he can tonight. >> and clarence, as we head into the debate, with the economy in big trouble, michigan sort of a

center of economic problems, and the auto bailout a huge issue here. what do republicans say about the fact the president's bailout did save jobs? >> well, they will not give him any credit for that, number one. what's interesting to me is mitt romney has been in trouble among michigan voters because he opposed the bailout. mitt lost to john mccain four years ago because he was speaking or i'm sorry, mitt romney won michigan over mccain as i recall because mccain was weak on what the government could do to help michigan out. and that's the kind of thing romney has to show that washington can do something to help michigan's economic situation in order to impress folks.

>> romney in fact won michigan earlier 39% of the vote, won big in michigan. it is his home state, one of his home states. he has a big advantage going in tonight. thank you very much. thanks to you clarence page and dan balz. we'll see what happens in the debate tonight. meanwhile, president obama announced the latest executive order aimed at circumventing congress to achieve budget cuts. today's order is the swag initiative. it requires federal agencies to reduce wasteful spending by at least 20%. is that just a drop in the bucket of all the trillions in debt? he is the budget director of office of management and budget. thanks for being with us. some might say this is just trinkets and reducing wasteful spending has since the days of ronald reagan been in the eye of the beholder. >> well, andrea, good to be with you. i think what the president did

today is important. he said we're taking action today through his executive order, where federal agencies will reduce by 20% what we spent in areas we think we can do less and get more out of it. because we spend 20 billion. even with the problems we face, $4 billion is a lot of money and means a lot to the american people we spend every dollar carefully. the steps the president took were measured in the sense he is not telling agencies to throw on the brakes, not do business that's essential, he is saying save 20% in areas like travel, transportation generally, printing, things that are give away items that don't add value. and i think most americans would say it is stuff we shouldn't be doing if we don't absolutely need to, and some we don't need

to do at all. >> no argument that government waste is still a big problem and $4 billion is real money. but at the same time, we're looking for $4 trillion in cuts over the next ten years to come from the super committee, and there are reports the super committee is stalled. what are you going to do if the committee does not produce a result by november 23rd or sooner? you need it sooner to be scored by the congressional budget office. what is the white house going to do except the automatic sequester and massive defense cuts? >> the president was clear this morning that action he was taking was not instead of having congress take action to deal with the larger fiscal problems. the super committee has a big job, important job to do. they're nearing their deadline, but still have a few weeks. it is important to give them that time to get the work done. the president was deeply engaged in negotiations all summer, and presented the fiscal committee,

super committee, with a detailed plan how he would get to $4 trillion of savings. i think we have to give the committee the time and space to do its work. we made clear, the president made clear he sees a path to getting this done. more importantly, the american people think we need to get this done. >> what about bill clinton's implied criticism in his book suggesting if the president had gone for the raise of debt ceiling increase when he had democratic majorities in both houses, when he was first elected, that that would have been one step to avoid what was a disaster last summer. >> you know, i actually think president clinton put out a statement clarifying his point on that and recognizing that since it would have taken 60 votes in the senate that it wasn't possible to get it done at the end of the year. we certainly thought it would be a good thing to do, we raised it in meetings. in a conversation we needed republicans in the senate to go

along with the plan in december, it was not something that could get done by any kind of unilateral action. it was clear that this was an issue that republicans in congress were setting up to be a 2011, not a 2010 issue. it would have been the right thing for the american people to get it done and get it done early. i think what we went through in july and august was not good for the country. the president showed in the course of that debate that he was willing to go the extra step to try and have a big deal that would accomplish the kind of important reforms and fiscal policy we need for the future, and congress drew a hard line on taxes. the president was willing to move forward on mandatory and other health entitlement savings. republicans weren't willing to move on taxes. i think what the super committee is struggling with now is the same set of issues, hopefully the kind of movement we have seen in statements in the last few days suggest there's a rethinking going on. i certainly haven't seen

evidence that says we're there yet, but i continue to watch hopefully there's movement in that direction. >> jack lew, thank you very much. >> good to be with you. up next here. michigan governor rick snyder. you're watching andrea mitchell reports live from rochester, michigan. r toys after dinner. looks beautiful, honey. [ rattling ] jason... really buddy, wow. samantha jane. ♪ guys, christmas dinner and you're bringing toys to the table? ♪ that, that's not a toy... let's eat! [ male announcer ] get no interest on all walmart purchases on your walmart credit card through december if paid in full in 6 months. [ 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?

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tamron hall. we are following developing news that joe paterno says he will resign at the end of the season, but the investigation into the child abuse scandal is far from over as another person comes forward today saying he was abused by jerry sandusky. joe paterno staying until end of the season, as our news nation gut check. should he leave now. plus, a big victory for democrats and unions in ohio. what republican john kasich is saying today about the big defeat last night. all of that and more ahead on

news nation. and ohio voters as tamron was saying repealed the state's tough anti-union law in tuesday's election. is this a sign of things to come for republican governors who have been taking on public employee unions around the country? michigan governor rick snyder joins us now. thank you very much for your hospitality. welcome to you. thanks for joining us. you have a much better relationship with the unions. you have been much less aggressive than some of your republican colleagues, but you still have this issue out there, you see the vote in ohio. is that a signal that the voters do not want collective bargaining rights taken away from public workers? >> in michigan we never made it a challenge point. as a practical matter, i view collective bargaining as something we work on in good faith. i'm glad to say we've been doing collective bargaining with state employees and come to a tentative agreement that hopefully we'll have an agreement soon that could be ratified. i view it let's work together.

there's too much divisiveness. our philosophy is let's find common ground and work together. >> did scott walker, john kasich and others go too far? >> i don't look at what they're doing as much as saying are we succeeding in michigan. we can be a role model of saying you don't have to go divisive, you can win together and work on that path to start with. it has been successful in our state. we have gotten a lot done in ten months. signed over 200 bills into law moving michigan forward. we were at the bottom, now headed towards the top. >> a lot of people are saying, democrats and the white house and michigan voters say the auto bailout worked, that jobs were saved. what's your take on it now after the fact? >> it is easy to do after the fact analysis of these things. as a practical matter i viewed it when it took place, if it was about an individual company going under and bankrupt, it should have gone through the normal process. the challenge with the auto

industry is if gm or chrysler went under, could have put the entire supply chain down, could have put ford into bankruptcy. since we talked about an entire industry, it was appropriate to look at larger measures. the specifics, you can quarterback and go back and say good or bad. it is behind us, now let's make sure the auto industry is successful, and they are, which is exciting. >> does mitt romney have a big advantage in that he is a hometown michigan high school, father was the governor, does that give him a big advantage? he took 39% of the vote last time in the primaries here. >> i don't know how big it is, but it is a nice feature. it is nice to have someone from michigan and has strong ties. >> is he the best qualified to be the nominee? >> i stay away from national races, and i am not endorsing in this race at this point in time. mitt was in mackinac island and could tell stories about the governor's residence in his time there as a young person.

>> do you think herman cain with his business background is qualified to be the nominee given everything that's happened and a lot of questions being raised about his 9-9-9 plan. >> there are two parts to that, andrea. the extra stuff i am not going to comment on. in terms of being a business person, i am a business person, and the business skill sets can be very valuable. actually, i think that's what was needed in michigan and one of the reasons drove me to run for governor, the fact that a career politician wasn't the answer. >> why do you think mitt romney is having so much trouble being the frontrunner with herman cain now beating him in many of the polls? >> again, it is early in the race. i went through this myself. these races go on for months. i wouldn't draw conclusions on what's happening today. it is part of a long process. >> thank you so much. >> great to be with you. >> great to have you here. what political stories are making headlines, that's next. is frowned upon in this establishment! luckily though, ya know, i conceal this bad boy underneath my blanket

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which political story will make headlines in the next 24 hours? managing editor, chris cillizza joins us. i think it is what we're going to be doing at 8:00 eastern. >> you're as usual in the place to be when it comes to political news. yes -- >> we try. >> the debate within the debate. the focus of this debate, i think, herman cain. how much do those sexual harassment allegations come up? the less the better for him. the more, the worse for him. who if any of his rivals jump on the allegations and try to take political advantage. we haven't seen it yet. this is probably the most watched forum since herman cain's allegations have come forward. i think we might see someone step forward and try to capitalize tonight. >> the other piece of it is that herman sxain the rest will have to explain to some experienced business reporters how they're

tax and budget cut plans work. they'll have to go beyond the simple slogans that have gotten them through so far. so it will be an interesting debate to see. thanks so much. >> thank you. >> we'll be talking about it tomorrow. thanks a lot, chris. that does it for us for this special edition. >> we're following the latest developmentes from penn state where joe paterno announced he is resigning. plus another person has come forward saying he was abused by jerry sandusky. i'll be joined bial who was abused as a child. we'll get his story. plus we're just hours away from the debate and it is being called the elimination round. analysts are predicting the end of the road for some of the candidates. does that include herman cain in news nation is just minutes away. making it brighter. more colorful. ♪ and putting all our helpers to work?

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developing news right now.

penn state coach joe paterno said he wishes he had quote, done more after learning one of his coaches had been accused of sexually abusing a child on campus. paterno said he is resigning as another alleged victim come forward. and elimination round. with will have the ninth republican debate have candidates dropping out? it supposed to be about the economy. will herman cain's sexual harassment scandal steal the show? plus, miracle pill. a new drug researchers say leads to weight loss with no dieting and no exercise. i'm tamron hall. we'll get to those stories in a moment. first a programming note. in about one minute there will be a national test of the emergency alert system on every television across this country. it is a test of the new fema system designed to give the president or the government the ability to alert the nation to a national disaster or event. the alert coming up is slogan,

don't stress. it is only a test. it will last about 30 seconds. the "news nation" is following major developments. joe paterno is out. he announced today he will retire at the end of the season which could be a few more, maybe three more games now. we last saw paterno being driven away from his home this morning. he was headed to the college campus where he held what was described as an emotional team meeting with his coaches and players this morning. paterno has been under pressure to step down in the wake of the scandal that has seen his former assistant coach and at one time hare aapparent jerry sandusky on sex abuse charge. meantime an alleged ninth victim has come fort forward. the artist who created a mural painted over sandusky's portrait. the artist said the mother of one of the victims contacted him and asked him to remove sandusky