or higher, it's much harder to win reelection. the last time a president ran for reelection with they unemployment numbers this high, it was ronald reagan. it is very, very hard for me. if you just look at the math, the trajectory, it will be hard for him to win. i'm not saying he can't do it, but it will be an uphill battle. >> first it was very different in '84. compositionally it was different. barack obama is facing a lot more minorities, a lot bigger base to build on if he can get the kind of turnout, and there is the opposition. we're running in a situation where the rpgs are fielding sort of the b-list of candidates. the vast majority are saying, wait a minute, we're the 99%, and the republicans are running with a party who are embracing the idea of shielding the rich. that's the wrong message going into 2012.

>> let's talk about the message. the center for american progress has a study out that basically says there's two things at play. one is demographics, one is the economy. he obviously doesn't have the economy on his side. >> i think you can overstate the democrat grabs, because these huge trends. that doesn't mean that over four years there's been a huge change. the obama campaign did a great job of bulge people out in 2008. there was the sense of a movement. they'll have to replicate that. that's not easy right there. i do think there are more hispanic in the electorate, but you have to make a distinction. and what happened between 20089 and 2012. >> there's a larger point. the question is will they come out in 2012 like they came out in 2008? we don't know yet. when you look at the intensity level of democrats, minorities

and other if individuals, the enthusiasm is not as high. implts but the intensity has to be matched on both sides. >> all this says that every incentive is to scare the hell out of democratic voters, to really run a hard negative campaign. >> and hope in a newt gingrich -- >> and what happens in scranton today? that's a predominantly working class. >> irish, working class, blue collar. >> but that 43% is good. it's an important number to look at. that's not the number that matters. the number that matters is the 32%. >> in 2008 barack obama wins the presidency, first time that's happened in american history. 2010, republicans take over, independents abandon democrats left and right. what happens in 2012? 30% independents say he's doing great? that's a real problem. can that number change? sure, by talking, by scaring the hell out of the american people,

which, by the way, george w. bush did a great job in 2004. >> hey, speak for yourself. he didn't scare me. >> because you voted for him. >> that's certainly the model. >> and who is the candidate on the other side. if it's newt gingrich, i welcome that. if it's mitt romfully, i can't think of anybody on the republican side in the presidential run that i would not love to have running against barack obama in 2012. i think they're all fabulous. [ laughter ] >> robert hates that. >> we talk about his support among the minority community, and i think that's a mean that's out there. if you look closely at the numbers, it's not a lock. if you look at the latino population, it's 60% of the latino community supports a president, but really only onee 1 in 3 support him. this is something beef talked about, and i would love your thoughts on it. occasionally you here about a divide between those who feel

the president has not spoken loudly and forcefully enough, especially given the high unemployment rate. >> when you look at those sort of opinion leaders, the people that the media looks at, wait a minute there's a divide, you're look at the elites one the black political community who have had a problem with barack obama since he was in the senate, when he wasn't that close to a lot of the cbc members, but they haven't trended down that much. barack obama still has 87%, 88% support in americans, and that ant changed, i don't think. we tend to overstate how the community backed off from barack obama. what he needs is the turnout. >> there was always a leadership thing. i remembering doing stories about hillary clinton going hard for the xwlak vote. that seems hallucinateory now.

>> hopefully this will change for the president, they're not knocking on the neighbor's door. they're not saying you have to vote for my guy. the feverish pitch is not there as in 2008. i think that's a difference. when you talk about president obama and the black community, you will always here i love the president, and i love the fact that he's my. >> and we didn't count on the backlash like maxine waters got. it was intense. >> don't forget when bill clinton went to south carolina. >> yes. >> i want to remind everybody when bill clinton went to south carolina and said to traditional black voters in traditional black churches my wife is the better candidate? really? you don't tell african-american people in african-american churches in south carolina, hey,

it is dude that's running on the ticket is less african-american than my white wife. >> you can back me up on this. the ones who stuck with her after that continued to pay the price. the attitude against some of these members continued up to the election when some didn't walk away, and that lingers to this day. >> look at kendrick meek. and one of the reasons you can argue is a lot of black folks said we remember in 2008, we remember you were for hillary and not for barack. >> two years is not enough. >> not in the black community, it's not. no way. the president will be in scranton today, and it is a campaign stop action to be honest. he will be talking about the american jobs act. it is his 56th campaign stop in a swing state this year. this guy is on -- >> surprise, surprise. >> this guy -- and also made

more than 30 speeches on the jobs act this year. this i think is evidence of just how high this climb is going to be and the fact they are not taking anything for granted. he's basically going to hillary country and trying to court and resistance community, i think. >> this reminds me a bit of 1996 when bob dole was going to texas this time during the election, a republican going to texas asking for votes, this tells me that the presidents has some major, major problems with blue collar catholic reagan democrats living paycheck to paycheck, who voted for him in 2008, who voted for him mainly because joe biden was on the ticket understandably they had i like this guy, but i'm not sure he's connecting with with me. he as going there because those folks in the northeastern part of the state simply are not connecting with this president. >> he was going to philly. every cycle i here oh, my god

the democrats will lose pennsylvania, they're going to lose michigan. you know what happens? pennsylvania goes blue, michigan goes blue. there's only a couple states that it's true. some of these swing states -- wisconsin, ohio, they have elected actual tea party governors who shows what it could be like living under a republican. >> the reality of the tea party, which we will be talking about more after the break as we reassess the gop field, up next on "now." ♪ our machines help identify early stages of cancer, and it's something that we're extremely proud of. you see someone who is saved because of this technology, you know that the things that you do in your life matter.

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we've got a foggy foreign policy crisis. we've got a moral crisis. anded biggest crisis we have is a severe distinguishes of leadership crisis in the white house. that was herman cain, of all things, speaking about a moral crisis this morning. >> what i find interesting. he's talking about morals, but secondly he was actually in ohio. you would think he would be seriously in a primary state, i.e. new hampshire -- >> the upcoming june primary. >> so look, why are we wasting our times on this? >> no, no, let's keep wasting our time. i'm a big fan of wasting our time. we have 9.1 unemployment -- his 9-9-9 plan understandably got a

lot of attraction, but every time i go out, people are saying why isn't anyone listening to me, listening to the dead crisis, listening to me living paycheck to paycheck, instead of a 13-year relationship allegedly. >> i think we're -- the national dialogue is more centered around the notion of income equality and the struggles of the poor in a way it has been, but vis-a-vis herman cain, i think we were all ready to say, done, candidacy is over, nail in coffin is it? >> he was always over. by all the usual measures, he was never serious. he was asked about afghanistan, said he didn't quite know enough, but he hoped after being you said people would tell him move. after the debate i asked him, is that your answer? and then just figured he's not

even good at being a third tier candidate, but because he went up in the polls, there was sort of this cycle of taking him very, very seriously, which is hard to explain. >> he's sort of the far end of what happens with the tea party. he's a talk radio guy. he does have a certain constituency among the tea party base. it was joe the butcher saying i want to do politics, listen to me, and people turned around and elected some of them. >> that's okay, because that's what politics is all about. a lot of them are obviously salt of the earth. that's the goodness of our country, the problem is when you stand up on a podium and profess to talk about policy and you have no idea what you're talking about. >> willful ignorance. >> and you become the front-runner doing it. >> if herman cain does exit the race eventually, it looks like newt gingrich is said to. >> well, michele bachmann led the race. who is michele bachmann?

okay. herman cain led. who is herman cain? newt gingrich will lead once herman cain is no longer in the race, then he'll fizzle. i keep saying this over and over again. the rabbit never wins. the turtle always wins. the turtle is romney. >> the turtle was hillary, too. >> what happened when mitt romney gets the nomination? all of a sudden the conservative base will go, not so much. he's our kerry, he's our john kerry. >> it's like you were saying there's a small cadre who will attack obama. if you look at the polling, he has the lowest negatives of any of the candidates. >> but there's so much unlikable. there's the ick factor, the temper factor you have mitt romney attacking gingrich on being a flip-flopper.

>> but alex, the objective is to remove, at least a lot of conservatives think this remove obama from the white house, so thus in the process they're willing to put up with a romney. some of the polls that i have shown there are a lot of grass tops people out there saying under no circumstances will romney by or nominee, but when you go a little deeper with a lot of the grassroots people that are say, if he's the nominee -- >> they're going to settle for them. he is john kerry in 2004, and also john mccain in 2008. i heard the same thing. if you go on redstate.com, they say absolutely not we're not taking mccain. >> i'll mind everyone, john kerry only lost the president byly 113,000 votes in ohio. it was very close. >> he needed intensity. >> you're exactly right. >> that's the problem that romney will have.

>> romney is intense in a weird way. >> why do you say that? >> there's a great "new york times" magazine article coming occupy, he's incredibly disciplined, but there are anger management issues, a sort of underlying frustration with folks who are out of order. there's an underbelly there, but he's run a disciplined campaign. he has staying power. >> i'm not sure i like that this guy is a kind of technocrat who you will not love, a little uptight. i'm not sure that's disqualifying. >> i'm not saying it's necessarily disqualifies. >> obama was never the guy you wanted a beer with, either. >> but obama has an ease that romney does not seem to feel. i just can't get over how weak the field is. >> i don't think it's relevant. the unemployment rate is so high, mime want an alternative. again, i'm not saying he's going to lose, but they have tried for

3 1/2 years, and nothing has worked. >> so the alternative is -- i mean, honestly. >> he's a weak primary candidate, because he's liberate. people don't believe he's a real conservative. >> i think he will be. >> that people don't believe he's an antiabortion -- >> but who does he pick for vp? >> i've got to down pat. >> sarah palin will still not go away, but at the end of the day who will it be? >> marco rubio from florida. >> i have to tell you no. you go first. >> i'll open it up. >> he brings diversity, he's a tea partier, he brings florida, a sitting united states senator, so in many way he checks the box -- >> and has said over and over again he -- >> joe biden said he didn't want it, either. >> i think we'll have to bet a cup of coffee. >> stronger than a cup of coffee. >> it's not going to be marco

rubio because of two words -- jeb bush. jeb bush is the americanor of marco rubio, he is the main reason marco rubio is a united states senator. if marco were to run and be the vp and mess around and win, it would close off the think i do believe will happen in 2016, which is jeb bush runs, how could he do that if he meantee gets in front of him. >> 'em tim -- the big deep good gop bench is sitting this one out. >> sitting it out. >> that's a good reason for rubio not to wait. that's a reason for him not to -- >> i think he has nothing to lose. frankly if they win, he's in the white house for four years. if he loses, he runs again in 2016. it's a win/win for him. >> won't happen. >> the only thing we didn't get to talk about is rick perry, who yesterday in new hampshire revealed he does not know what day is election day. >> and also the voting age. >> and again i say to my

conservative friends, why is this field so weak? >> i thought about this this morning. >> every public officials misspeaks. president obama visited 57 states. you go on down the list. everyone has some aha moments. the problem with perry is there's a narrative there, that he didn't have the horsepower to get to the finish line. he made a mistake. the problem is he continues to make a lot of mistakes, so it creates a larger narrative. >> it's one gigantic mistake occasionally studded with -- >> he said he had sympathy for the english embassy. there is no such thing as the english embassy. oh, robert. we'll talk more about this, and discuss whether the tea party's message has gone cold. time for the your business

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is the tea party over? with the rise of the occupy movement and a national dialogue regarding income equality, is the rabid call falling on deaf ears? there's recent pew research numbers out that show there is declining support nationally for the tea party and also within the tea party districts among republicans. and i ask you guys, is it over? is it over for the tea party? with we sort of turned a corner? >> i think it's too early to tell. i think the question becomes is the intensity going to be there for whomever the nominee is in november? what's interesting about the tea

party is they're not very unified. they're very passionate about what they believe in, but they're -- it's not just republicans, but a lot of democrats as well. i think that's the biggest misperception, that it's all anti-republican. it really isn't. >> you you this the tea party -- >> i've said time and time again there's absolutely no such thing as the tea party. i'm remarkably sure when you look at the ballots from 2008 and 2010, that nowhere on any of those ballots did it say robert traynham, t.p.t there's a guy named sal russo, who used to live in washington, d.c. and got drummed out and lives in california and dib armey, under newt gingrich, by the way, he's running for president, and a guy, by the way, got run out. the tea party doesn't exist. it's the right wing of the republican party.

it has independence, it has no liberals, and as soon as we admit that, america will be better. >> amen. >> there was a real conservative revival. dick armeyie has been trying to do this for years. i think it reshaped the republican party. to the extent it's not so relevant, it's largely because it's been ash sorbed. >> does occupy have something to do that? >> no, i think it's the experience. what robert left out is they were experienced by people. people experienced their vision of government. when you say cut all spending, a people didn't realize that meant no post office, no police officers, that means no social security or nor medicare? when their ideas are taken out for a walk, people don't like them. that's the problem. >> and scott walker, the recall movement in wisconsin, we will be talking all of that and more after the break. we'll keep the discussion going.

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how do we get people to chew another piece? i got this one. oh hey. [ male announcer ] spit it out. or yeti will find you. [ grunts ] i like him. thanks ryan. [ male announcer ] new stride whitemint. the ridiculously long lasting gum. in a sign of what could be waning tea party influence, senate minority leader mitch mcconnell says republicans are open to extending and increasing the payroll tax cut for another year. he also indicated a willingness -- both are expected to expire at the end of the year. the question is, are democrats finally winning the war on messaging? can they take this issue to the bank in 2012? we were talking in the last block about sort of the -- maybe the -- not the end of the tea party, but lessening influence of the tea party, the rise of occupy wall street and the

broader conversation about the disparity between rich and poor. i won't you if you think this is an outcropping of that? >> i think in a lot of ways republicans are victims of their own success. they were so successful 59 stranglinging the argument that they wrangled themselves into this debt ceiling deal. in order to be consistent, they're supposed to care about deficit, so pushing back on the idea of increasing the payroll tax cut, but they're supposed to also be the doctrine or people who say cut taxes, cut taxes, look at the difference a year makes. and republicans can't go into this election saying we want tax cuts for billionaireses, but not for the middle class. >> this is a place obama has always been able to get -- in fact he as successfully ran on saying i'm going to raise taxes on the rich and cut them on you.

that message managed to penetrate. he seems to sort of lost a grip on that. i think, and i think -- they clearly there's a bread and butter argument that this is a tax cut for you. >> did it surprise you that the republicans were saying we've got to pay for this for the first time ever? >> well, i don't know, i was in the florida 2001 tax cut, and now don't seem to recall any offsets. i don't -- in fact, i might have early onset, but i don't seem -- i hope i don't, because i'm only 44, but in 19 years, i have never in my life ever seen a tax bill, a tax cut bill ever by any republican ever that had it paid for. not once. today now we have -- this is revolutionary. this should be on the front page of "new york times" and "wall street journal," and i wonder what the "wall street journal" editorial board has to say about this. we're going to pay for a payroll

tax cut that disproportionately helps middle income and poor people, and we're going to do this on unemployment insurance, we're going to pay for that, because we made sure we said we care more about the deficit than the country. tax cuts are interesting creatures. if tax cuts always, always, always create jobs, i wish somebody in america would show some el where in the hell those jobs are. if you're of the 9.1% than unemployed, those tax cuts did not create a job for you. >> vis-a-vis we know that money is pumped babb into the economy. >> thank god. >> there's a case to be made there, but i wondering, it's masterful politicses on some level, vis-a-vis the way the democrats are trying to get this paid for, which is a tax on millionaires, which sets very sort of black and white fashion, republicans are protecting millionaires, we're here for the working class. >> what will happen, my understanding is that you would tax 3.2% of people that make a million or more.

it's a classic argument to your point and to your point, joy, of taxing the rich to help the poor. >> and the middle class. >> the question becomes whether or not -- this is where the democrats have always failed, in my opinion, because they always penalize or chastise people that make money. and that is where republicans were able to take the argument away from democrats and make it their own. so the question becomes whether or not the president in this tough reelection year will be able to seize the moment, go to the battleground states and say this is not really a tax on millionaires, this is more about a tax of people's success and rightfully show. >> robert? that might work in a normal cycle, but after the great recession, when right now the attitude of the average american is that wall street got over the rich people got a break. rich people are getting richer than ever, even as we're losing our jobs our homes. the attitude is the opposite of that. we're saying we want to tax the

rich. the republicans are saying, no, no, shield the rich. it's just not a winning argument. >> people always tell pollsters they want to tax the rich, and yet democrats -- >> even the rich tell pollsters that. and democrats always have a hard time selling it. >> i want to piggyback on that. because broadly the american they feel like the disparity has grown too big. is not going to carry water in 2012, but you seem -- >> i agree. in the midterm election -- as you said, views about social security. they'll be back pedals. >> the reason why is making 2700,000 or more -- when people take a look at their taxes.

let's take a small business owner who owns a convenience store. when he look at their tax and says, my gosh, i made $500,000 last year, i'm considered rich, but in the grand scheme i'm not rich because of my overhead or maybe that corner store is in new york city, whatever the case may be. on paper people may be rich and they'll tell their pollsters, but when they look at the actual income tax returns they're saying my gosh, that actually will affect me, and i don't consider myself to be rich. >> that same storeowner that robert just talked about is an interesting storeowner. if they're sitting in dubuque iowa, or charleston -- real america as opposed to washington, that same storeowner will read the front pages of the paper that on december 5th in 2008 the banks got $1.5 trillion in secret loans i'm remarkably sure that that storeowner did not get a loan. >> the economic hocus-pocus will be the subject of our next block

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news today that britain has expelled all iranian diplomats. mean while the euro zone is on the brink of collapse. comparatively, the u.s. is looking kind of stable, on is it? >> it depends on how you look at that. >> it's all relative, isn't it? let's talk about iran first. it looks like the question is, is this 1979 redux?

and how does this change relationships? >> also the issue with iran's sort of only friend sir dwra seeming to come unravelled. they do control that strait of hormuth, so it actually is -- i don't know if it's an outgrowth of the arab spring, but if you're tehran, i think you're worried that your neighborhood is collapsing. >> and pakistan we now have the nato bombing this weekend. what happens to u.s. policy over there? it seems like if not one large explosion, it's a series of -- >> and u.s. is pushing a hard-line policy right now on iran. know, it was students in a very nominal kind of way. there are photos of security forces among the students. it was basically an official trashing of the embassy, so basically the u.s. right now is trying to build support for the -- simplgts you know,

politically speak this is hard for the president. he has a lot of home fires he needs to keep burning and cannot be distracted on the foreign policy standpoint, especially in the context of 1979 jimmy carter and the whole malaise. wouldn't you say that foreign policy is one of the areas where there's broad agreement that he's done a good job. >> i think it depends on who you ask. >> asked who got -- ife. >> if you ask merkel or sarkozy, they have been frustrated. benjamin netanyahu, frustrated. >> but overall i think it's been a good job. >> there's a lot of situations -- critics are saying they should talk tougher, express moral outrage, but that's really the only chance. >> he did that with netanyahu, because with you you talk to netanyahu, everyone says he's

anti-israeli? really? >> he makes a good point. what could he do? iran is 820 million people, it's a much bigger country, a much more uniform, not a put-together country like iraq -- that the british threw together -- i'm sorry, i shouldn't put it that way. iran is formally -- you know, an ancient sort of civilization. >> and i think it makes sense to talk about europe in this situation as well, where you're working if not the complete meltdown, a fragmentation of the euro zone. there's very little that the president can actually do. >> his hands are tied. there's no question that the only thing he can do is try to corral people together, almost like a camp david accord type of summit, if you will, to bring the different personalities into a room and say, how do we figure this out.

bring people together to be a convener. >> i think the u.s. probably would have taking more of a leading role to untangle the finance mess that's over there, and it's been sort of leadership in or torrie more than anything else. when we look at what's happening in europe, and a large part is yearny and the germans being sort of intractable. >> but it's one thing the president hasn't done yet. most presidents help us connect the dots. they take the foreign policy overseas and bring it back home, get on national television and walk the american viewer, the citizen through exactly what's going on. i'm surprised he hasn't done an oval office address to walk us through his think iing. >> italy isn't a cockpit. italy is flying the plane. what happens in europe has effects over here.

i think there's not a broad understanding among the american people -- >> the american people don't care. i hate to say it. >> it's a hard sell. that the germans who have a real interest in keeping the euro going should help out southern europe. it's going to be a harder sell here. obviously the fed began acting today, but there's a limit to which -- >> i reject the notion that the american people don't care. the american people may not know. thus in the process it's the responsibility of our chief executive officer to lead us. >> but he gets no credit for anything that happens -- >> that's what you have to do. >> my brother is a wine distributor in south carolina, two kids, he doesn't give a crap about greece. he hayes never been there, nor does he want to go there. should he? yes, but he doesn't, and i don't blame him. >> he cares about italy because he's a wine distributor. >> i think they --

>> there they get wine very cheap. >> and i think barack obama wanted to take the focus off the economy, anything that looked like a hey, look over here move would be bad. >> it is part of the economy. >> i know, but it seems like a non sequitur. american people don't understand the contagion obviously comes over economically. but trying to refocus that, it would be -- >> my point is the president of the united states, if you look at george w. bush, who actually educated us on the middle east, when you look at franklin roosevelt, who educated us on the reasons why we should go into world war ii. when you look at every single president, whether it's harry truman, lyndon johnson, they have walked the -- >> george w. bush educated us on the fact that a country that didn't have nuclear weapons in iraq had nukes and was about -- >> you can debate the policy -- >> he sort of miseducated us on

the middle east. >> the point is he did sit in the oval office and walked the american viewer exactly what his thinking is. >> but that's because he wanted to start a war. >> if 9/11 had not happened, that education would not have stopped. >> you did hear obama say it. we have to start rebuilding at home. that's the case he -- >> i'm only heard the domestic populism, so when it comes to the theory that barack obama is, after 11 years of war, is going to go on national tv and say, america, we are -- we have a problem with what's happening in europe and it's going to affect everybody, and they're going to go, no. here's who it will affect. >> you understand that's not true. >> i understand that. but it would affect goldman, ubs, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. i'm still remarkably sure that they don't like goldman.

not that goldman is bad, but i'm just saying. what was hank paulson giving hedge funds tips on fannie and freddie? that's next after the break. [ female announcer ] removing facial hair can be irritating.

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what now? the house ethics committee tells lawmakers to just say no to insider trading. this is a story that's been going on for a couple weeks. "60 minutes" had an expose that some members of congress were used proprietary information. >> look you put these people into office -- what's so funny? >> i think it's hilarious that they can do this and no one can prosecute them. >> they can get impeached. how about vote them out? >> that's true, too. that's the ultimate.

you put these to your point. we put these folks in office, because they are the keeper of the public trust. to think they would allegedly take insider information and use it for their gain is the height of hypocrishypocrisy, and i'm g they're exposed for what it is. >> do you think there's actual repercussions? >> for people who are in districts like nancy pelosi and john boehner, where they could die weeks before the election and get reelected, they'll be fine. but this is exactly the sort of thing voters hate and will punish them for. a lot of members lose money in the aggregate. there's a study in the '90s where they were beating the market as a whole. these guys, despite the insider information is underperforming. >> isn't that even worse. you're not even making money? >> some people are insider trading. some are speculating so badly they're compensating for it and more. >> i worked on capitol hill for years as a senior staffer. we went through so many different ethics trainings, the

computer key does that strokes and so forth. i think this is a small minute individuals doing this. i don't think this is a widespread problem. >> and we note know that it's insider trading as such, a very much gray area. >> as politicians, they operate at very high levels, surrounded by people who are living better, and the temptation is always there. >> we have to talk about henry paulson, who bloomberg markets is revealing that perhaps henry paulson gave information to a group of investors about fannie mae and freddie mac. >> did he do it intentional it? >> it seemed deliberate. >> why do you say that. >> he broadcast sort of telegraphed what the government was going to do quite deliberately in this meeting. it wasn't illegal, according to the article, but he definitely deliberately sort of briefed these guys -- >> to the degree the guys consulted with their lawyers and said i just learned something i probably shouldn't have learned. >> and to joy's point, if they

acted, it's illegal. if in fact the treasury secretary telepathically told them something, they actually act on it, it's illegal. >> but if the guys from goldman felt more uncomfortable about getting a brief from the governmental efficient than the initial, i think it reinforces people's ideas that guys go to washington to either enrich themselves, to pad their retirement, cozy up with other retch people, and it's they're not us, they're there to sort of get rich and hang out with fast trackers. >> so let's say that secretary paulson revealed this information, so let's say whoever got that information, what did they do with it? we threw martha stewart in jail for -- >> the lawyers told them not to trade on that specific information, but, of course, it gave them a huge piece of information about the broader economy, all sorts of things they could use. if you're looking for a story about insider cabals, the

treasury secretary is always balances between assuring and telling too much. this was not a like bush administration plot. this was roger altman and very prominent democrats who worked at goldman with paulson. the proposed ground zero mosque center has had its rent hiked from $2700 a month to $47,000 a month. there's a lot of back and forth. you know, the organizer saying this is maybe perhaps politically motivated. we know this is a very contentious world in the new york -- well, in the new york there d.c. area. this is something that's been a fiery debate. >> this was always about a real estate story about guys who didn't have enough money who sought publicity, so it's like a million other things, a project that's grinding itself into the dust. look at the west side stadium

nearby. this reveals the extent to which this was some guys that did not have the resources to build this thing, which they managed to create a firestorm. >> rent hikes, in new york city, something i'm sadly familiar with. thank you all for joining me. that's all for us at "now." andrea mitchell reports is next. >> thanks, ale, up next, cain's downfall. how much longer will he try to hang on? plus war of words. trading barbs as gingrich trying to redefine the meaning of lobbying. plus paul ryan and ranking democrat chris van hollen joining us, to talk about a budget plan they both support. all that plus politico's mike allen here in aspirin, a "time's" mark halperin. "andrea mitchell reports" is next. oh, what do you hunt?

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