from nbc news in washington, this is "meet the press" with david gregory. >> this sunday the president on the world stage in a time of growing danger. the u.s. says iran has a secret underground nuclear facility capable of weapons production. >> iran is on notice that when we meet with them on october

1st, they are going to have to come clean, and they are going to have to make a choice. >> what now. and afghanistan. military commanders want more troops as the white house considers a new strategy. with us former president bill clinton on this president's hard choices. >> i think what the president is saying without saying it because he hasn't said yes or no yet is that an american surge in afghanistan may be a necessary issue for success. >> and the growing gop op sdmrigs. >> their agenda seems to be -- >> and a special debate on the way forward between iran and afghanistan with senator from virginia jim webb and republican from arizona, john kyl. then the white house intervenes in a high profile race for governor in new york urging fellow democrat, governor david paterson, want to seek re-election. what will he do?

what does this race say about the political mood of the country? speaking out live this morning in an exclusive interview, governor david paterson. first, breaking news overnight. in a new show of force iran test fired several short range missiles. the head of the revolutionary guard telling reporters that a multiple missile launcher was at theed for the first time, that iran would test medium and long range missiles during further drills in the next few days. this, of course, just two days after strong condemnations from the u.s. and allies over the existence of the secret underground uranium enrichment facility in iran. we'll get reaction in just a moment to these latest developments with two key senate voices, democrat jim webb and republican john kyl, but, first, news of the nuclear enrichment facility was the first of many topics we covered when i sat down in new york with former president bill clinton. >> i would like to start by

asking you about these latest developments on iran and the discovery of an underground facility. the bottom line is from the administration's point of view is this the time for engagement or is it the time to get tough? >> well, my answer is both. that is, you know, i know what i read in the newspaper, but my impression is that the united states knew about this for some time and then a couple of days ago, you know, iran gave a kind of half-hearted notification to the international atomic energy agency about the site. then the u.s. must have shared what they knew because you've got the very tough statement from the president from russia at the u.n. and then the british and french leaders, prime minister brown and president sarkozy joined with president obama and his statement. the chinese, i'm assuming, have been notified because they've been working closely with the russians and americans on the

north korean nonproliferation issues to strain the ability to spread whatever technology they have or to allow the north koreans to add to their stock. i think when the secretary of state kept saying iran has a choice to make, iran has a choice to make, it now looks, reading in the newspaper that, what they were saying is we want to talk to you. you can't avoid talking about this. we have to resolve this, and i believe the president has now said by the end of the year, and i think hillary had said something like december, so my view is this is the very time to talk to them because we're in a difficult situation now, and it not a question i want to emphasize about whether we trust them or not because we have demonstrated that we have the ability to verify, and i think the u.s. wanted to talk because they knew about this and they knew that iran was about to get in the position where they might be irreversibly putting

themselves on a conflict course not only with us, but as you now see, with the europeans, the germans endorse the statement with the russians, and presumably with the chinese just because they haven't said anything, we shouldn't draw necktive conclusions. they normally take a little longer. >> is this the moment where the president says to iran we got you and now it's time to act or you're going to face serious consequences? >> i think that's what they want to communicate with them, and i think the reason they want to have talks is if they have talks and they don't just hurl assaults in the press about it, they can more explicitly lay out things they may not be prepared to say in public yet about what the options are if iran continues down this path and they can also talk about where we might go together if they

reverse course, so i always think it's a good idea, if possible, to look somebody in the eye and have a chance to have a conversation before there's a total breach, but i think this is actually healthy that this is broken. the iranians must have known that the americans knew. somehow they muf found out that or they wouldn't have voluntarily notified the iaea about it. >> from iran to afghanistan and the bottom line question there, will committing tens of thousands of additional u.s. troops to the war in afghanistan make america safer? >> the answer to that is maybe. that's why the president hasn't answered yet. i think what general mcchrystal has said is that we have to have an afghan version of the iraqi surge in anwar that worked well there. i think what the president is saying without saying it, because he hasn't issued that he has said yes or no yet, is that

an american surge in afghanistan may be a necessary condition for success to make america safer. that is, to constrain the al qaeda, to keep the heat up on them, to keep the taliban from taking over more of afghanistan and giving the al qaeda more freedom to roam and more options to plan out of area terrorist attacks against us, the europeans, or anybody else, but it won't be enough, and my guess is that what the president wants to do is to see how this afghan election is resolved and if president karzai is a a judged the victor without having to run in a run-off with mr. abdullah, whether he will turn around and include him then in the government and maybe even one or two of the other candidates for president. there's at least one other person that's supremely qualified on merits to be a part of the modern functioning government, so i think that what

the president has done here is not to diss the general or saying -- he is saying, look, my responsibility is not just to win military battled, but to see that it leads to something bigger not only for ourselves and our security and for the people of afghanistan, and i got to decide whether we got a partner there, which means there has to be a functioning afghan government. he also -- and he the secretary of state have said on more than one occasion, mr. holbrook has, that we have to have a development strategy there, a political strategy that works with the grassroots level. in iraq when that surge worked, you had iraqis who were sick and tired of the al qaeda in iraq, who were willing to, you know, hitch up with us and risk their own lives. there are a lot of people now who are bringing up the ghosts of vietnam. what really happened in vietnam was all these things are, as i say, they're away games for the american military.

we're not on our home turf, which means to succeed, there has to be a partner, and the definition of partnership is someone willing to risk their lives in their home area to prevail, because they think it's necessary to build a decent life and a better life for their people. the south vietnamese army collapsed ten days after the last helicopter left with americans and however vietnamese we could take, and we're not there yet. we may get there and that's what the president is trying to determine, and we should give him some time to make the decision. >> what specific threat does al qaeda pose to the united states? >> they have proven that among all the nonstate actors, they have the power to organize and execute lethal assaults for from their home base. since we've basically driven them into the mountains of the

territories in pakistan and the ill-defined border between pakistan and afghanistan, they are movements have been constrained. their communications have been constrained, and they've not been nearly as free to organize and mount such attacks. sfoo former swuf state condoleezza rice saying this week if you abandon afghanistan, you'll have another 9/11 in the u.s. >> well, i think, you know, that's -- it's impossible to know that with certainty because our people have done such a good job now even going back to the time when i was president and working with the intelligence and law enforcement and money tracking people around the world, that we prevented par, far more attacks in america and in the rest of the world than have occurred, but i would agree with her to the extent that if they have freedom of movement in afghanistan, it will increase by some significant factor the likelihood that they will attack successfully. if not in the united states,

somewhere else, against people that we consider our allies and that we have to be concerned about. >> let me talk about the clinton global initiative, fifth annual, and what you have achieved here. the focus on girls and women on their economic empowerment around the world, but also on the direct threats that they face. i had an opportunity to go to one of the sessions this week, one of the determines, and from a u.n. report, this is a startling fact. at least one out of every three women around the world has been beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused in her lifetime with her abuser usually someone known to her, and the concern is that that fact, that problem is not getting better. >> well, i agree with that, and what we wanted to do here was to focus on both the positive things that need to be done in education, in access to the workplace, in health care, care for the children, and in the negative things we need to stop, including violence against women. you would be amazed how many of

the young women who work with our foundation in countries around the world as advocates trying to get people to exercise prevention and not communicate hiv and aids -- you would be amazed how many became hiv positive because they were raped going to and from school. we have to talk about that, and then there's this whole problem of trafficking, which has gotten worse in the economic downturn, which disproportionately affects young women, but also affects some young men who are sold into bondage as basically serve tud for indebted work that they can often never escape from. >> this initiative is premised on your own frustration as president with a lot of talking and not a lot of action. >> yes. >> what is it you've been able to measure in terms of the progress from cgi? >> well, we know that in areas of health, education, better environment through fighting climate change and improving access to clean water and

increasing people's livelihoods, primarily true through microcredit and modest investments in ag cultural that 250 people in 150 countries have had an improvement in their quality of life. 48 million people with access to better health care. 33 million people with access to various kinds of educational advances. millions ask mi -- and millionsf people getting micro-credit loans. we can measure all that. we also know that in doing this, we've helped to strengthen what's called the civil society movement around the world. that is, we helped to partner with governments, philanthropists, big foundations like the gates foundation, and small non-governmental groups all across the world to create more citizen power, and it's really important in the womens and girls issues. we believe that by doing this, we're not only doing these specific things -- yes, here 200

million people whose lives are better off, but we're creating a sense of empowerment, a sense that citizenship in the 21st century requires more than paying your taxes and voting and occasionally running for office. that even if you are never until political office, you have political responsibilities. you make your society stronger and better. >> let's talk about some of the big challenges back home for president obama, and on health care as this debate rolls through, you remember it well. do you think the president has levelled with the american people on this fact that americans are going to have to pay higher taxes if they want health care reform? >> well, i think he has made it clear that it costs some money to insure more people, but -- and i have no criticism of what he has done. he has been in a terrible disadvantage in the lawmakering phase. remember what omar twain said. two things people should never have to watch being made, sausage and laws. he doesn't have a committee

chairman saying i'll -- while they're developing the bill, he set out certain principles, and he is vulnerable to whatever anybody wants to say about any of the bills running through congress, whether that's his position or not. he has said it's going to take years to fully reform the system. i don't accept the fact that we have to charge a lot more money to cover the 46 million people that aren't covered. what he is saying is if we have the right preventive primary care, if we start charging for comprehensive care in the chronic cases, 10% much the cases, they got two-thirds of the medical expenses, and if we do more on problems like childhood obesity, that we can, to use the phrase that's popular in washington, bend the cost curve and reconcile this so our costs will be closer to our competitors, and so we can cover everybody. now, let me just say, i have had

several big business leaders to me privately express extreme support for passing any kind of bill that starts this progress because they say this is killing america economically. look what's happened in the last several years. corporate profits are up. the cost of health care has gone up three times the rate of inflation, and wages are flat. median income, before the economic collapse, after inflation was $2,000 a year lower than it was the day i left office. why? because all the things that could have -- first, we haven't created enough jobs, but, secondly, all the money that could have gone to wage increases is going to pay the employer portion 6 employees health insurance. i don't think it's fair to say that we're going to -- that the american people are going to have to pay a lot more to cover everybody. what the american people will pay a little more for in the short-run, i think, is security. that is, everybody has health insurance today could be cut out by -- often happens in america.

>> security could come with additional taxes. >> yes, but he will have to raise some more money in the short run partly because of the way the congressional budget office scores this. if they string this coverage out as he proposed to do in his speech over four years, then i think the revenue should be quite modest. >> let me ask you a broader question. in 1996 you declared the era of big government over. the era of big government over appears to be over in and of itself. whether it's the stimulus, whether it's bail-outs, financial regulation, or the issue of health care, do you think the president has done a good enough job selling government as the solution? >> i think that it doesn't matter how hard he sells. the people have to see the results. the president is suffering now from what is something totally beyond his control. he really has a bind in this recession because when you come out of a recession, even a milder one than we've been through, what normally happens is the stock market goes up for

six months, the gdp numbers go up for six months, and after a year people start hiring back. it's rationale, but painful. what i think we need here is a strategy both for the country and for the administration to try to jump-start the jobs. the only strategy we have is to move aggressively now to do much more than we've been doing in energy efficiency. that helps us meet our climate change responsibilities, and it creates more jobs and less time for less money than any other strategy available to the government. >> i know you and president obama, when you get together as you did recently, talked a lot about the economy. has it come up yet where he says, jeez, mr. president, so what happens when you're nine months into the job and the honeymoon is over? >> well, we laughed about that. i think he gets that. you know, that's what you -- a president has to be prepared to spend political capital, and you get hired to win for the country, not to be popular today. i always tell everybody any poll

is a picture of an unfinished horse race, except the election day polls. so i wouldn't worry too much about it. i think there's still a lot of goodwill for him. the american people know he is highly intelligent. they know he is working his heart out. they know he has put together a good team. they know he is thinking about the right things. their ambivalence, their uncertificate reflects more than anything else not only their stirring up in the republican opposition, but the real troubles average americans are having in their own lives. keep in mind, health care is complicated. it's personal. it can spark fear. it's expense he have, and the people that got the money want to keep it. the change is hard. i think we're going to get the health care bill, and i think he can then swing into the energy and get an energy bill. i think he is going to succeed. >> wur wife famously talked about the vast right wing conspiracy targeting you. did you look at this op sdmrigs on the right to president obama, and is it still there? >> you bet. sure it is. it's not as strong as it was

because america has changed demographically, but it's as viral as it was. they accused me of murder and all this stuff. it's not really good for the republicans of the country what's going on now. they may be hurting president obama. they can take his numbers down. they can run his op sdmrigs up, but fundamentally he and his team have a positive agenda for america. their agenda seems to be wanting him to fail, and that's not a pripg for a good america. we actually need a credible debate about what's the right balance between continuing to expand the economy through stimulus and beginning to move back to fiscal balance. we need a credible debate about what's the best way to get to universal coverage. now, the one republican who has come up with a good idea is senator snow. she deserves a lot of credit for

saying when we did this medicare prescription drug bill, instead of giving the government the power to negotiate for lower prices, we gave the drug companies a chance to offer them, but we held the power in reserve, and if there was any state in america where there was no competition, we could do it. let's do that for health care. that's a good idea. that's the kind of debate the country needs, and i hope that the republicans will come forward with it. >> do you worry about a repeat of 1994 politically? >> there's no way they can make it that bad, for several years. number one, the country is more diverse and interested in positive action. number two, they've seen this movie before because they had eight years under president bush when the republicans finally had the whole government, and they know the results were bad. number three, the democrats haven't taken on the gun lobby like i did, and they took 15 of our members out, and it will be -- whatever happens, it will be manageable for the president. >> before you go, mr. president, you left the presidency, but you

have hardly had a low profile with global initiative and other things. do you think about a return to either public office or another form of public life? >> no. that's hillary's job now. we've totally switched roles. she spent most of her life in a non-governmental sector, and that's what i do now. i love what i do now, and while i can't touch as many lives and as many things as i did as president, the things i do focus on we can have a huge impact, and i'm trying to convince people that all of us need to be doing the kind of thing i'm doing now. i think 21st century citizenship is going to be exciting, and i like being a part of it. >> will she run for president again then? >> that's up to her. you know, we're not getting any younger, but i'm proud of what she's doing now. i think she's doing a good job, and i'm honored -- i think it's pretty thrilling that she and the president have established t the relationship they have, and it's a good argument for remembering the big things for the rest of us. >> mr. president, thank you. >> thank you. joining us now to discuss

the way forward on both iran and afghanistan, a key democratic member of the senate foreign relations and armed services committees jim webb of virginia and the republican whip of the senate, john kyl, of arizona. welcome to both of you. >> thank you. >> mr. kyl, let me start with you. the news overnight, the iranians test firing missiles in the wake of these developments this week on an underground enrichment facility. has iran now upped the antee with the united states in this confrontation? >> i don't know that i would put it that way. it always seems that they can't wait to show us that they have the capability of moving forward with their missile program or their nuclear program at the very time that we're trying to get them to talk, and i think it illustrates the fact that at a certain point talking is counter productive rather than productive, because time is not on our side. all the iranians need is time to develop their nuclear weaponry and their missiles, and as a result of that, at some point you have to say that the talk has to stop and solid action in the form of sanctions or some

other way of stopping them is necessary. >> senator webb, this issue of a nuclear program, is it in your mind now clear as day that the iranians are trying to build nuclear weapons? >> i think what we have right now is a way -- a process in place where we can really start to explore with the iranians what their intentions are. this is the value of opening up the dialogue in the way we're going to see in the coming week. i have two very important concerns right now with respect to the iranian situation and also the others. first is we're going to face this situation. other countries in terms of nuclear power proliferation around the world, we're employing to be -- the other is it's very important mou to get the international community written large involved in tighten i tightening the way that we talk to countries like iran about the situation, and china is key.

we've seen european nations step forward here. this was -- we say this was the united states and its allies, but it was basically the united states, the u.k., and france with germany coming in later. we had a good strong statement from russia on for the first time with the hint that they might agree with sanctions, but china always has been neutral, and china has become iran's greatest trading partner. they have been giving iran approximately 30% of the gasoline that it's been receiving right now through shell companies, and let's not forget that china enabled pakistan to become a nuclear power. >> do you think iran is building weapons? siptd that a key question? >> i think we have the formula through which we can now fully explore that issue. i'm not going to sit here in the united states senate and make that judgment. we do have the process in place where we can fully explore that issue in a way that will hold them publicly accountable. >> senator kyl, is there any doubt in your mind that they're building weapons? >> well, they're trying to build a nuclear weapon. they, first of all, have to get the fuel to do it, and that's

been very clear that they are trying to make that fuel, and it's also clear that they are getting closer to the delivery capability, putting that nuclear weapon on top of a missile that could either reach europe or eventually a place like the united states. it's clear what their intention is, and the question is how do you get in there to see fully what they're doing and find a way to stop it. without international support, it's very hard. we haven't even exhausted the possibilities for unilateral u.s. sanctions that could also squeeze that leadership to the point that they might -- i mean, what we're trying to do here eventually is to get a regime change with the group of people in there that are more representative of the iranian people, who we really can talk with in a way that might end up in a good result. >> senator webb, that's an important point. what should the american people be prepared for here in terms of a confron taegs with iran? is it sanctions or is it military action? >> well, i don't think -- as people have said -- and i agree with -- you don't take any of the options off the table, but

we also shouldn't be playing what if here. we have a process now. i believe that russia coming forward for the first time now and saying that in concept they are not opposed to the idea of sanctions is a key indicator that we're starting to get true international consensus, but, again, china needs to be much more overt in assuming its role as an international power. not just in the iranian situation. you see it in many other places, supper as burma, where i was just dealing with a very similar situation in terms of unilateral sanctions on one side. you know, european countries and the united states with china becoming a principal trading partner. >> no senator kyl, to you that question as well. what should the american people be preparing for as this confrontation escalates? saekzs or does the united states need to think about military action? sfli agree with senator webb that you never take any option off the table. you don't play what if games,

and i think that he is also absolutely correct that china remains intractable. they a lot of reasons not to want to help us in dealing with iran, and if you go through the united nations, china is a critical partner. there are things that the united states can do union lat ramally. there are things we can do in connection with our european partner partners. it always seems as if the sakes are a little bit away, but maybe if we talk for three months, we swoent have to impose them. i think the point has to be to the iranian that is we're going to impose these saekzs. in fact, to do something so they see that we have the capability of doing it and then say but we'll lift it if you will agree with our demands to have iaea inspections or whatever else we're going to be demanding. i think without that kind of stick, just the carrot approach does not work with these people. they know how to play rope-a-dope. they've been doing it for years. >> we'll come right back after this to tackle the other major policy challenge facing the president. that, of course, afghanistan.

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sdmrimplts we're back to consider our skupgs with jim webb and john kyl. let's turn to the issue of afternoon stan, and senator webb, here's an assessment of the commander on the ground in afghanistan as reported by the wash waub post this week. the top u.s. nato command ner afghanistan warns in an urgent confidential assessment of the war that he needs more forces within the next year and bluntly states that without them the eight-year conflict "will likely result in failure," a krgd to a copy much the 66-page document.

he says failure to gain initiative and resers insurgent momentum in the near term, next year, risks an outcome where defeating the insurgency is no longer possible. can and should the president do anything but say yes to the idea of more troops? >> i think that the president is taking the right approach here by examining carefully where to go forward, and they're seeing that from all the top advisors as well, because the real question for us right now is as a country are we going to formally change from counterterrorism policy to a counter insurgency policy? if you are moving towards a counter insurgency policy, have you to have a couple of things. one is you have to be able to move the people that you are trying to win over toward a valid system, and in afghanistan it is questionable whether there is a valid national government. secondly, you have to be able to do so in a way that you have a

clear end point for the involvement of your own military, and here's a situation we're in. we are talking about increasing united states military presence. you may reach a tipping point where they become viewed in historical terms as an occupying force. at the same time we say we want to grow the afghan army and police force to 400,000 people rsh afghanistan has never in its history had a valid national army larger than about 90,000, and that was only for a brief period right before the soviet invasion. can they grow their military into -- and their police force into a 400,000 force with a viable government? before we jump forward with a total formal change in policy, we need to be examining what is achievable. >> secretary of defense gates says it is a mistake to fix an end point, set a deadline for troop withdrawal. >> i would agree, and i've said that before. we can't say that on a certain da

date, but we should be able to say clearly what are the conditions under which our military condition is going to end? we're sitting here with two very interesting molgzs to examine in terms of how you fight international terrorism. on the one hand we have the situation in somalia a week ago where we had special forces unit come in over the horizon, take out four al qaeda terrorists in a country that's totally destabilized, somalia, and then went back on the show, got the people we mete need to get, left no instra structure behind. on the other hand, we have iraq which, contrary to what president clinton just said, is al qaeda's dream right now because we put in a huge infrastructure which a lot of it is still there in order to supposedly go after al qaeda, which is long gone. they were gone by the time the surge began. they're mobile. which way is the best way for the united states to tackle this problem? we sdesh to have very careful consideration before we move in the direction of nation building.

>> senator kyl, why are more troops the answer in afghanistan? >> well, i think the generals are the ones that can best explain that to us. the hints of that are in the report that you cited. general mcchrystal makes clear that to successfully pursue this counter insurgency policy, you not only have to beat the taliban, but you have to keep them from coming back in, and that's what we haven't had enough troops to do and the afghan army and police don't have the capability of doing that. the problem is you take an area back from the taliban. you kick them out. then if you can't leave enough people there to hold the area, stabilize is t so the folks there know that they don't have to worry about the taliban anymore, if you leave, they'll be right back in, and that's why you need more troops. i think that's what general mcchrystal would tell us if he were allowed to come back to washington and testify. >> in fact, former secretary of state and national security advisor condoleezza rice said this week she put it bluntly in an interview. "it's that simple. if you want another terrorist attack in the u.s., abandon afghanistan." if the president does not say

yes to 40,000 additional troops, as general mcchrystal wants, would you say he is abandoning afghanistan? >> what i would say is that it is a recipe for disaster, and, again, that's almost -- those are the sentiments of general mcchrystal. you quoted part of that report in che made that clear. by the way, secretary clinton herself said if you let the taliban back into afghanistan, i can't tell you how quickly al qaeda will be back in. of course, it's true that if al qaeda has the opportunity to roam freely in afghanistan, to train people there, to plan more 9/11s, they'll surely try to do that. >> senator webb. >> i don't think anybody is saying that we should abandon afghanistan. the question is how you fight terrorism, international terrorism, and in this case we're widening the envelope to say taliban. taliban means government rsh are you really going to say that we are going to be responsible for putting in a viable national government in a country that really hasn't ever had one? >> why not have a lighter

footprint? >> we need to be smart, and that's why we need to have this debate. when i was a journalist in afghanistan in 1994 i was with the marine corps and army. i was with the 22nd that was doing a fine job mobile. they had been out for 93 days going out and killing the bad guys, and that is really what you need to be doing if you are going to fight insurgencies. you need to kill the people that need to be killed and allow the local forces to come together around the people who should be protecting them. that should be our ultimate strategy, and i think that's what the debate is going to be. >> but that -- it gets to the larger question of whether you could do that with fewer troops as the vice president and others have argued. we don't need a surge of forces in afghanistan to accomplish the goal that we first went to war with eight years ago, which was to defight al qaeda. >> well, and, again, iraq is a classic example of that. when we went into iraq, there weren't any al qaeda in iraq. it was al qaeda's dream that we went into iraq, built this huge force structure on the ground that tied our military down.

al qaeda came in for a while. they left before the surge. my son was in ramadi when al qaeda started pulling out. you don't need a large infrastructure in order to fight a terrorist force, but it's a very complicated situation in afghanistan. i don't want to be misunderstood here. because of the situation with kistan and the regional immrekzs, we want to do this smartly, and i honestly think that's what you are seeing with the administration taking the careful approach reason. >> senator kyl, i want to get your views on the prison at guantanamo bay. it appears now that the administration will not meet the deadline to close guantanamo bay. was it a mistake to set a deadline initially coming into office? >> sure, and i think the president realizes that now. you don't do something like that without having a plan on how you're going to deal with it. this is life and death. this is important for the security of our country. you need to get it right. if i could just make one more comment about the point jim just made. the point is al qaeda was in

afghanistan. al qaeda wants to be in afghanistan, and rather than play arm chair general here, i want to listen to what general mcchrystal and general petraes have to say. it appears they believe we need more troops to successfully carry out this counter insurgency policy. that we have perhaps no more than a year or so to accomplish that, and, therefore, the more time we take making the perfect decision, which you can never do in the miltdz of a war in any event, the less likely we're going to succeed. i think the president needs to get about it. he will have republican support if he effect waits the recommendatio recommendations. i think he needs to make that decision as soon as he can. >> final thought on this guantanamo bay a? >> i believe that it's proper to slow this down in guantanamo, and with respect to what senator kyl just said, we've got a lot of good people looking at the situation with afghanistan. secretary gates among them. general jones among them. people who bring a lot to the

taeb table and we should be having this analysis before we jump forward based on one memorandum from one general. >> we'll leave it there. senator webb, senator kyl, thank you both very much. up next, after being urged by the obama white house built to seek re-election next year, new york governor david paterson joins us exclusively to talk pure cane sugar and the stevia plant. two of nature's sweetest wonders growing together under the same sun. and now for the first time, in new sun crystals ® . the only 100% natural sweetener made with pure cane sugar and stevia. finally, all the sweetness of nature and just 5 calories a packet. nature gave us the recipe; we just gave it a name. new sun crystals ® all natural sweetener. two natural wonders. one sweet taste™.

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we are back, and joining us now in an exclusive interview, the democratic governor of new york, david paterson. governor, welcome. >> good morning. >> it has been quite a week. you go back to march of 2008, you were appointed governor after eliot spitzer's problem. new york's first african-american governor, the first legally blind governor. now almost a year and a half later the headline in the "new york times" last sunday and here it is. it says "obama requests that paterson drop campaign" meaning the campaign for 2010.

what happened? >> well, david, first, before i begin, i spoke to carolyn maloney, one of new york's senior congressional members who lost her husband this weekend, and i know right after this you're going to do a tribute to big russ from buffalo, also -- i'll leave that to you. just want to give condolences to all of the families. i've had confidential conversations with the chous white house. eep want going to reveal those conversations other than to tell you that the president has never told me not to run for governor. >> that is been made clear by the president or others working for him that they would like you not to seek re-election? >> i've had conversation with them, but i think that the people of the state of new york are the ones who should choose their governor. >> all right. let's be very clear here about what happened. the president's team and others speaking on their behalf said to you you should not run, isn't that right? >> i can't say that, david.

their people -- there are people that have told me not to run. a lot of people have told me not to run. >> the white house told you not to run? >> i don't know that. >> you serm know you don't have their support. >> well, david, the white house has a country to run, and i have a state to run. there's politics that go on all the time. i'm blind, but i'm not oblivious. i realize there are people that don't want me to run. i have never gotten an explicit authorizationed from the white house that says i should not run. i think i should be managing the affairs of my state, and when i run, making my case to the people and letting them decide. >> fair enough. i just want to be clear on this point. they certainly sent the message, that you would not have support and they have concerns about you running and that you should not run. >> they certainly sent the message that they have concerns, and i appreciate that, but let me just tell you at the outset, i am running for governor in

2010. i don't think that this is an issue other than for the people of the state of new york to decide. >> so you agree with that poll that found 62% of new yorkers believe that the obama administration was wrong to intervene? >> well, what i agree with is that the overwhelming number of people in the poll would like to make that decision for themselves. i'll be running, and i, like other governors, want to make the case for why we've had to make the difficult decisions that we have made. >> let me ask about your reaction because it was your wife who told the new york post on wednesday that you were stunned after these conversations with the bhous. michelle paterson said her husband was shocked at the request, quoting her "i think he was stunned. this was very unusual. what stunned you? >> michelle is very protective of me. i don't know that i was stunned. i am not. i'm not failing to stand up for my party. i fight for the priorities of my

party. i am fighting for the people of the state of new york who are having a very difficult time right now. i dare say a lot more difficult than i have. i'm not going to run away from a fight when i know who i'm fighting for, and i'm not going to sit here and tell you, david, i haven't had a difficult week, but i, like a lot of new yorkers and a lot of americans, are having difficult weeks because we're having to make tough decisions, and the tough decisions that i have made or that aye had to reduce spending by $30 billion in 18 months as governor. >> i want to get to that in just a minute, but i want to be clear. if the white house wants you out, you're -- you are undeterred, you are all in, you're running for governor? >> i am running for governor for the state of new york. as i was saying, the $30 billion that i was just talking about that i had to reduce from deficit of the state of new york is more than if you took all five of the states highest annual deficits and added them all together. i've also had to cut spending by a record amount this year. i have been opposed by the

special interests. i have come under a hail of criticism from them from making these tough decisions, and that is what accounts for the low poll numbers, but i wasn't making decisions based on polls. >> all right. i'm -- i want to come back to some of the tough choices. >> let me finish this. i was making decisions based on what i thought was right for the people of new york, so i put the people of new york first when i balanced two budgets and the recession. i put new york first when i call for a state spending cap. >> you said the following on wednesday, talking about how you would think about the future. you said i think if i got to a point where i thought my candidacy was hurting my party, obviously, it would be rather vaefl absorbed to go forward. you went on to say i'm going to keep doing it in terms of running for governor, until the public tells me it's time to stop. governor, your approval rating 80% of new yorkers disapprove of the job you're doing. aren't you a drag on your party? >> i don't think that i am a drag on my party. i think i'm standing up for my

party's priorities. i think that you fight for the people of your state. that's what i thought being a democrat was supposed to be about. let me tell you, david, poll numbers, i heard that everyone -- i appointed a lieutenant governor, and i heard everyone say that the courts would not uphold my appointment. this week the court of appeals of new york upheld my appointment for lieutenant governor. i have spept a whole life being told i couldn't d things and was told by guidance counselors i shouldn't go to college. i was told when i was the minority leader of the senate, we couldn't win the majority. we won the majority. i think that what the court upholding my appointment of the lieutenant g message to me was this week is that you don't give up. you don't give up because you have low poll numbers. you don't give up because everybody is telling you what the future is. if everybody knew what the future was, why didn't they tell me i was going to become governor. i could have used the heads up zoosh you talked about race being a factor against you in

some of this opposition and that, in fact, president obama will be subject to the same thing. is it still how you feel? >> i think when you hear that quote you're not hearing everything i say. i was responding to news accounts of a story involving my daughter. i thought that the story was not only written to attack me personally and criticize my family, but that it also was entirely stereotypical. what i was trying to say is that i don't think someone's race should be the factor in assessing what kind of governor they are, what kind of president they are, or what kind of worker they are in any workplace. rightly or wrongly, i thought that that was a double standard in that coverage, but just in case it got lost in the interview, let me clarify that i don't think race has been a factor in my poll numbers, my political fortunes or how i govern the state. i think we should assess all governors, no matter what color they are, on how they run their states and how they help the people that they work for.

>> quickly, governor, you talked about it before. the mood that you are facing in new york and, indeed, the mood around the country has to do with the economy and state finances. if you're all in, if you are running for governor, how are you going to balance new york's budget? >> well, our budget is balanced. we have had -- >> you face a deficit -- potential deficit of $3 billion. >> well, we had a deficit last year. i gave a televised address to the state. i warned new york and america that this would be the worst recession since the great depression. i brought the legislature back and balanced the budget last year. we balanced the budget earlier this year, and we have continued to balance our budgets. let me tell you, david, what has happened is that other states have had difficulties. 21 states have shut down early childhood education and pre-kindergarten programs. five state have laid off or furloughed workers. some states have even had to release prisoners to save money.

in new york we have not had to do that because we knew about this crisis early. we brought -- we acted quickly to avoid disaster, and even while we're cutting $30 billion in 18 months, we've continued to invest in education. we've expanded benefits for people who have lost their jobs, and we have increased unemployment insurance from 26 weeks (announcer) sleep can help lighten your mood... ...and improve your concentratio tylenol pm quiets the pain and helps you sleep. because the better you sleep, the better you feel.

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