accounts. we're going to show you a poll mitt romney did win but his timing may be off. speaking of timing, for the first time we'll see what former president nixon said during a critical stretch of watergate. then there's snl poking fun at chris christie and suggesting one reason why the new jersey governor is not running for president. good morning, everyone. i'm alex witt. it's 10:00 a.m. in the east, 7:00 a.m. out west. we begin with the race for 2012. ron paul is the big winner at the values voter summit. passionate supporters handed him another straw poll victory with 37% of the vote. rick perry finished in fourth with 8%. mitt romney pulled in just 4%. for romney, it's on the heels of a controversy stirred by a texas pastor who said mormonism is a cult. it's raising the question whether romney can appeal to christian conservatives, a critical republican voting block. reaction on that in a moment. there's other big news on the campaign trail.

herman cain who finished second in the values voters summit straw poll won a landslide victory in the minnesota straw poll. he took 52% of the vote among minnesota leaders. michele bachmann was the next votes, 40 points behind at 12%. rick perry stopped in iowa trying to fend off tough questions about his immigration policy. he defended giving illegal immigrants instate tuition rate. >> nobody has a stronger record on immigration than myself. whether it's passing voter i.d. or pushing sanctuary cities or dealing with other issues of immigration in which we've done in the state. are we going to create a class of tax wasters or are we going to create taxpayers? texans chose the latter. >> sarah palin told the audience at liberty university in virginia she was surprised by negative blowback by her decision not to run for president. she said they got mad and sent pretty mean e-mails and

messages. i thought come on, you were going to trust me because they were supporters. you were going to trust me to be the leader of the free world but not in the decision that god led me to make at this time. more on palin later. mike viqueira is joining me with more. >> good morning, alex. >> how divided is it in. >> reporter: there's more fallout from the texas pastor who criticized mitt romney's faith and the faith of million of mormons around the country and the world for that matter. the country is still wrestling with questions of politics and faith. the question is how much does it all still matter? >> it doesn't advance our cause. >> a day after his faith came under attack, mitt romney called for unity from social conservatives. the task before us is to focus on the conservative believes and the values that unite us. let no agenda narrow our vision or drive us apart. >> that agenda was in full view friday at the value voters

summit in washington when texas pastor robert jefrs introduced him. >> he's a conservative and genuine follower of jesus christ. then jeffers made his views on romney clear. >> it's always been considered a cult by the mainstream of christianity. >> perry says he -- some prominent conservatives condemn the pastor. >> do not give voice to bigotry. you did rick perry no good sir in what you had to say. >> later appearing on ms nbc, he was not backing down. >> we ought to be able to say yes i believe a christian in office is better than a nonchristian. >> with romney on top of the polls, many saw this controversy coming. >> i want to thank him for not playing the mormon card. i know it's there and i know it's tempting. >> i'm going to do it soon, real soon. you just wait. >> romney isn't the only

candidate who had his faith called into question. >> almost 20% of americans mistakenly thought president obama is a muslim it isn't the first time romney had to defend him search. he tried to -- >> if i'm fortunate to become your president, i will serve no one religion, no one group, no one cause and no one interest. >> a recent survey shows about a third of white evangelicals would be less like tloi support a candidate if they were mormon. despite the efforts of romney and others, those numbers have hardly changed since the last election. >> they have taken time in the past with regard to other faiths and so sometimes it is a long period of time until attitudes change. >> alex, a walk on cameo in the spot towards the middle. you know, when chris christie got out of the race and sarah palin got out of the the race,

everybody said the gop field is settled. that might be the case but they're free to go after each other. the turmoil over the last week with the polls up and down, romney now the front-runner, perry trying to make the comeback as you reported. we're going to see a lot more of that in the weeks ahead. >> a lot more of you too, as usual. thank you mike viqueira. ann corn blut is joining me now. author of notes from the cracked ceiling. good sunday morning. >> and to you. thanks for having me. >> as we look the at results, mitt romney just getting 4% of the vote. can you win the gop nomination with that and if you did, will they turn out in the general election? >> well, let's start by remembering that this is a straw poll. there's a reason it's called that. this is not one of the more reliable polls. forgive me if i'm skeptical that this is determinant of the outcome of the race. he does need some kind of will symbolic win as does rick perry, quite frankly, if you look at

these results. this doesn't give it to him. it sparks further the conversation that whether his mormonism is a liability. he may be able to turn this to his advantage. he's starting to do that with remarks about civil ilt. to make it about a broader values judgment. that's what he's going to try to do in the days ahead. you'll hear his people and others reminding us all that barack obama was able to win despite questions about his faith. it may not be determinant either. >> how about herman cain, he has been surging in the polls. he won another straw poll in minnesota this weekend. does he have a realistic chance of winning the nomination? >> i'm still dubious of that. but he's had a lot of wins lately. he's doing really well. been lively in the debates and we have another one coming up this next week. he's really been on the rise. he's feeling strong. i think there are a lot of skeptics that would say, well, this is just temporary, this is in some ways a protest vote. i mean, i will get e-mails for

having said that. it's still a long shot for him. these are the early days of the campaign. we always see ups and downs, especially in the republican field. this is what happened last time. surging from people who don't wind up being the nominee. >>let talk rick perry. in addition to the new controversy with the pastor who supports him. he's trying to fight off immigration policies. they were peppering him with question including why are you giving illegal immigrants free rides to college. is he doing that or is he failing to get his message through? >> this isn't going to go away for him. immigration is an important subject to not just the republican base but to the country at large and independents too. he's going to keep getting the question. the question is can he come up with an answer that sticks? we've seen him do a number of different moves on this. he's talked about you may not agree with me that this is where i stand. he's talking some about the tax revenue. he's got a record.

what his people have said is that at least he has a record. many of the other candidates don't. you can turn and see what he's actually done on immigration. he's had other tough moves on immigration. not just instate tuition. so at this point, i think he's going to continue to an the questions and figuring out which one will stick. >> here we are, three months until primary season launches, how good is it for the white house right now that there's a muddled gop picture in terms of who is in front? >> quite frankly, i think they're surprised. they had expected to know who the nominee was going to be at least some months ago. it's good. the infighting is always good for them. so they can do their own thing and to some extent fly below the radar even though he is the president. i think there's an expectation that it will probably be romney who is the nomination. but they're enjoying watching the mud fight themselves. >> can you put a prediction there on where you think it's heading in terms of a nominee? >> if i do that, i'll be wrong.

why even bother. >> okay. anne kornblut, thank you very much. we'll see you later. thanks. let's if to the twitter question today. should a candidate's religion be an issue? you can talk to me on twitter. my handle is@alex witt. will the occupy wall street protests are on the move this weekend. in new york, several thousand people marred through the street saturday for a massive meeting to win new supporters. it was a far less peaceful scene in washington, d.c. police used pepper spray on a group of protestors who tried to demonstrate inside the air and space museum. ron, good morning. what went down in washington? >> getting interesting. smithsonian police had to close the museum down yesterday after clashes with pro testers at the national air and space museum. it capitalized on the momentum from occupy wall street in new york. the message there was anti-war. about 100 to 200 people

protested an exhibit on unmanned drones at the museum. this amateur video shows the commotion outside when protesters were trying to enter. a spokesperson says the protesters were carrying signs and a lot of protest materials. you cannot bring that stuff into the museum under any circumstances. so when a security guard tried to block them, that's when protesters say they were pepper sprayed. >> there was no warning. people were maced and apparently some of the cops have said -- they said the protesters were the ones using chemical weapons. but we were not. >> my shirt is now in a garbage can because it's useless. because it's covered in mace. i feel like i'm on fire. >> a smithsonian spokesperson says the security guard blocking protesters from entering the building was grabbed and pinned against the wall. he could not extract himself. another guard came to help him

and pepper sprayed one person. the museum is expected to reopen today. >> anti-war demonstrators teamed up in chicago also. this video is from a march yesterday in downtown chicago. protesters made a stop at president obama's 2012 campaign headquarters and back here in new york city where it began, demonstrators marched two miles north of the unofficial headquarters up to washington square park to gain a higher profile and we're hearing that there's an occupy london effort in the works. demonstrators plan to set it up next week. it's gaining momentum. >> getting higher. thank you, ron mott. a controversial bill to allow immigrants to pay instate college tuition and receive financial aid has been signed into law. it's part of the dream act. illegal immigrants who want to take part need to prove they graduated from high school in california and are actively working toward becoming u.s. citizens. a major turn in the case of

missing baby lis i erwin. they met with the parents two days after cops said the couple stopped cooperating. they're going door to door hoping someone might have seen something leading them to the baby. baby lisa's parents are setting up a reward fund. they reported her missing five days ago. some friening moments at a walmart in maryland two women got in a fistfight and started throwing bleach and chemicals at each other. a haz-mat team was called to the scene. 19 people were taken to the hospital and one has a serious eye injury. that walmart was closed for about two hours. one person was arrested and charges are pending. let's go to the weather. a tale of highs and lows. the chill is already in the air in denver, colorado. snow and ice are to blame for a few accidents on interstate 25

on saturday. here in new york city, unseasonably warm temperatures are expected and they could reach record highs. alex wallace joins us with more. good morning, alex. >> good morning to you alex. this is a good thing. if you like the warmth here, we've got it. we have the potential highs. at laguardia, the record high is 84. we're forecasting 85 degrees. whether or not we make it to the highs or not, it's going to be a warm day, a beautiful day with a lot of sunshine. farther to the south, though, not so great. tracking showers and storms impacting a good chunk of florida. dealing with this for the coming days. potential developing tropical cyclone here. whether or not that happens, heavy rain will be impacting us along the coast. issues along the beach with beach erosion and rip current risks as well. towards the west, we've got good news here. rain in texas. we haven't said that much this year. it's coming down heavily in some cases. may be coming in too quickly,

which could lead to flash flooding issues. again, we need some rain here. a drought stricken area is texas. how much do we anticipate? as we head through monday, you can see here through the plains down into texas, that area in the yellow, maybe a good four to eight inches possible out there and back down into florida where we continue to find our rain maybe seeing 8 or more inches locally into the southeast coast as well. lot of rain across parts of the south. but beautiful in the northeast. alex? >> for which we thank you. thank you very much alex wallace. in a moment, i former political rival. rick perry is here to tell us about the religion controversy in his campaign. wall street and main street bring an end to freebies or consumer. a tribute concert for michael jackson with his children taking center stage. you're watching "weekends with alex witt." being your average bears...

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the u.s. air force drone program has been infected by a computer virus. a report from wired magazine says the virus infected military computers that control drones that fly over iraq and afghanistan. the military has been unable to remove it. but the drones are still flying. there are no reports that classified data was lost. if we don't know if it was part of an attack or any accident. let's go to politics now. rick perry deflecting questions raised by a supporter who called the mormon religion a cult. >> governor, is mormonism a cult? >> you don't think so? >> no. i've already answered that. >> i am joined by former u.s. congressman from texas, democrat chris bell who ran for texas governor against rick perry in 2006. good morning to you. thanks for joining me. >> good morning, alex. thanks for having me. >> it was the texas pastor robert jeffers who called the

mormonism a cult at the voters summit. does any of this controversy over the pastor's words surprise you? >> well, it doesn't really surprise me because obviously, republicans have been having that conversation privately. but i think what rick perry is finding out, that a private conversation one thing. but when it's a public conversation, it's a whole different animal. i don't think they were prepared for the backlash they're facing right now after the pastor's remarks. i think a lot of people were wondering if that was a complete accident. >> ultimate will you, do you think it might do more harm than good for rick perry? >> i think so. it makes people very uncomfortablement obviously, this is an issue that mitt romney will have to address like barack obama had to address religious issues in 2008. but being the one to put it out in the open, especially after it's been joked about, you all ran the clip from saturday night live a little while ago. i mean, people have been talking about it.

but i don't know if rick perry wants his fingerprints all over it. because it was a pastor who just endorsed him, obviously his fingerprints are there for everyone to see. >> they call it a broad swath through the south the bible belt for good reason. are people in texas more exposed to rhetoric like the pastors on regular basis versus a more national audience? >> are we more exposed to what? >> to the words of someone like pastor jeffers, you talk about mormonism being a cult. do you think people throughout the south, but specifically the question to you regarding texas, are folks in texas more exposed to it? >> well, i think so. obviously, there's a large evangelical community in the south and here in texas. it depends on what church you attend. and i think one of the reasons this makes people uncomfortable, the republican party did a very good job of making sure they had this conversation a lot of times when microphones weren't around.

and they had their audience before them when they were going to have this conversation. then when you take it out to a wider audience, it starts making people pretty uncomfortable because some of us aren't exposed to it on a routine basis. the evangelical community obviously is, but not all of us belong to that community in texas. >> rick perry, is he the same guy you ran against or is he lost anything on his fastball, to use a baseball term? >> well, i think to a large degree, he's the same guy. but keep in mind, he to a large extent controlled the playing field here in texas. he got to make a lot of the rules. not only in 2006 but when he just got through running in 2010 deciding whether or not he would debate, how many debates there would be, whether he would meet with editorial boards. he can't make the rules anymore. so it's a whole different playing field now that he's running for president. he may be the same guy, but he's in a far different arena.

>> how different has the national scrutiny been, though, of rick perry versus what he and you experienced while running for governor in texas? the spotlight may be bigger, but the questions that are being asked, shouldn't they be the same? >> well, suffice it to say, i would have loved for some of these stories to run out in 2006 and not just be coming out now. so the scrutiny should have been the same perhaps and we have a very aggressive newspaper and reporter media here in texas. but they don't have all the resources that the national media does. so a lot of things are coming out now for the very first time and quite frankly, i've been rather surprised by some of the news reports. it's getting to the point where if it wasn't for bad news, the rick perry campaign wouldn't have any at all. >> former democratic gubernatorial candidate there in texas, chris bell. chris, thanks so much. still ahead, the last days in the life of steve jobs. new information on how he spent his final precious hours.

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the new iphone 4s sold out in the first day available. but you will still be able to get one. more than 200,000 pre-orders were made according to the apple website. if you order one, you're going to have o to wait a week or two for it to get shipped. you could buy one on friday in an apple store or retail outlets. now to trends and our ups and downs. a hopeful sign for the economy. the sale of apartments in manhattan are up from a year ago. the sales volume is the highest

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welcome back to "weekends with alex witt." 31 past the hour. ron paul topping the polls at the summit saturday. he grabbed 37% of the vote at the mainly christian conservative conference. meanwhile, mitt romney finished in sixth place with just 4%. but take a look at four years ago. gearing up for the 2008 primary, at the summit back in october 2007, romney won the straw poll. he narrowly edged out mike huckabee. joining me now, tom mcincludes ki, the main organizer of the values voters summit.

tom, good morning to you. thanks for joining me. >> caller: thanks for having me on today. >> i want to look at then and now. between 2007, the straw poll where mitt romney won with almost 28% of the vote and this past one, romney is slipping from first to sixth among the voters at the summit. what happened? >> well, i think there's two different explanations here. one is, i mean, the ron paul campaign, i don't know if they know how to win presidential elections but they've figured out how to win straw polls definitely. with mitt romney, one thing he hasn't really been talking about the social issues as much as he did back in 2007 and 2008. i think that really hurt him with some of the voters. they realize that. we were just glad to have him here. he's been at every single value voter summit for the last five years. i think just showing up and the issues that he talked about was very positive for his campaign.

>> okay. you can bet his campaign would have loved to see the numbers from last go around. about what pastor jeffers suggesting he's not a christian. do you think that affected the voting? i know he didn't say it at the proceed yum or members of the audience. afterward he said it. you got to bet people heard about that. >> they did. honestly, it was an unfortunate distraction. i certainly don't agree with pastor jeffers remarks. and it probably did hurt him, though. just the controversy surrounding it. >> okay. i want to understand the values voter. would you rather stay home on election day than vote for a mormon? is being a mormon an automatic disqualifier for some evangelical christians? >> i would certainly hope not. this is about values and values are not specific to any one religion as we've seen.

what we have also seen is that we all come together. mitt romney as a mormon and what he spouses with his values are closer to my values as a catholic than barack obama's as a christian. i think that's come election day that's what voters will -- >> you're bringing me to what i want to ask you about regarding jeffers. because he said he would vote for romney over barack obama. here's what he said on the podium. >> do we want a candidate who is a good moral person or do we want a candidate who is a born again follower of the lord jesus christ? >> so is that not an inconsistent message because he doesn't mitt romney is a christian but he does believe president obama is. something doesn't fit there. he says he'll vote for romney over obama. but his most important factor is being a christian. >> i can't speak for pastor jeffer, only for myself and the family research council.

i do believe it's contradictory what he's saying. for me, it does come down to values. i look at not only -- not where he goes to church as much as what he is standing up for. >> what is the message sent by the values voters yesterday in that straw poll? ron paul, who doesn't seem to have a real path to nomination won by a wide margin. >> well, i think what really needs to be done -- the ron paul vote has to be discounted. he brought in a lot of people on one day. as i mentioned before, he knows how to win straw polls. what was more reflective, i think he had herman cain in second. rick santorum in third traditionally, the poll has shown who has given the best speeches. last year mike pens won. nobody thought of him as a presidential contender. but he gave a speech that was out of the park. most came for one speech and

they left. most of the -- >> can you control that, tom? it's your summit. i mean, can you control at all who comes in and when? >> we're an open society. the ron paul campaign did come to us and asked to buy about 450 to 500 tickets in bulk and we told them no, we wouldn't do that. however, there's nothing stopping, we're a capitalistic society. there's nothing stopping them from giving a $75 master card credit cards to supporters and having them vote. >> here's like my final question, which is bottom line in a general election, if mitt romney is the gop nominee, will enough conservative voters, christian conservative voters come out to get him elected? >> i believe so. that's one thing we're going to be working on. we're doing a national bus tour to register voters across the nation and mostly in the key

states. it will be for most christian voters from everybody at the value voter summit defeating barack obama in 2012 is the most important goal that we have. >> okay. tom, mcclusky thank you for joining us. appreciate that. >> thank you. we'll go to michael smerconish. michael, what do you think about the conversation there? >> i think that when voters wake up on a sunday morning and the vast majority of the country is not represented by people who were in that room and the take away, the headline is how a leader of the organization in and interview equates mormonism with a cult, i think it's a net negative and a loser for the gop field. that's what i think. because this is the headline. this is the story. in the same way, alex, when there was a debate recently and the boo'ing of a gay soldier was the headline, in the same way that when rick perry at a prior debate was asked about the number of executions in texas

and there was applause before he responded. in the same way that there was the hypothetical put by wolf blitzer to ron paul about do you let somebody die in an e.r. somebody shouted out in the crowd, let them die. there's an opinion forming. this is maybe unfairly but it's being associated with what the gop field is coming to represent. it's a lost opportunity because we're not talking about 14 trillion in debt. and we're not talking about 9.1% unemployment. we're talking about crazy talk is what we're talking about. i'm sorry to be so long-winded. but that's my feeling this morning. >> not long-winded in the least. i want to ask you what you think happened with the straw poll from 2007 when mitt romney won pushing 28% of the vote to this year, he comes in technically sixth place because you've got a tie between four and five. what happened? what's changed? >> okay. two factors that come to my mind. i think that probably played a

role. one, four years ago romney care was inconsequential. four years ago people were not on the right unsettled about the similarities between what mitt romney had done in massachusetts and what was being contemplated by a senator named barack obama. i think also when you go back four years and you're right, that mike huckabee was a factor in that election, but don't lose sight of rudy giuliani and john mccain as well. mitt romney was perceived as the more conservative alternative to the two those individuals and that might account for a stronger showing that he had then. >> this comment by robert jeffers on mormonism, does that bring to the surface what some are already feeling and was this inevitable? we saw a couple weeks ago on the premiere of "saturday night live" we saw that parody playing off on this. there's a lot of people who thought only a matter of time until this is at the forefront

of the conversation. >> my hunch is that knows are conviction that are held i would hope by a small number of individuals. i always say, i say this as a person of faith. we all live in glass houses. you know, look out when you start casting stones about and saying well yours is built on a house of cards because nothing good comes from that. i still think in end for the vast number of americans, it's going to be all about the economy and not these distractions. >> do you think there would be an enthusiasm if romney wins the nomination. evangelicals is what i'm talking about. they're going to stay home? >> alex, this is the funny thing about it. if you're an evangelical christian and you are looking for a person of your faith, you're looking for a christian, i guess barack obama is your man. yet, somehow i don't think that's the way it's going to unfold. >> exactly. there you're talking about the difference between what the pastor was saying and then what he said he would do with the vote. it's almost as if he

encapsulated that right there. what does this do to perry? does this damage him? it hax him off message or could this help him? we have a debate tuesday night. do you think this is going to be a topic there? >> you would think that he would have had a stronger showing. herman cain, i guess, is really the headline. ron paul, he gets a lot of credit because he has very robust supporters. i know how they are in terms of calling my program and wanting to know when is he coming on. why aren't you talking about him more and so forth. and passion wins. these sort of things, the straw polls, this is really a passion reflection as opposed, i think, to a vast acceptance. but you would think that rick perry would have had a stronger showing in a group that fashions itself as the values conference. i would expect, although the debate this week is supposed to be about the economy, i think it's fair to ask a question of the candidates, how do you feel about what that guy said over the weekend and does he speak

for you. >> michael smerconish, always good to see you. >> see you, alex. hours of richard nixon secret tapes. the national archive will release a full transcript of testimony nixon gave to a grand jury investigating watergate. a judge ordered the transcripts be made public in july and the justice department chose not to appeal. the testimony was given in june of 1975, nearly a year after nixon resigned. wedding bells ringing for paul mccartney today. they just arrived moments ago at this town hall in central london for a civil ceremony. it is the third marriage for 69-year-old mccartney. he married his first and late wife linda the same place in 1969. mccartney married heather mills in 1982. but they divorced later. two million data points. this is what we can gather from a lexus crash test genius. [ engine revving ]

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50,000 people celebrated the life of michael jackson last night in europe. jackson's brothers took to the

stage in wales, his children made an appearance with a handful of other entertainers who covered several of his biggest hits. a sign of the times this morning. the era of free stuff may be coming to an end. new article this week picks some of the things that used to be free but now cost money. joining me now, the author of the article. rick newman of u.s. world and news report. >> no more free stuff? >> not as much i think. the obvious ones in the news, the new debit card fee from bank of america. lot of banks, city group and others are going to charge for free checking. we saw it as a controversy with netflix over the summer. they split one plan where you got everything for one price into two plans. if you wanted the same stuff, you had to pay more for it. this goes back what the airlines were doing which is charging for baggage fees and three inches of extra seat room. >> everything but the soda.

that's about it. pillows, blankets, come on. >> i think what's happening, there's less money in the economy. companies are cutting costs. a lot of companies are saying, look, we need to actually start charging you for stuff that does cost us money. it does cost money to provide these things. but in many cases what they're doing is unbundling the package of goods or services they offer. so it used to be you got all the services for one price. airlines, for instance, and netflix. now they're saying we're going to try to make extra money here. it also does give consumers the flexibility to say i only want that part of it. >> the netflix, what exactly happened there? it's the delivery -- >> they started out just sending dvd's by mail. at some point they started offering video streaming over the internet. most of the customers got that for the same price. >> okay. >> the video stream was a fringe benefit. now that that's a more prominent

way people watch video, netflix said we're going to split this into two pricing schemes. you can pay for this one or this one but if you want both of them, which is the same thing you were getting before, it just costs more money. they lost a lot of customers. >> where i'm finding a big difference is on-line papers. new york times, wall street journal, i'll log on and see an article and then i'll go to read the entire thing, nope. or i'll go to print it if i can get access to the entire thing. nope. >> you're trying to get it for free. >> you're used to get it for free. >> exactly. now i have to pay. that said, you would think that the advertisements, you would think -- all the pams of advertisements, that's not cutting it for them? >> it's not. the new york times, for instance x is barely making a profit. what went on for a while is the old business, the legacy business, the print side subsidized the on-line side. it was all that revenue from one side covered the costs on the

other. that business model is not there anymore. these companies are saying, look, this is what we do. we have to charge you for it. >> amazon, shipping is for free if you've paid how much, 70-something bucks. >> get to you pay once a year. then you think you're getting free shipping. it's $79 for that program. i think this is consumers need to get used to. you need to be careful and look at what's happening and decide what part of this do i want to pay for and what part can i live without in. >> rick newman, thanks so much. >> thanks, alex. still ahead, the challenges facing president obama to win reelection and the key voting group still in his corner. plus, chris christie the way skgs saturday night live sees him". how does a white house party crasher forget about his ex? sell, sell, sell.

it is perhaps the final indignity of an american saga

that never should have made headlines in the first place. a wedding ring, underwear and other personal items put to auction saturday by tar i can salahi to bring closure to his relationship with his ex-wife. she skipped down with jurp i guitarist. 9021 go is the website. a look back at the last days of steve jobs. in the months before his death, the apple co-founder managed his time and his farewells. a new article looks at what jobs did during his remaining time. joining me from los angeles is the author of the article. a reporter for the new york times. >> thanks for having me. >> steve jobs knew back in february that his time was growing short, right? is that when he made the focus on family? >> there was a period in february when it became clear that the end was shorter. it wasn't clear exactly how much time he had left. but he and his family did know that there was -- it was time to start making plans for perhaps

the inevitable end. at that point, his family and sort of choosing the last people that he wanted to spend time with became a priority. in addition, wrapping up his work at apple. >> steve's wife lorraine intercepted people. people wanted to come. it became the onslaught. what did she do? >> absolutely. as you can imagine, someone like steve jobs, there's thousands and thousands of people that he's touched throughout his life that want to say goodbye at the very end. but mr. jobs was becoming more and more weak and his health was declining. more importantly, he's a person who throughout his life wanted to make deliberate choices. a number of the people who had come to say goodbye were intercepted and told that steve really appreciates that you've been here for him. but he just doesn't have the energy to see you. in part, because he wanted to be discriminating about how he was spending his final months. according to people we've talked to. >> with whom did he speak?

>> he spoke with a number of people, dr. dean ornish, a preventative care physician who mr. jobs was very close to. john door, bob iger. john door is a venture capitalist. bob iger, the head of disney, obviously. but mostly with his family. steve jobs has four children. he has a wife who he's been married to for a number of years. creating time to really get to know his kids was very important. in fact, he told his biographer walter isaacson whose book comes out in a couple of weeks, the reason he was cooperating and doing a book for the first time in his life because he wanted his children to know who he was because there had been a number of times when he wasn't there for them because he was working. >> but as you said, he focused on the work still. there are reports that he left blueprints for up to five years of apple and he even got there and advised how to introduce the iphone 4s. >> absolutely. the thing about apple is that

apple is a company that takes innovation and creativity and puts a real structure around it. so that there is a plan and there is a predictability to now frequently you'll do something amazing. that's what apple did under steve jobs. when you said blueprints for five years, that's not uncommon. it's not doing it because he knew he was leaving. that's how apple works. they think into the future as far as they can and develop a product pipeline that will deliver amazing gadgets for years to come. >> yeah. we'll be expecting to see some certainly with steve jobs' hands all over that. thank you very much. good to talk with you. >> thank you. they are a key voting group with the power to swing the election. you'll see why they're sticking with the president at least for now. believe it or not, there are millions of good jobs going unfulfilled. what's the problem? we're going to look at that. also ahead, a new muppet joins sesame street with a problem shared by too many children in america and around the globe. you're watching "weekends with alex witt."

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