didn't know china had nuclear weapons for almost half a century. mitt romney still falling further behind cain in the latest polls. romney campaign co-chair and former republican candidate tim pawlenty this hour. is greece trying to bail on its deal? the prime minister is caught on the g-20 carpet for proposing a referendum that he knows would scuttle mandated spending cuts. and will congress' super committee go big or go home. reaction to dire warnings with committee member xavier bacerra. >> and what happened when mullah omar met conde. >> everything was going fine and all of a sudden he said i have this video for you and i thought, uh-oh. what is this? actually pictures of me with hu jintao, with vladamir putin of, are set to a song that he had had written called "black flower in the white house." >> clearly not on our ipods. good day. i'm andrea mitchell live in

washington. from 9-9-9 to no, no, no. herman cain has gone from defending his economic plan to defending himself against sexual harassment allegations going back 12 years. it's clearly not the conversation that he wants to be having right now. so what is it going to take to get control of the message. msnbc contributor and managing editor of post-politics.com chris cillizza joins us with the daily fix. hey, chris. >> hey, andrea. >> this is not going well. had a couple of appearances today. cancelled a news conference and just brushed right out of there, and as you saw what happened outside in the hallway there. >> yeah. i mean, i think he's in the middle of a media maelstom and is trying to fight his way out, not as you point out, andrea, that successfully. look, we've talked about this for a couple of days now. until he has a story that's consistent and is backed up by what is publicly available or what will become publicly available, it seems to me he's going to be in the same place which is going to try to change

the subject, and it's not a changeable subject at the moment. this is a guy who is either number one or number two in national polling as well as polling in state like iowa and new hampshire to have obviously a lot of say over who the nominee is going to be, and when there is something like this, questions, let's just say questions in his background during his time at the national restaurant association, i do think it is fair game for reporters to say what actually happened? let's hear exactly what happened. let's hear everything that you either know or remember about it, and let's make -- let's allow voters to make a reasoned assessment. mr. cain, he keeps kind of dripping and drabbing out some details which is not helping him because it's raising more questions, andrea, than it's answering. >> this is what he did have to say about the whole issue today in mclean, virginia, at an appearance. >> someone made the observation that a successful campaign goes through four stages. the first phase is they ignore you. the second phase is they

ridicule you. the third phase they try to destroy you. well, got a little of that this week. but the fourth phase they accept you. right now we're right in the middle of that third phase. >> yeah. he's not at the acceptance stage yet, and there could be more trouble to come. this is the attorney for one of the accusers. this is joel bennett talking about wanting -- the fact that this woman supposedly wants to get out from the confidential agreement, but there would have to be consent on all sides presumably from the restaurant association. let's watch. >> there was more than one incident that my client perceived as sexual harassment. she would like to speak out for the record only because mr. cain has stated that he didn't sexually harass anyone. there wasn't any substance to the allegations and basically make it look like she was some

type of frivolous claimant just looking for money. >> now, chris, you did mention the polls, and these polls were taken -- this is the latest quinnipiac out today. as you mentioned it -- it clearly shows that herman cain is on top, widening his lead over mitt romney, but this was taken before all of this started. >> yeah. >> the cain campaign says though their base is rallying around him and, of course, what he has to worry about right now is not a general election down the road. it's, of course, primary voters. >> and i don't doubt, it and iia. i think conservatives to a certain extent have rallied behind him. i think the problem he faces though is as this goes on, and like i said it goes on until we get a story that stays consistent and is backed up by the publicly available facts. as the story goes on and more comes out and more comes out, and if this woman does wind up speaking, i think it's going to raise questions in a lot of people's mind, including conservatives, about, what is he telling us that's right and what

is he telling us that's wrong? the baseline to get anyone to vote for you they have to believe and trust in you. that's kind of the first hurdle you have to clear. he's cleared that with lots and lots of voters, and it's why people have his back at the moment. the question is if facts keep coming out that raise doubts about it, then we're looking at real trouble for herman cain. that's what he's trying to avoid at the moment. >> thanks for our daily fix. facing a deadline three weeks from now to cut at least 1.2 trillion from the federal budget, members of the super committee had a tough warning from the co-chair of the deficit reduction commission, erskine bowles. >> i have great respect for each of you individually, but collectively i'm worried you're going to fail, fail the country. >> democratic congressman javier bacerra of california is a member of the super committee and joins me now from the hill. congressman, thanks so much for being with us.

you heard the warnings from alan simpson and bowles and alice rivlin and everybody else yesterday. what are the chances your committee will go big and come up with a bigger deal phased in down the road when the economy is stronger, but a big enough deal to, you know, impress markets, to try to set the economy on a better path, and to, of course, avoid the sequestration, the automatic cuts? >> and i yeah, for all the reasons you just mentioned and because we've seen examples of how you can go big, you can be bold and do it all by being balanced in your approach, we should follow the guidance offine bowles, former senator alan simpson, pete dmen chirks former senator and former budget director alice rivlin and go big and be bold and do it in a balanced way so that everybody in america knows they have a little skin in the game. everyone is putting little in to get a little out. >> what about the possibility of

entitlements? a balanced approach would mean taxes, entitlements, defense cuts, and that would mean you'd have to be going up against your base, the democratic caucus, in this leadership situation, and according to all reports the house democrats have been the least willing to deal with the entitlement cuts. >> well, i'm ready to do that, and i believe each one of my colleagues, including the house democrats, are willing to put everything on the table. as i said, everyone has to have skin in the game, whether it's those programs that are near and dear to our hearts because they have worked well and people have paid for them, medicare, social security, or whether it's department of defense which had the largest increase in spending in the last decade and the li lion's share of spending and growth has come from the department of defense or whether it's the issue of taxes because we've seen the largest contributor to these deficits over the last decade have been the bush tax breaks. all that have should be on the table for discussion, and we should all be prepared to give a little bit. and i yeah, i don't think it's a

lack of desire on the part of anyone, including the house democrats, to put things on the table. it's a matter of having a balanced approach, and we can get there because we saw two commissions, the four co-chairs of those two commissions come to us, bipartisanly, two democrats and two republicans, say not only can you do this, but can you go big and be balanced, include revenues, include savings on the entitlement programs and at the same time make reductions in the department of defense because it seems such a large increase in spending over the last decade. >> a lot of people are confused by the fact that the super committee isn't even meeting, isn't scheduled to meet as far as we know this week, for the rest of this week. you have only three weeks left. are there meetings we don't know about? >> there are conversations going on at all times. when you don't see a public hearing doesn't mean that there's not a conversation. when you haven't heard about a scheduled meeting doesn't mean there aren't conversations. remember, much of this will get done through a lot of conversation where we try to feel each other out, try to get to the point of feeling comfortable with the very

difficult decisions that will be made by all of us, so the fact that there isn't a formal hearing or meeting doesn't mean that folks aren't talking. >> and do you think you're going to get there and beat the deadline with something big, something real? >> andrea, as i tell folks, i'm the son of immigrants, the first in my family to get a bachelors degree, member of congress, had a chance to introduce my folks to the president of the united states. i'm an eternal optimist. i believe we can get this done, not simply because i'm an optimist because we've had folks show us how to get to $4 trillion in savings and do it in a balanced way. we can do it. will there be the will among the 12 of us to get it done right for the american people? >> thanks so much. congressman becerra, thanks for being with us. and chris matthews is the host of "hardball" on msnbc and also the author of the new book, "jack kennedy: elusive hero," and the joins me now. chris, a little bit of jack kennedy right now. >> use some blue skies right now. >> well, here we've got some of the worst political rhetoric

going back and forth. >> right. >> anger on all sides, and no real hope for solutions. >> well, you ever get the feeling -- >> pretty tough time. >> all the successful tv programs coming on now, the popular programs like "mad men" and "pan am," all about the early '60s, before the '60s became hippies and in that time when people saw possibilities and you had a president that said let's put a man on the moon, let's go out to the third world and fight poverty, we, young americans, and let's bring civil rights to americans, and all these things were can do blue sky ideas that turned out to be successful. i think the country feels right now it's sort of stuck, stuck arguing about herman cain that's never going to amount to much in two or three months. probably won't be there as a candidate, but these aren't really positive notions right now. people want some euphoria and hope in the economy. look at market every day, so i think there's a lot of interest right now in a time and a leader that was different. >> what about the fact that jack

kennedy had been in world war ii, had -- >> that was everything. that was everything. >> that shaped him, us a report, and you've done a lot of new reporting in this book. >> yeah. >> herman cain, you mentioned herman cain. take a look at his interview with our colleague judy woodruff on pbs on the "news hour" when he didn't seem to know anything about china. let's watch. >> i do view china as a potential military threat to the united states. >> and what -- >> they have indicated that they are trying to develop nuclear capability and they want to develop more aircraft carriers like we have so, yes, we have to consider them a military threat. >> that's a joke, of course. jack kennedy -- let me give you an example of john kennedy and how different it was, when serious candidates, richard nixon and jack kennedy ran for competition. jack kennedy at age of 14 had read the whole entire history of world war i, read the "new york times" every day and laid on his bed and analyzed it, a serious student of history.

this guy was serious about history. all his life he was a student, he was getting briefings but people like averill harriman and chip bowe in '45 when he was a report for the hearst papers, serious preparations for politics by the time he got to politics. >> what is it about the republican field right now and the whole political debate in both parties which seems to be so trivial? >> they hate everybody who seems to know something. they made a mistake with confusing anti-elitism with anti-intellectualism. all the anti-jackson, but not liking people who know what they are talking about and liking people who don't? that's sort of like, you know, self- -- >> no nothingism. >> it's like why do you want a country, the chinese, trying to compete with the brazilians now, and the russians and the indians in the most sophisticated competition in the world.

we don't really believe in climate change or evolution. we are becoming fundamentalist in our thinking and i think that's really dangerous. it's one thing to have a religion, but to take it to the secular sphere and say i don't really want to know any science, and we're going to put this guy in who said i don't know what a neo-conis. i don't know that china had nuclear weapons. how can you not know that? you must not read the newspaper. >> you followed your passion about john f. kennedy and did real reporting. some actual nuggets. you found out who answered the mystery and the controversy over ask not. >> you know as a much better reporter than i've been in my life. you've got to go to it. that's why you have a travel budget. 99% of the time you have to go to the story to get it and i went up to choate academy. i heard the speculation, that it came from his headmaster. silting there in the back room with judy russell and the public relations person let me in and she hands me a loose note binder

and i open it up and there on the right-hand side is the sermon that day by george st. john, the headmaster quoting his hero from harvard where the youth should ask the alma mater where she can do for me but what i can do for her. with quote marks around it and at the time one of the people who didn't like him said he plagiarized our headmaster like he's supposed to say as my headmaster said but there's a lot of controversy at coat about him using those lines. >> we've been talking so much about changing standards and saying why aren't you going after herman cain, why didn't you go after jack kennedy's relationship, his marriage and the mystery of it. i reported on caroline kennedy's new book, michael blesh loss, the audio tapes, jacqueline kennedy adored this man. >> she loved him completely and gave him everything a spouse can give to another spouse. she followed his emotional

travails starting with the onion's burke fight. knew when he cried after the bay of pigs, with him completely. she gave him beauty and style and happiness. she created a happy home life after he got home at night. >> and he cheated on her. >> yes, yes. >> explain that. >> i'm not god, and i went through it. all i can say is this. they had a complete marriage between the two of them in a compartment, and he had this other, and that's all i can say. it may have come from the father, but she attribute it had to his mother saying his mother never loved him. his mother never loved him. >> the back is "jack kennedy: elusive hero." >> he comes off as really good, a henry the v, a flawed hero. i want your reaction when you read the last chapter. if you don't cry, i don't know you. >> and do you know me, and, of course, "hardball" every night. >> right. >> 5:00. >> and again at 7:00. thank you so much.

>> thank you, andrea. >> congratulations. >> thank you. and with the feel still unsettled, did tim pawlenty drop out soon and endorse mitt romney? pawlenty joining us live next, and then tom brokaw on the economic crisis facing america. this is "andrea mitchell reports," only on msnbc. defendl constipation, diarrhea, gas and bloating. with three strains of good bacteria to help balance your colon. you had me at "probiotic." [ female announcer ] phillips' colon health. they won't be beat. oh, actually... then i'd be like, you rule! and my kids would be like, you rule! i'd be like, yes, i do rule! ohh! that rules! oh, load up the sleigh; this is going to be a great christmas.

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with herman cain now leading the republican field in the new polls, what do his rivals have to say about the controversial allegations of past sexual harassment? former minnesota governor tim pawlenty himself a candidate until he dropped out in mid-august, is now co-chair of mitt romney's campaign. great to see you again. governor. thanks so much for joining us. >> what do you think of this whole cain situation? >> well, and i yeah, we don't know all the facts surrounding these allegations and the response and what happened and what didn't happen, and that will be up to herman cain and

his campaign to respond to and address, so we'll just have to let facts play out, and as to the romney campaign, they are focused on getting the jobs in this country growing, getting the economy moving again and mitt, of course, is uniquely situated, given his private sector background to lead the country forward on that and many other issues. >> why do you think the latest quinnipiac poll has herman cain at 30% and mitt romney all the way back at 23%? >> as you know, these polls are snapshots in time, and, of course, with respect to the campaign and the polls overall, they go up. they go down and you can't look at any one poll and make a final conclusion but what i do know is this. >> they are not going in the right direction for mitt romney and he has so many advantages over herman cain with money and campaign organization and an airplane. cain has only a fraction of romney's advantages in the field. >> well, andrea, you know this. this is a long road, and, of course, you've got to have not only be able to run the gauntlet of the republican nominating process but then you've got to

run a successful general election campaign. that takes a number of characteristics and qualities. you have to be steady. you have to be knowledgeable. have you to be capable. you have to be electable and a variety of other things, and when you look at the field, there's no question in my mind that over time the republican party, the conservative movement and the nation as a whole will rally towards mitt romney for those reasons. he is the most steady, most capable, most knowledgeable, most electable candidate in this field by far, and one of the reasons for that is his great record of leading in massachusetts as governor, on jobs, on taxes, on conservative issues like abortion and also being a great turnaround with respect to the olympics, his state, and he's got that deep private sector jobs experience and background. those things when they continue to get presented to the american people and to the conservative movement are going to resonate, and i think you'll see him be the eventual nominee. >> governor, what about george will on sunday? that was a real shot at mitt romney. his column said that a straddle is not a political philosophy.

it is what you do when you do not have one. romney is a recidivist reviser of his principles. republicans may have found their michael dukakis. ouch. >> i have high regard for george will but i respectfully disagree with his conclusion in that regard. if you look at mitt romney's defining experience in leadership, as the governor of massachusetts he cut spending and cut taxes and grew jobs and reduced the unemployment rate. he was staunchly pro-life as governor and strongly defended traditional marriage as between a man and a woman and down the list, so when you look at the record as a whole, it is a conservative record, and he did it in a very blue place, a very liberal place. it's not like governing in some states that's overwhelmingly republican. i've got a little experience being a comfortive being republican in a blue place, minnesota, and mitt's record is

pretty good considering the state he did it for. >> governor, briefly, any regrets you dropped out of the race mid-august? seems like the republicans keep looking around, and they haven't settled on mitt romney certainly, and there's, you know, a surge for gingrich, cain goes up. bachmann is down. did you drop out too soon? >> andrea, we took it as far as my campaign could. flatly, we ran out of money, but i'm pleased and proud to support mitt romney. i think he's strongest candidate in the field by far. keep in mind, hard for any one candidate to break out when there's seven or eight people in the race and as this dwindles down to a couple of candidates i think you'll see mitt's numbers move very nicely over the course of the next six months or so. >> tim pawlenty, great to see you, governor. thanks so very much. >> thank you, andrea. >> mark your calendars. new hampshire has set its primary date. as expected, the first in the nation primary will be held on january 10th, one week after the iowa caucuses, 11 days before south carolina's primary on

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here's what's happening. stocks are holding on to their gains despite an announcement from the fed that it will not take new action to help the economy. the fed did leave open the possibility of taking more steps in the future. fed chairman ben bjorky is going to be holding a news conference to explain their decision-making in less than an hour following the fed's two-day monetary policy-setting meeting. the prime minister of greece has been summoned to the g-20 meeting in france to explain why he's putting an austerity package up for a vote. europe yap leaders expect outrage at the surprise decision and fear it could further endanger other countries in the eurozone. and a new report on the private sector jobs shows 110,000 workers were added in october. the adp report topped expectations and fueled optimism ahead of friday's monthly unemployment report. and up next, nbc's tom

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it has been a bumpy ride for the republican front-runners for president, but even president obama's supporters will tell you nothing prepares a candidate for a general election like a tough primary race. bill burton is former white house deputy press secretary and founder of priorities usa, a super pac, and msnbc political analyst michael steele is, of course, the former chairman of the republican party. well, what about her man cain ad what's going on right now? first to you, michael steele. people are rallying around him. >> they are. >> you're hearing, it i'm hearing it. >> very much so. >> does this mean sexual harassment is alleged sexual harassment is not a big deal 20 years after the fact? >> this is not a big deal. if this happened last year, it would certainly be burning a little bit differently than it is now. it's a 12-year-old incident, and i think a lot of people feel, as you've seen from some of the press accounts going back to clarence thomas' hearings and

how that was kind of unfolded, the way this has unfolded for folks, they are rather dismissive of it. this is just a broadside on the campaign, and that there's nothing there. herman has already stated, you know, his position on it, and now let's move on, and they kind of want to push through it. my only concern about that is what it does it dismisses whatever issues the women may have had at the time and sort of belittles that, and that's why you're now seeing wait a minute, i want to come out and tell my sorry. herman is saying his side. i want to tell my side of it and you don't want to get into that environment right now so i think people really need to be respectful of the entire process and not just be so dismissive of claims whether they are 2 years old or 12 years old, that there's a human side to this, too, that clearly needs it be addressed. at least it was at the time. >> and bill, what about that, the whole question of sexual harassment? is it possibly that with the economy as bad as it is and with all the other issues that we're

facing as a nation, that people are not taking this seriously? >> well, i thought maureen daud had a great column today in which she talked about the fact -- >> and the fact that she could bring jane austen into it. got to love that. >> but the point she makes about another man blaming women for sexual harassment, i mean, it is -- it's sort of disgusting to watch the way herman cain has handled this. from top to bottom cain hasn't run the most professional campaign, his policy positions aren't the most mainstream ideas and if you look at the rise and the q poll, the fact that he's at 30, doesn't take into course what's happened over the last couple of days because it just went on monday because his rise has meant more about mitt romney than herman cain, republicans shopping around for someone else. >> speaking of mitt romney, you at priorities usa, super pac, supporting the obama campaign, has a new ad against mitt romney, and it raises a lot of questions, not only about mitt

romney but about the process that we're in. let's watch. >> operating with wall street is romney. >> don't try to stop the foreclosure process. let it hit the bottom let detroit go bankrupt. a lot of reasons not to elect me. >> we knew that was coming. >> having a lot of fun with it. senator durbin, the number two democratic leader in the senate today got on the floor, and they are proposing an amendment, a constitutional amendment to get around citizens united to stop the kind of campaign spending that both parties and their supporters and you, bill, in particular, have been able to do since that supreme court ruling. >> i tell you what. folks, my colleagues, paul begala, the whole lost us at priorities usa action, think

this is a pretty imperfect system and in an imperfect system we would not exist, but our view is as long as karl rove was out there spending hundreds of millions of dollars and the koch brothers were, we weren't going to let that be unanswered. we're helping to lay out the contours what have we think the general election is going to look like. we're about a year out, so we thought it would be worth it to let the american people know, you know, what's the reality and what's the consequences of a mitt romney? >> and you think that mitt romney is the target to go after just briefly. is he going to be the nominee when all is said and done? >> i think this lines up in that direction given the organization, the money and the momentum that i think you're going to see as people hunker down and get ready for that january 3rd call to go vote. >> i've got to -- we've got to go. thank you very much, michael steele and bill burton, thanks. >> and no deal in sight on a jobs plan. the presidential candidates are ducking the big issues and the unemployment rate is higher than

the unemployment numbers, a dismal 9%. i spoke with the author of the new book "the time of our lives, a conversation about america" about whether the level of partisan rancor this year has reached an all-time high. >> in all the years i've been doing this, andrea, which is now almost 50, i don't remember a time where there was such anxiety about the future of the country. we've been through some difficult patches, obviously. the assassination of john f. kennedy, the 1960s and the war on vietnam, the counterculture movement at full throttle during that time, the attack of 9/11, but this country always had an ability to kind of unite around a common vision about where we're going. now, as i don't need to tell you especially in washington, d.c., everybody has retreated to their far corners. they refuse to even communicate with each other, and we have this nagging, persistent economic downturn which is systemic in so many ways, and the real question is do we have a recovery on wall street but

not in the job market? what do we do about american education as we compete around the world. how do we get back to the fundamental values of our parents and grandparents who were, as i called them, the greatest generation? >> and you -- you write about this in the middle of this campaign, and we've yet to see the real questions being addressed. it seems as though we're going from one distraction to another, but real questions about the future of the country and the future of our economy and of housing and educates really don't seem to be addressed by those asking the questions, frankly, and certainly not by those answering. >> they have been mia in the debates. almost all of the concentration can be on who can provide jobs very quickly, and a lot that have has been very unrealistic in my opinion. that's the undercurrent of concern about how we get the country working together again, but at the same time there are these issues, like mortgages, 20 million of them, out there that are either stressed or in peril

or being foreclosed on at the time. education. we can't have a modern work force unless we do something more about education and developing the skill set, when we've got so many young people coming out of high school who then have to take remedial courses when they go to college when it comes to reading and math. i did this story just this past year out in southern ohio and northern kentucky, a young electrician, who had a pretty good business working in housing development and then that went flat, but he wasn't equipped to go to work in a high-tech manufacturing company right in his own backyard until he got a lot more additional training, so community colleges are beginning to fill in the gap, and we haven't heard much about what we can do for that. >> now, one of the things in terms of the older generation, is this advertisement from the aarp, and i've heard you talk about this, and it is to many people very offensive that the aarp is opposing any kind of changes in entitlements, not just for those who really do need the support. >> yeah, well --

>> what's your response to that? >> you'll be surprised to hear that they were not happy to bringing this out and bringing it to the attention of people. i'm going to see one of their representatives, but in fact, what they say they wanted the deficit commission, the special commission to know how strongly they feel about it, and they haven't been asked to offer their opinions, but they didn't say in that ad we're here to help. how can we in some way reform this system that will take care of our seniors who so desperately need it and also provide for those who have other resources a fair return on the investments that they have made. we're 50 million strong. you should hear our voices. well, i think if they have done it in that fashion, they would have had an entirely different reaction, certainly from me, and from the rest of the country. i don't know how the membership feels about all of this, but based on a lot of the seniors that i'm talking to, my guess is that they won't like that in-your-face attitude. >> and the other thing is we've

now had two american presidents from different parties since 9/11 who have not really called the nation to service, and we are in two shooting wars, and you write in your book it is time to find a framework for national service that goes beyond a military uniform and provides a longer term benefit for the country. it's fundamentally unfair to expect a small percentage of our population to carry the burden and pay the price of fighting wars that are always initiated in, quote, the national interest. that's, of course, "from the time of our lives." that really does get to the heart of the call to service, of coming together as a nation >> i think it's time for big, bold ideas. i'm following in the wake of walter isaacson's wonderful book about steve jobs and who he was and how he built his empire and changed our lives. the same can be said of all those silicon pioneer like bill gates and sergei brennan and larry page at google and all the others, but at the same time we

are stuck in our national political debate about having bold idea. my bold idea is let's have six public service academies across the country. make them public/private enterprises, john deere fellows and third world agriculture, caterpillar fellow in construction, johnson & johnson fellows, full-blown mds and prak thinkingers, that represent this country around the world and are also on call when katrina happens or the tornadoes in joplin, missouri, because we have an ad hoc response, and too often the military is the first responder. that's not their job. we need to change that. then at the end of the training those young people, men and women, will have a real skill set. they will be connected to corporate america. corporate america can bring them back to the mother ship, so to speak, give them two years to prove themselves and either keep them as a valued employee and suggest that it's time for them

to go find another work. >> tom brokaw, another great book, and has been pointed out beautifully written and with a heart as big as america in the great plains and thank you very much, "the time of our lives," tom brokaw, and -- and it's just wonderful. >> thank you, andrea. >> congratulations. >> and happy birthday and welcome to the medicare crowd. >> thanks so much, tom, i think. >> i think. thanks a lot, tom, and live right now on the 2012 campaign trail, rick santorum is holding a meet and greet with voters in fairfield, iowa, one of six stops the former senator is making in the hawkeye state today where the most recent "des moines register poll" shows santorum is in eighth place with 5% of the vote. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc, the place for politics. is this a chevy volt? [ stu ] yeah. it's electric. i don't think so. it's got a gas tank right here. electric tank, right over here. an electric tank? really, stu? is that what you pour the electricity in? it's actually both, guys. i can plug in and go 35 miles gas free,

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apple or cherry? cherry. oil or cream? oil or cream? cream. reddi-wip uses real dairy cream. nothing's more real than reddi-wip. reddi-wip uses real dairy cream. what are these guys doing? [ horn honks ] could you please not honk while this guy's telling me about his chevy volt? is that that new... is that the electric car? yeah. but it takes gas too. ask him how much he spends on gas. how much does he spend on gas? how much do you spend on gas? how much do i spend on gas? if i charge regularly, i fill up like once a month. he only has to fill up about once a month. [ woman ] wow. that's amazing. hi, everyone. i'm tamron hall. coming up on "newsnation" at 2:00 p.m. eastern time. we're waiting to hear if the woman that accused herman cain of sexual harassment will be allowed to tell her side of the

story. cain has been telling his side. her attorneys have asked the national restaurant association to release her from a confidentiality program. and details on a new report that president obama's re-election campaign has quietly launched a massive voter protection effort. it reportedly takes aim at new election laws that democrats say suppress votes for their candidates. we'll take a look at what they are doing. >> a u.s. official says that the obama administration is deeply disappointed that israel is building more settlements in arab east jerusalem. israel's move is a tit for tat after unesco, the u.n. cultural organization, voted to admit palestine as a member. martin fletcher and msnbc veteran correspondent and middle east correspondent joins me now. the author of the new book called "the list." congratulations, martin. >> thank you, andrea. >> let's talk first about israel and the middle east. this is just another escalation in the non-negotiations, you know. we've seen no progress at all

between israel and the palestinians, and now this is another step by israel going after, of course, what the palestinians did at the united nations. >> yeah, it's a sign of terrible frustration by the israelis. they reacted to the unesco thing by announcing they will build 2,000 more apartments in three areas, areas around jerusalem so it's a slap in the face for those that don't want israel to continue the settlements, including the united states, also a mark of israel's frustration as what they see as a lack of progress. they believe, of course, that the palestinian moves in the united nations are not helpful to the peace process. of course, with the palestinians, there is no peace process. >> your previous book "walking israel" was lauded and won all sorts of awards. you've spent 40 years plus as a correspondent all over the world, but now you've written the list which is fiction. is it fiction? it's the story of two holocaust

survivors and their travails in london at the end of the war. >> it was a very -- >> and it sounds a lot like it could be the fletcher family. >> well, you know, i spent 40 years telling other people's stories, and i did decide, you know, i'll tell my own family story because it is an extraordinary story but no different actually from any of those people who survived the holocaust. the story that i wanted to write was that the question immediately after the holocaust, what was it like when they were waiting to find out what happened when they found the rest of their families? is my mother alive? what happened to my mother, my brother, my sister, my cousins, so i wanted to write about that emotional roller coaster, an when i searched the period i discovered many things that i didn't know about that made it into a thriller, too. >> a spy thriller, absolutely gripping. you write about an astation plot against the british foreign secretary because of the whole issue of whether palestine, whether israel could become a

state. >> yeah, and you know what, i didn't know about that when i began the book and the britain secret service released the reports. there was a plot of assassination and i tracked down one of the three guys sent from palestine to london to kill the foreign minister, and i had a long time with him. he said they came within 24 hours of assassinating the british foreign minister in london, and that became an important part of my book. let me say this. imagine they had succeeded in killing the british foreign minister in 1946 at that time and the united nations, the israeli state was in 1947. no way britain would have supported that vote and probably parts of the commonwealth wouldn't either. i'm sure if they -- if they had killed the british foreign minister, there would be no state of israel. >> would have been so much retaliation in so many ways against the -- the jewish refugees really, which is the story that you write. it is an extraordinary book, and it is wonderful to see you, martin.

my colleague, my friend, my veteran -- veteran correspondent who has covered more wars than any of us care to admit. >> we joined nbc news on the same day. >> did we that's july of 1978. wonderful. thank you for being here. what political story will make headlines in the next 24 hours? be sure to follow the show online at andrea.msnbc.com. and dipped in creamy peanut butter, making your craving for a sweet & salty bar irresistible, by nature valley. they won't be beat. oh, actually... then i'd be like, you rule! and my kids would be like, you rule! i'd be like, yes, i do rule! ohh! that rules! oh, load up the sleigh; this is going to be a great christmas. yeah. ring dinga-ding, ring dinga-ding, ring, ring, ring me up.

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which political story will make headlines in the next 24 hours? msnbc contributor and managing editor of post politics.com, chris cillizza joins us. the first question is greece, unexpectedly, the bailout could collapse if greece does go ahead with the referendum.

>> it shows you how fast thing are changing. after last week, we thought great news. euro's own bail youflt greece announce that had they will do a referendum which has made people very, very nervous and really affected the market. the president is going -- he's leaving a country in which the economy is not in great shape. he's going to france, to europe where what happens there in greece and more broadly really impacts what will happen here. a shaky greece economy, really very tough in terms of the world markets. especially in the united states. this is not a trip. it's a foreign trip, yes, but it is not immune from des domestic policy concerns. >> i think she have this avoided the hoopla. they're going to the french riviera. they're going to france. i think there are some optics that might not be the best

politically for the president at a time of high unemployment and occupy wall street and all the rest back home. >> foreign trips are always hard because it's easy to, exactly as you point out. we've got problems here and he's focus in the europe and elsewhere. the president rightly can make the argument that what happens in europe, in greece in particular over the next few weeks and months matters a whole lot to what is going on in this country. but it is a complicated argument. people say we need jobs here. you need to focus on here. the politics and the optics of it. you have to be very, very careful with these sorts of things. >> well, bon voyage to the president and chuck todd and all the rest of the white house press corps. and that is it for us. remember, follow the show online and online. tamron hall has a look at what's next. >> we are following new

developments regarding herman cain. will we hear from one of the women who accused him. sexual harassment? the national restaurant association will decide whether to release her from a confidentiality agreement. and cain, herman cain says there is a force at work trying to destroy him. the question though is, is he talking about a conspiracy on the left as we've heard from his supporters? or is he referring to people on the right? republicans who may have targeted him. snm plus a new theory on what may have been wrong with rick perry during his bizarre speech friday night. wait until you hear this latest theory. "news nation" is next. two of the most important are energy security and economic growth. north america actually has one of the largest oil reserves in the world. a large part of that is oil sands. this resource has the ability to create hundreds of thousands of jobs. at our kearl project in canada, we'll be able to produce these oil sands with the same emissions as many other oils and that's a huge breakthrough. that's good for our country's energy security

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right now, "news nation." >> excuse me! excuse me! >> trying to push through the quote, forces that are trying to destroy him. developing news this hour, herman cain's harassment scandal may get even worse. news this hour the attorney representing t