summit by placing part of the blame on congress. >> there's no excuse for inaction. that's true globally. it's certainly true back home as well. i'm going to keep on pushing it regardless of what the politics are. the hits keep coming for herman cain. one of his accusers may go public today as new poll numbers show his campaign has been able to weather the firestorm for now. plus, can mitt romney get the tea party onboard with his plan to slash federal spending? and we're on verdict watch as the jury in the conrad murray trial begins deliberations. good day, i'm chris cillizza in for andrea mitchell. 2012 is still all about the economy. republicans are pouncing on today's labor report that shows 80,000 jobs were added in october. the unemployment rate did drop to 9%, but nearly 14 million people are still out of work. david gregory is moderator of

nbc's "meet the press" and joins us now. david, thank you for taking the time. >> sure. >> all right. we said glimmer of hope in the opening. is there a glimmer of hope here? >> i don't think there's a lot of surprise about these numbers. they're pretty flat. the unemployment rate comes down just a tick. they're not creating jobs in a way keeping pace with population growth and all the rest. these are still very soft numbers. it doesn't change the reality about the economy. being in a place where businesses are doing well, commerce is going up, but businesses are not hiring, they're not investing. and there's real questions about how much washington can do about it anymore. >> and how much trust people have in washington to do anything. every month we get one month closer to november 2012. how much slimmer does the president's re-election prospects grow as we get closer? like you said, 9.1%, 9%. for most average people, there's no difference. >> the presidential race has to be about other things for president obama, about taking

down the other guy. whoever the nominee is, and, you know, they're already starting to try to do that. if it's straight up, are you better now than four years ago? we know how that's going to go. the president doesn't want to have it come down to that question. you heard him in france saying it's unacceptable for congress not to do anything. i think it's interesting and wonder when people in washington are going to say, look, there are really very few things government can do here. we have to sort of ride this out. >> the truth. let's turn, you mentioned, whoever republicans nominate, well, the guy who's at least a front-runner at the moment, the former godfather ceo, herman cain. the "washington post"/abc, they did a poll. is the cain controversy a serious problem? yes, this is republican leaners, republican leaning voters. yes, 39%. no 55%. it doesn't seem, at least from those numbers, that this is as big a problem, as i will say, for myself, i thought it would be for him. what's your take?

>> there are a couple things going on. the front page of the "des moines register" is a poll about his 9-9-9 plan and sense among republican voters that it could help them. two, there's a rallying around herman cain of that republican conservative base in the media on talk radio. that's been an enormous boom to him. there's money coming in the campaign says. i've talked to folks on the ground in iowa who say enthusiasm is only growing there in that state. so far, you're looking at a guy who can divert, say, look, this is a long time ago, there's nothing to this. what has the media in a frenzy, let's be honest, there's a weirdness about the campaign, a sense that there's no strategy. that's not just observation. i've talked to people internally who are complaining about the fact there's no real strategy, they knew about this and haven't responded well to it and herman cain is driving the organization, whatever organization there is. is contributing to all of this. >> i think that's -- i think you

get to strike at the heart of it. that's the problem. there isn't organization. the pushback is scattered and owl over the place, it looks strange. >> it looks strange. look, republican leaning voters will have a different view if there's something more that comes out, it may be as early as today. one of the accusers comes out, tells her story with more detail. to balance this out, i've also talked to people who have been part of herman cain's world who are shocked by this. who say this is not the herman cain that i've known. i mean, i realize things can happen, but he's the antithesis of all this. there's a lot of diverse going on right now. what i think is true about the cain campaign is there's a recognition certainly this could certainly go off the rails. there's that on the positive. and two, he continued to find a consolidation of support. i keep saying there's an alternate universe that they're running here, where they're creating a new leg of the stool of his campaign and finding

support by picking a fight with the press and the establishment. they've got that with these allegations. >> now, i have my dvr set to record weekly, every week "meet the press." i'm going to watch it. i'm ready. give us a preview what's coming up. >> we're going to talk about the dynamic in the republican race. we have haleiy barbour, bill richardson, current and form ee governor to talk about it. jon huntsman on our meet the candidates campaign. we're going to see what he says and do as a moderate republican to get into the race where he's banking on new hampshire. we'll do that. i should mention, too, on our air, chris matthews with his book about kennedy. >> great book. i got a copy of it last week. david gregory, host of "meet the press." the nation is adding americans to the workforce but barely enough to keep up with population growth and far from the number needed to seriously dent the unemployment rate. labor secretary hilda solis joins us now. thanks for joining us. let's talk about these numbers.

the unemployment rate drops marginally. 9.9% to 9.1%. 80,000 jobs created. we have still have 14 million people unemployed. what's the good news here for your average person out in america? >> what's interesting, too, is that we had to make some revisions in the last two months and there were actually over 100,000 jobs that were added. if you look at the course of this year, alone, we've added about 1 million private sector jobs and in 20 month months we've actually added 2.8 million private sector jobs. it's slow, nevertheless, we still need to apply more pressure. i think that, you know, the areas we really suffer in is in construction and also in the public sector. we had two attempts in the senate to try to get some of those packages in the americans jobs act passed and the senate said no. these are areas we know are struggling, we know a lot of people lost their jobs in construction and here was a way to help provide a remedy to that. i think we're not going to stop,

and you know that, we're going to keep pushing forward on payroll extension so we can get payroll tax breaks for working families and also we need to talk about the unemployment insurance dilemma that will come up in december if we don't pass that. we'll see 1.2 million people lose their benefits in december. there are things we can do we know that work, chris. last december, close to this time, we saw the deal that was arrived at with the president and the congress. and as a result, we saw an uptick of jobs. this year in january, with over 220,000 private sector jobs added. we know what the remedies are, but we have to have political will. that's why people need to contact their members of the senate and the house. >> madame secretary, you've spent time in the house of representatives before becoming labor secretary. you know the dynamics in congress. i would say, and i want to get your take on this, it's not just republicans who are blocking up the americans job act. there were democratic votes against it in the senate. some people who are in

vulnerable race next year. what do you say to your former colleagues, particularly those on the fence, there are some on the fence i would say on the liberal side, the left as well. what do you say to them that what looks like a process that ground to a halt as it relates to the americans job act, restarted? >> it's tough out there for members facing re-election. everyone has to come to terms with that. but i do think that we've got to put the interest of the american public before us. and the remedies that the president has put forward with quite modest and they're actually bipartisan in nature. we saw proposals like this when i was in the house that we supported. now all of a sudden because the obama administration is putting them forward, people are saying, no, they don't want to support them. when the public and even your media has also shown that the public does support these kinds of efforts. so i don't understand why the hesitancy has to happen now. the election isn't until a year away. >> labor secretary hilda solis. thanks for taking the time. >> thank you, thanks, chris. republican candidates for

president are gathering in iowa today for the state's annual ronald reagan dinner in des moines. there are, however, two noticeable absences. herman cain and mitt romney are taking a pass. veteran iowa pollster and the only woman i listen to when it comes to iowa polling, ann selzer is president of selzer & company. have to make sure i get that right, ann. thanks for joining us. i want to start with mitt romney, in the state on monday. he's not spent a lot of time in iowa. he's going to be there on monday. what do we know about his chances? he's taking a little bit of a hands-off approach. is this a state he can win? >> you know, i think it would not surprise me as someone who's looked in-depth at the numbers if he managed to tfigure out a way to win iowa. given the things that have happened in the field so far, it probably looks more and more enticing to him. he doesn't seem to be losing a certain level of support that he has. he stays at the top two. without doing a whole lot, at

least that people can see in public. there's sort of a skunk works, i mean that in the nicest positive way of things that are happening in his campaign. yes, in a positive way. he's lining up supporters, not talking about that in the traditional way. he's not broadcasting what he's doing. he has an organization in the state. >> let's talk about the other iowa front-runner. "des moines register" poll, herman cain 23%. mitt romney 22%. the "washington post" and abc news did a poll, this just came out this morning, the numbers are fresh out of the oven. how will the controversy of herman cain impact your support for him? 4% said it was more likely they would support him. 23% less likely. almost 7 in 10, no difference. the controversy is new. we're four days. it seems like it's always been with us. we're only four days into it. do we have any sense how iowans are receiving this?

iowa republican voters? is this something people are paying attention to out there? >> well certainly the people who are planning to attend the caucuses. that's a narrower sub set than is reflected in that poll. they're paying a lot of attention to what's happening here. the poll that we released on sunday was a very positive poll for cain, for herman cain. we went looking to say, where is the guy vulnerable? and we couldn't spot anything. we found several areas of vulnerability for romney just by comparison. but a story like this breaks the next day. we were thankful it broke the next day. and it sort of brings a lot of uncertainty into the mix. all i can say is anecdotally we know some people survive and some people don't and there's a little bit of let's wait and see how this plays out. there's an unwillingness to rush to judgment among likely caucusgoers because this is not the first time we've seen something like this. >> ann selz rerer, i wait with d breath when i know a "des moines

register" and selzer poll is coming out which says something about me and about how good you are. thanks for joining us. >> a pleasure, chris. is he the driving force behind the republicans' ant tax movement? the man, grover norquist joins us next. too big to fail? the turmoil that could disrupt markets here at home. a reminder, daylight savings time comes this weekend. roll the clocks back saturday before you go to bed and check the batteries in your smoke detector detectors. 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,

or i can fill up and go a whole lot farther. is that my burger? oh. i just got bun. i didn't even bite any burger. delivering mail, medicine and packages. yet they're closing thousands of offices, slashing service, and want to lay off over 100,000 workers. the postal service is recording financial losses, but not for reasons you might think. the problem ? a burden no other agency or company bears. a 2006 law that drains 5 billion a year

from post-office revenue while the postal service is forced to overpay billions more into federal accounts. congress created this problem, and congress can fix it. 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.

a november 23rd deadline

looms for the bipartisan supercommittee. and the debt reduction panel is deadlocked over the issue of you guessed it, taxes. some say anti-tax advocate grover norquist is the man to blame. nbc's luke russert asked speaker john boehner whether his anti-tax pledge is good for the republican party. >> speaker boehner, governor norquist was on the hill this morning, is he a positive influence on your conference? >> listen, our focus here is on jobs. we're doing everything we can to get our economy moving again and get people back to work. it's not often i'm asked about some random person in america. >> grover norquist is president of americans for tax reform and not some random person, in my eyes. grover, thank you for joining us. >> good to be with you. >> you heard the speaker. you've gotten a huge amount of attention both in the debt ceiling fight and now with the supercommittee. what's your reaction to being called some random person in

america by the speaker of the house? >> actually his next line was perfect, which was he said, look, the republicans are not going to support a tax increase because it's bad for the economy and it's bad for jobs. which is exactly the correct position. republicans aren't going to support a tax increase because it's the wrong policy, not because i would urge them not to. we have 238 members of the house who signed the pledge to their constituents, not to me, to m e their voters that they won't raise taxes. tax reform? sure. net tax increase, no. 41 senators. that isn't going to happen. they made the commitment to their voters. they're not going to do it. >> you mentioned the pledge. 100 members of congress, including 40 republicans said we need to go big, $4 trillion. 37 of the 40 republicans signed the anti-tax pledge. >> sure. >> do you worry that the pressure to go big, the pressure to solve this once and for all leads to some members getting a

little weak kneed and what do you say to those members who are thinking about it? >> no, because remember, the republican party in the house of representatives already passed a $6 trillion spending restraint. and that's the ryan plan. so all but four people in the house, all but four committed to going big. no tax increase. >> so you can go big without any tax increases. >> sure, absolutely. the house already has. >> let me ask you the political pragmatic view. democrat s aren't going to go fr that. in order to make anything happen, real for the country that people can see real relief in some meaningful way, the economy getting better, you need to have democrats. there's a democrat in the white house and democrats that control the senate. how can you say, go big, tax increases? >> you're not going to go big with tax increases because the democrats want tax increases. you either go big without tax increases which case democrats say no. remember, the democrats are slightly irrelevant right now because the 1.2 in spending cuts

come automatically. if the democrats sit there and say we're going to hold our breath until we turn blue and stomp our feet until you give us a tax increase, republicans say, we don't need you, we go to automatic sequester. republicans would rather have a reason thought through budget caught than the haircut across the top. but the democrat threat only on august 2nd was the world ends. we fall off the edge of the flat earth and have a default and lord knows what goes on. the new threat is, if you don't let us raise taxes, spending will be cut. okay. so, but that's what elections are for. we come back in 2012, the republicans will hold the house. thanks to redistricting. and they will take the senate, thanks to the 23 democrats up for re-election. >> while this is broken down a lot on partisan lines, it's not entirely on party lines. alan simpson, here's what he said about mr. grover norquist.

>> former. >> if this guy is the most powerful guy in america, elect him president. he's got them. he can't murder you, he can't burn your house. the only thing he can do for you is beat you for re-election. if that means for to you than your country and extremity, you shouldn't be in congress. >> what say you? >> alan simpson is old enough to have been in congress and voted for the '82 budget deal which was supposed to give $3 of spending cuts for every dollar of tax increase. spending increased more rapidly after that deal. tax increases real, spending cuts weren't. eight years later having learned nothing in 1982, he did it again. $2 promised of spending cuts for every dollar of tax increase. tax increase was real. spending cuts weren't. the rest of the modern republican party watched alan simpson vote in '82 and '90 for a budget deal which led to tax increases and spending increases. no spending restraint at all. and learned, don't do that. alan simpson is old enough to have been there but too old to remember what happened and he

missed what he's talking about. what did we do this last year? we said, we're not raising taxes. boehner and mitch mcconnell said we're not raising taxes. democrats came to the table, put $2.5 trillion on the table. we're going back to finish that same process. when taxes are off the table, you cut spending. when taxes are on the table, spending cuts evaporate. >> grover norquist, defending his name and taxes. thank you for joining us. >> thank you. will herman cain be able to move past the sexual harassment controversy? the political briefing is next on "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. time for the your business entrepreneur of the week. nina is using high-tech marketing to engage customers at her new york-based garnet wines and liquors. scanning the company's qr codes with smart phone, her customers learn about wine and get discounts. nina is not alone. qr codes are now everywhere. [ male announcer ] from the soups you know and love

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i got it, i'm sorry. these people, huh? you know i've found that anger is the enemy of instruction. you don't know the egos that i have to deal with. you're probably right. thank you! whoever you are. i'm pretty sure that was phil jackson. he's quite famous... million championships... triangle offense innovator... [ male announcer ] the audi a8. named best large luxury sedan. nice wheels zen master. thank you...todd. ♪ when i got my medicare card, i realized i needed an aarp... medicare supplement insurance card, too. medicare is one of the great things about turning 65, but it doesn't cover everything. in fact, it only pays up to 80% of your part b expenses. if you're already on or eligible for medicare, call now to find out how an aarp... medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company,

helps cover some of the medical expenses... not paid by medicare part b. that can save you up to thousands of dollars. these are the only medicare supplement insurance plans... exclusively endorsed by aarp. when you call now, you'll get this free information kit... and guide to understanding medicare, i can keep my own doctor and choose my own hospital. and i don't need a referral to see a specialist. as with all medicare supplement plans, and help pay for what medicare doesn't. call this toll-free number now... herman cain is flatly denying sexual harassment allegations insisting they are false, or based on misunderstandings. he's also targeting the source of the story. even as more evidence about the allegations is uncovered. politico's ken vogel has been at the forefront on this story for nearly a week. ken, thanks for joining us. and let's just start, this is a

fast-moving story, what's the latest from the politico newsroom? >> well, we reported yesterday evening, chris, that a woman who was one of the first women who we mentioned in our initial story on this, we were able to determine the specifics of an incident that she had alleged where herman cain had invited her up to his hotel room at a national restaurant association convention in the late '90s and made what was interpreted as a sexual pass at her. this directly contradicts his assertion that he never invited any female employee at the national restaurant association up to a hotel room. it also to some extent casts doubt on his assertion that he was not aware of these allegations because in fact we reported that this woman took her concerns to national restaurant association board members and eventually those concerns were relayed to the national restaurant association general counsel peter kilgore who remains the counsel today. we're also waiting today for

kilgore, as well as other top restaurant association officials, to decide whether they are going to release this woman. another woman, the other woman from our initial report, whether they're going to release her lawyer from a confidentiality agreement to allow him to make a statement on her behalf about the charges she originally leveled at herman cain. >> ken, let me ask you, and quickly, cain on sean hannity's radio show last night said that politico has no documentation. there's been rumors of legal action. what can you guys say right now about where all that stands? >> well, in our initial story, we reported that we had viewed documentation that reflected a settle, reflected a nondisclosure agreement and reflected original charges brought by this woman whose lawyer is now in conversations with the national restaurant association. we have since reported that the settlement agreement for this woman, paid her $45,000 and terminated her employment at the restaurant association. so, yes, there is documentation.

yes, we have viewed it. no, we don't have it. no, we can't release it. >> ken vogel bringing us the latest on the herman cain controversy. thank you. >> thank you. coming up, the greek debt crisis. a confidence vote today as the world watches and waits. plus, jon corzine out at his bankrupt securities firm. and mitt romney tries to woo the tea party with talks of spending cuts. will they show him the love? this is "andrea mitchell reports." ♪ [ female announcer ] give a little cheer to a family of a soldier. just cut out the cheer from your specially marked box of cheerios, write your message, and we'll see that they get it. looks beautiful, honey. [ rattling ] jason...

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and lfollow the wings.o you can pay a little at a time. wait a second... with olay challenge that. new regenerist wrinkle revolution... relaxes the look of wrinkles instantly, and the look of deep wrinkles in 14 days. ready, set, smooth... regenerist. from olay. topping the headlines on "andrea mitchell reports." the jury has begun deliberating in the conrad murray involuntary manslaughter trial. after 22 days of testimony and nearly six weeks since the trial kicked off, jurors are considering whether or not dr. murray is criminally responsible for the death of michael jackson. jon corzine resigned from collapsing securities firm mf global today. the former new jersey governor

and u.s. senator was the chairman and ceo of that firm that went bankrupt after making bad bets on european debt. this as a criminal probe of the company may be in the offing. shares of groupon, the website that pioneered group discounts, have skyrocketed nearly 50% after the company went public today. the company is being met with strong demand in selling for $20 a share, well above the expected average. groupon carries a value of more than $12.5 billion, with a "b". you're looking at live pictures of mitt romney rolling out his plan to splash spending before a tea party conference in washington right now. former governor, john sinnunu is a romney supporter. we're going to get to governor romney's economic plan. i want to ask you first though about the news of the day. the news of the week really in politics. herman cain. all the allegations swirling. how much does this distract from his campaign and does it hurt

the republican brand broadly as you guys prepare to take on president obama next fall? >> look, the big issue with president obama is how he's ruined the economy. the republicans are going to be talking about cutting spending, reducing taxes, making government spauler. we're here to talk about cutting spending and reduce the size of government. >> governor, let's talk about that. governor romney is putting out his plan as we speak about the economy. can you tell us the big, broad, bold points in here? we've seen herman cain with the 9-9-9 plan. is there a boldness in mitt romney's plan? what is it? >> it's a smart plan. it understands deficits do matter. you don't do anything -- you can't cut taxes until you cut spending. what governor romney is proposing first of all is making sure we have to get rid of programs that aren't working.

secondly, he understands the states are more efficient than the federal government in deal with a lot of these issues so we ought to block grant some of the major expenditures that the states have responsibility for back down to the states. and number three, we ought to recognize that we've let bureaucracy get too big and ought to start cutting back on the size of the federal government using attrition and other techniques of reducing the size of the number of employees in the federal government. but he's also willing to take on the hard issues. he knows that the entitlement programs are critical. one of the thing he's proposing, recognizing that in current times, american workers are working a lot longer than they used to. is harmonizing the retirement age, for example, with social security and when people are actually retiring. and so increase the retirement age very, very slowly for the youngest of people that are on social security. making sure that you protect those that are on or about to be on in a short period of time.

and the last point is recognizing that the best thing that you can do for medicare is make it responsible for being competitive with the kinds of plans that are offered in the private sector. >> governor, you've been in politics, out of politics a little bit, but still in politics for a very long time and very successful. >> 100 years. >> it's not that long. you know the politics of this. you mentioned entitlement reform. you mentioned medicare. these are things that democrats have fought tooth and nail and i would say after the 2004 election, with george w. bush and social security, have fought successfully. how, if you're mitt romney or a supporter of mitt romney, do you sell entitlement reform to a country that has been so far at least resistant to it? >> the most important message we can give is to the young people of america, that if we let the obama strategy of letting these things blow up, if we let the democratic strategy of ignoring responsibility, the younger people in america are the ones

that are going to get nailed. if there is no social security program, that is worse than having one that is fixed, that is adjusted and that is made whole so that when it comes their turn to start receiving some of these benefit, the program is still there. there is no group in america that has had it tucked to it more than the young people of america by obama. he laid it into them with obama-care. forcing them to buy health insurance. and ponying up $2,000 to $3,000 under the mandated program. ignoring social security is sticking it to them in their older age. and the deficits that he has built up, the multi-trillion dollar deficits is adding a huge tax load to them for the rest of their life. >> governor john sununu, godfather of politics, that's an indisputable title. thank you for joining us. >> thank you. president obama wrapped up

the g-20 summit today calling on europe to rally behind a new plan to stem the debt crisis. the president says the region has to stand together if it's going to prevent the problems from spreading. >> they're going to have a strong partner in us, but european leaders understand that ultimately what the markets are looking for is a strong signal from europe that they're standing behind the euro. >> chuck todd is nbc chief white house correspondent, political director and host of "the daily rundown." he's also live in what looks like a rainy cannes, france. i know it's getting late in europe. let's talk about what the plan is and where does the u.s. fit into it? >> reporter: well, here's the way the u.s. fit into it. is for the last two days the president has been making the argument behind the scenes europe cannot rely and be asking for actual money from the imf, the international monetary fund, of which the united states is a big donor and perhaps there was some talk with russia, would a

brazil, would some emerging economies, non-european economic powers throw in more money in the imf and have that be used for the quote/unquote european firewall. their version of t.a.r.p., which is the part of this bigger bailout fund not only to help greece but eventually help italy if it needs it, a spain, portugal, ireland, the weaker countries that have these high debt ratios. and essentially the united states argument won out. what you see in this, what you heard from the president, which was the message was to this to sarkozy and merkel in particular, european, if you want to have the world markets have confidence in the euro and european debt overtime, you have to send the message that european money, european countries will bail out countries inside the euro zone, that you're not asking for help on the outside. and that argument reluctantly i think for some european countries won the day. so on that front, chris, i think the white house believes that this was in their minds a successful leadership moment for

the president. >> and chuck, you already know, i think you're the hardest working man in the news business, but you managed to wedge in during the g-20 an interview with bill gates, billionaire, philanthropist. you asked him about politics, presidential politics. he was very evasive. fair description? >> reporter: i think it was. i mean, i think you have a guy here who has a couple of focuses that he wants to throw his money at. worldwide development for poorer countries and massive education reform in the united states. and he wants bipartisan buy-in. he did seem in one part of our conversation a little concerned by the foreign aid conversation that took place at the last debate and, in fact, made a comment to me, i'm looking forward to that next foreign policy debate because i'm curious, i want to hear more details about, for instance, what a mitt romney, specifically, we had talked about that comment that mitt romney made that why do you want to borrow money from china for

foreign aid when he was walking that line at the last debate when there was a foreign aid question? he said, i'll be curious to hear more about that. he seemed to be a little upset that there might be some possibility that foreign aid would get cut back in a republican administration. he seems to want to keep friends on both sides. he was very cautious. >> very cautious is the right word. chuck todd. thanks for joining us. see you back here next week. >> you got it, buddy. >> we're joined for more on the greek controversy. thank you for joining us. let's get right to it. we got a vote of no confidence or a vote of confidence tonight in greece. what happens if that vote loses, if it fails? >> if that vote fails, there's going to be a coalition government in greece. it's not clear that that's necessarily the worst outcome. a coalition government would have a little bit more authority to continue to push for the bailout measures that greece

tentatively agreed to and the rest of europe is really hoping they stick to, that is, you know, agreements about how to cut deficits and reform their public sector and things like that. because the present prime minister caused a lot of stir when he called for what would essentially be a public vote on whether or not greece should stay as part of the euro zone. and so, you know, papandrao backed off of that. our reporters in europe right now are suggesting it looks like he's going to potentially survive that confidence vote. he's got some agreements from some of the opposition parties and so it looks like the greek government will continue to go on as it is. a lot of the measures are deeply unpopular, as they would be in any country looking at massive changes to the way it does business. it seems like there's an approach to a little bit more stability in greece at the moment. >> and, you know, we've heard the phrase has become part of the colloquialism, too big to fail, here in the united states

as it relates to bailouts. is greece too big to fail? is there a limit to the amount of money the eu or international monetary fund is willing to give them? do we know? >> concern has always been not so much if greece failed. there is what most people suggest is enough money kind of within the european firewall, their own t.a.r.p., the bailout funds they've put together, to bail out greece. the question is, of course, whether or not a greek failure would spill over to larger economies like italy and spain. that's the real question. is there enough money for those countries? one of the big debates around greece's failure is whether or not private investors in its debt, that is mostly european banks, would have to take huge write-downs and haircuts on the values of their greek debt. they've been negotiating furiously not to do that. people don't know what would happen if suddenly european banks announced they had less capital on their books than before. so i think it's really, it's less about greece, itself, and more about the spillover effects to larger economies and the banking system. >> telis demos of the "financial

times." thanks for sharing your wisdom on greece. much appreciate it. up next, former homeland security secretary tom ridge. his fight on behalf of iranian exiles now living in iraq. plus, why he endorsed jon huntsman for president. a wounded elephant is back on his feet with the help of a new artificial leg. this is an amazing story. the five-year-old elephant was found injured and wandering the jungles of cambodia when wildlife experts nursed him back to health. in other animal kingdom news of the day, a whale of a tale for surfers in california. they got the surprise of their life when two humpback whales the size of a school bus burst out of the water just feet from their board. i can tell you, if that was me, i would not have reacted so calmly. hertz gold plus rewards. you earn free days, free weeks and more fast. that's a plus. upgrade your ride. that's a plus.

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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 and our economy. hi, everyone, i'm tamron hall. coming up on "news nation" at 2:00 p.m. eastern time, we're

following two big developing stories. verdict watch in the trial of michael jackson's doctor. the jury could be back with a verdict by the end of the day. plus, what la toya jackson tweeted this morning. also new details in the herman cain controversy. an attorney for one of the who accused cain of sexual harassment said he will have something to say this afternoon. plus, one of the largest and most prominent conservative political groups filed a legal complaint that cain's campaign used corporate funds illegally. that was all breaking this morning. we'll have the latest on that coming up at 2:00 p.m. a global organization has sent inspectors to libya to help the new leaders verify and destroy possible chemical weapons including a stock pile of mustard gas. moammar gadhafi pledged to destroy his chemical weapons in 2004 but apparently hid some from international authorities. inspectors say none of gadhafi's known stock piles were looted during the revolution. at the g-20 summit,

president obama and vice president sarkozy, the two men said it proves the strength of the bond between the u.s. and france. the u.n.'s top envoy to iraq is trying to broker an end to the standoff between the iraqi government and a group of several thousand iranian exiles who have been living in a camp in eastern iraq. the exiles are part of a group that is on the u.s. terror list, despite the fact that they oppose the government in tehran. former pennsylvania governor tom ridge served as homeland security secretary and is among those calls for the administration to protect the exiles and remove the group from the u.s. terror list. governor, thanks for joining us. tell us what's going on here and why you decided to get involved in this. >> well, it's not just my engagement, chris, there's an extraordinary group of bipartisan or even apolitical leaders, military leaders, diplomats, the united states overseas, the united kingdom,

the european union, even a district court in washington said that this group that was put on the foreign terrorist organization watch list in 1997 doesn't deserve to be there. and their life is complicated because the maliki government in '09 and april 11th went into the city, they built over 20 or 30 years and killed 36 of them, wounded several hundred. he's also said they're going to close the camp december 31st when american troops are withdrawn and ironically with the american troops they promise to protect them in 2002 and 2004, when they surrendered their weapons to us so they could protect themselves. we'd like to see president obama convince the maliki government to extend the time they can live in the camp. we want the united nations high commissioner for refugees to get in there to determine their asylum status. they've been granted that by the u.n. frankly, as long as the united states keeps them on the foreign terrorist organization watch list, the prospects for them being resettled are slim to

none. i talked to the u.n. acr representative yesterday. he's very frustrated with the mal maliki government and does appointed in the united states. >> i want to switch from foreign policy to a little bit of politics. you've endorsed jon huntsman, former utah governor in the presidential race. he continues to lag behind certainly in national polls. he shows a little bit of movement in new hampshire. do you still think he can win and more importantly, how? >> well, when he wins new hampshire, it's a game changer. let me tell you why. i've heard a lot of people talking about 9-9- a9 and other candidates. jon huntsman is the candidate who said, if you want to create a regulatory climate, tax climate to create jobs huntsman is man. somebody said to me the other day, jon huntsman has done everything else the other candidates have done and he's done it better. i said he's done more because

he's internationalist and understands the challenges with india, china and that part of the world. he's good at retail politics. we're going to do very well in new hampshire. that's a game changer. i keep telling my friends, you'll be calling me for inaugural tickets. we're going to climb is relentlf the matter is when people take the time to get away from the silly issues we are debating whether illegals cut your lawn or leak the campaign about another campaign and focus on experience, they focus on vision and focus on judgment and they focus on leadership, a man who rated jobs in utah number one, best managed state, ustr and been involved diplomatically and both the perils and opportunities working in that part of the world, huntsman will be the president. >> tom ridge, thanks for taking the time. >> thank you. >> who had the worst week in washington? this is not a tough one, but we will review it next on "andrea

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. it just so happen that is our next 24 topic coincides with the person ho had the worst week in washington. jonathan cape hart is my colleague and an msnbc contributor. i awarded herman cain the worst week in washington. i don't think there was much debate about it, but more news is coming out in the next 24 hours about cain, right? >> right. apparently the attorney for one of the women perhaps will make a statement on her behalf at some time this afternoon. who knows what else can come out, but as you wrote in the paper on sunday, herman cain had the worst week in washington. i can't think of anyone who had an even more terrible week than herman cain.

as you point out, inexplicably, he was all over the middle of this controversy and not tamping it down and not explaining it away, but making it worse each time he opened his mouth. also each time mark glock, his chief of staff opened his mouth as well. >> i always say, if you will be on a lot talking about a story, make sure the story doesn't change. very quickly, "the washington post" was poled this morning and suggests republicans are not paying that attention and don't care about it. is it that it's too early or are we misreading this? >> it could be too early and also could be that there a lot of people within the republican primary electorate who like him and don't think that these charges mean a heck of a lot and think this is a trumped upcharge on behalf of his enemies comes from the left. >> thank you and have a wonderful weekend. >> you too.

>> that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." tamron hall has a look at what's next. >> we are watching two developing stories. the jury in conrad murray's trial has been deliberating for a few mours and could come back with a verdict today. the jackson family has been told to be on stand by. what la toya jackson sweeted a short time ago. one of the woman who accused herman cain of sexual assault. he will have something to say early this afternoon. interesting remarks there. a florida highway patrol officer pulls over a miami police officer with her gun drawn. details on why this one is a "news nation" gut check. the postal service is critical to our economy--

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