at all. mccain's overall favorability rating has taken a hit. putting the former businessman in a more negative light today than back in october. msnbc contributor chris cillizza joins us with our daily fix. let's take a look at these numbers just out. what we see now is a majority of republican voters say that this should not concern them. does he get by? >> i think some of this -- and i'm working on a piece about this because i find it fascinating because i think, i will say ithought when we heard about this and the way herman cain handled it the last week, other women saying that -- alleging that he had harassed them it seemed to me this was headed in a pretty obvious direction if you look at the way history of these things have played out. i will say, though, his staying power among republicans. they did a poll found similar to the numbers in the nbc/"wall street journal" poll. lots of republicans say this is not a big deal. it's not a serious issue. i think some of that is because

right now we're still in kind of a he said/she said. you know, with cain trying to finesse it. let's see what else comes out, if anything else comes out. if it does, i think those numbers could go south on herman cain in a hurry. but it's a testament to him. and the support he has among his backers that they have not abandoned him after what can only be described as a really, really tough week for his campaign. >> and a testament to the fact that among his core supporters, there is so much hostility toward what they call the mainstream media and toward any accusations like this. and they've also managed to try to create the parallel with the clarence thomas case 20 years ago and clarence thomas is a hero among many of those people. >> they've tried to make it kind of a process story. that it's not about the allegations, which herman cain -- they've admitted that there were, at least we know in one situation, i think in several situations, there were financial settlements with these women. so the original political reporting is 100% accurate. but he's tried to make this more

about why were they looking into it? why are people interested in this? to which i would say, well, you know, the front-runner or close to the front-runner for the republican presidential nomination, scrutiny comes with the territory. they've effectively, at least among conservatives, that includes conservative radio, talk shows, they've turned it into about why are people doing this? not about the allegations themselves which i think is a more potentially politically damaging road for herman cain. now shifting to the overall matchup, the battleground map, what we see in the nbc matchup and you've done a lot of work on this as well is five states first of all that have shifted going more towards republicans since april. and we're talking about big important states. oregon, montana, michigan, pennsylvania, new hampshire. michigan and pennsylvania key states. >> yeah. i would circle both of those. neither michigan nor pennsylvania has been won by a

republican at the presidential level since george h.w. bush in 1988. that's five straight presidential elections where a democrat has won both of those states. they are losing population but still big electoral vote states. 35, 40 electoral votes between the two of them. president obama if he can hold together the 19 states, and michigan and pennsylvania are part of them. if he can told together the 19 states that both he and john kerry won, he is at 247 electoral votes. he only needs 270. but he has to hold those big states. i put wisconsin in there, too. another state, no republican has won since 1984. michigan, wisconsin, pennsylvania. that rust belt, the industrial midwest, hit hard by the struggles of the manufacturing sector. a lot of older white voters. places where this president has struggled from the beginning and is struggling even more now. so i think he has a slight advantage when you look at the electoral map, but it's slight. when you look at the national map, with the mood of the

electoral, we'll talk about that in a second. we'll take a look at those numbers right now. >> we see that, obviously, we need 270 to win. democrats, 196. republicans, 195. and the toss-ups, 147 nrd the key fact going is is that voters are more pessimistic than ever before. >> so you have -- you are exactly right. you have this interesting -- it's a conundrum. on one hand if you look just at the environment, the -- people right direction, wrong track number. how people feel about the country, how people feel president obama is doing -- his handling of the economy, you'd say this guy is not going to win. but then you look at those -- there are nine states that george w. bush won in 2004 and barack obama won in 2008. if he can win six of those. it's different combinations. he can lose six, win just three, virginia, new mexico and iowa and win the 19 states john kerry won, he's got a second term. so it depends how you want to see it.

whether you think he's the underdog or a slight favorite. it's going to be close either way. >> chris cillizza, thanks so much for our daily fix. that sets the stage for our next guest. president bill clinton has both advice and criticism for president obama. we can only imagine the way that's being received at 1600 pennsylvania avenue and at obama campaign headquarters in chicago. we're joined by a veteran of both the clinton and obama white houses. you are uniquely positioned. obviously an advocate for the democrats this year. but you see it from both perspectives. here bill clinton comes out. one thing i found surprising in looking through the president's new book, the former president's new book and some of the interviews he's done is they've never -- the clintons have never been invited by the obamas for dinner. just sort of obvious things you would think that the new white house would want to take some advice from the last democratic president. >> well, i mean, they've talked a lot. they, obviously, recently played

golf. >> one golf game, though. >> a good interaction between the two. and i think when you step back and look at this book, what it really emphasizes is that there's so much similarity between the fights that president clinton was having in the '90s and the fights president obama is having now and the similarities of their vision. it's a difference between cut and sclifle in the economy and invest and grow. and the similarities between their agendas and strategies are really what comes through in the book. >> it does come through, but you have got to know that what the obama team is going to focus on are all of the implicit criticisms. the fact he should have dealt with the debt ceiling when he had democratic majorities. that he should have been much more proactive on some of these things that then came back to bite him once they had laufost midterm elections. >> i think president obama said there have been a lot of rough patches. he's had issues with communicating his agenda. and so it makes sense for people and pundits to focus on those few sentences here and there.

but the broad swath of the book and the import of the book is to really talk about how we can move our economy forward by getting rid of this anti-government rhetoric that both president clinton faced and president obama is facing. >> that is in fact, the overriding mood of the public right now, outside of washington is this anti-washington, anti-government rhetoric. and it's rooted in what we first saw two years ago with the health care debate and the growth of the tea party. we've seen it now in the republican -- in all the republican debates. how does president obama persuade people that he's part of the solution? >> i think what we were also seeing in the country is a greater outcry about the inequality that's been created from occupy wall street and other conversations. and i think there's also a lot of anger at corporate structures and the rise of, you know -- or inability to actually deal with inequality in the country. so i think the president has an actual opportunity these days to say i have an agenda to actually

grow jobs that's actually rooted in the middle class, and i am being stifled by a house republican caucus that, you know, whoever the republican nominee is going to give a free hand to. so it's either moving forward or really stifling that progress. and creating greater inequality and ensuring that the haves have even more. and that's, i think, part of his message. >> your agenda as you take on this big new job here. are you satisfied that the president and his team have found their voice and that they are, you know, gearing up and dealing with the issues and with the mood of the country? >> i think over the last several months we've seen the president really fighting. he's putting forward an agenda that's in stark contrast. i think progressives are rallying around that big difference. this election will have the biggest choice between two competing visions. and i think the president has an advantage that he's actually talking about what will help the middle class grow in the next several years. >> and just briefly, do you find fault with bill clinton

suggesting that the president has been too tough on wall street? doesn't that -- isn't that dissident right now with the way -- with your personal views and the way people seem to feel? >> i think the greatest lesson from the '90ss is the president in '93 actually increased -- president clinton increased taxes on the highest income americans and the economy grew for eight years straight. so i think he actually had the evidence of his presidency is that you can have fair taxes and grow our economy. >> thank you so much. congratulations. >> thank you so much. great to be here. >> great to see you, neera. president bill clinton joining mika and joe tomorrow on "morning joe." and is the crisis averted for greece or just delayed? could italy be next? plus, can herman cain ignore the sexual harassment issue? msnbc is the place for politics. join us tomorrow for super tuesday. our big ramp-up to 2012 with all-day political coverage right

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greece continues to teeter on the edge of political and financial chaos, could italy be next? matthew bishop is the u.s. business editor for "the economist" and also author of the book "the road from ruin." mathu thank you for being with us. first of all, what is your -- your analysis of what's happening in greece and whether or not this reorganization of the government will in any way help and avert a more severe crisis. >> i've always taken the view that this crisis in europe is really a long-term political

dispute or political evolution coming to a head. and that last week we saw the rich countries in europe confront greece with the political implications of failing to make the restructurings necessary to get the bailout that had been promised. and basically, the greek politicians, when put on the spot, they blinked. their bluff was called by germany and france and they realized that they didn't want the consequences of pulling out of the euro and possibly being fundamentally ostracized within the european union. so we're now getting a greek government and the attention is turning towards italy. now my view is this is a long political process that is all about the creation of a sort of superstate in europe in which political power is really transferred away from countries towards the central bureaucracy and in brussels. you know, this is the latest stage. we're going to see a lot more political crises like we've seen

the last week or two before this process is over. but this is probably a sign of things moving forward, the fact that greece did actually decide to do whatever it had to do to stay in the eurozone. >> but the essential problem remains in that you have disparate economies between the so-called rich and the poor. disparate fiscal policies. and as long as the public in places like greece is not willing to take so-called austerity steps, you aren't going to get past the political problem so that they can ever really -- the eurozone can ever really make sense and be coordinated and have any kind of harmonization. >> you look at what happened last week in greece where the prime minister decided that for those reasons, because the public were so angry about the austerity measures, that he was going to put it to a referendum. and when the european union, other leaders said, look, fundamentally if you put it to a referendum, the people will vote it down and that will scutter

the whole eurozone rescue package, the greek political class collectively on both sides of the party divide realized they couldn't live with the consequences of that. and so what you had is a change of government and the referendum being abandoned. and so fundamentally, the leadership in europe is willing to ignore the public's protest in order to keep the whole thing on the road. and last week, i think, was as close as it could come to a country cowtowing to its population and not going ahead with the reforms needed. >> given the size of italy's economy, isn't that a much bigger problem down the road? >> what we've seen in greece was always going to be manageable because it's the equivalent of north dakota getting into difficulties whereas italy is a huge economy within europe. much more like if california or new york or florida would be getting into difficulties with the united states. it's a much bigger deal to bail out that economy. now i think again, what we will

see is a change of government in italy and maybe at last mr. b l berlusconi's career coming to an end and hopefully the reforms coming through. but i think every step of the way it's going to feel like a crisis. there's going to be some political brinksmanship and then i suspect that ultimately we will see another deal done, maybe a change of government and then another step forward. and it's going to take years before this is finally put to bed. >> matthew bishop from "the economist," thank you very much. and when europe is in trouble, of course, there's a lot of fallout here for the u.s. cnbc's michelle ka ruse caruso joins us. you've been over there and reporting on all of this. they are a huge market for us. not only exposure to our financial system, our banks have some exposure, but it's also, obviously, that that's our market for our exports, which is what's propping up our economy right now. >> yeah, absolutely. you hit on a key metric there. when you put all the european

economies together, they are second to canada in terms of being our trading partner. last year we sold them $240 billion worth of exports. nearly 20%. so if they have some kind of crisis that's induced by a disorderly default in greece or if italy goes over the brink, they go deep into a recession, they are going to buy less of our products. that means less profitability for american corporations. that means lower job growth and fewer jobs here in the news. it has a ripple effect. >> are we going to see other instances such as mf global, you know, people who made really bad bets on the sovereign debt in europe? is that going to become exposed or is this just a case of one off. >> that is the big mystery. we don't know. here's the really incredible part. those bets made by jon corzine on europe, they aren't bad yet. they are 100% good. it's just that the market started to get so worried that in the future, they wouldn't be good.

but every single one of those bonds that he was betting on are still paying off. it's just the market didn't like those positions, and they punished that firm. >> and the other question, really, is what the impact is on our economy, you know, our own markets, the possibility of our very fragile economy slipping back again because of what could happen down the road in europe. >> yeah, absolutely. if they go into recession in europe and a lot of people think actually they already are, it makes it that much harder for us to improve what is a tepid economy because we need growth all over the world. it helps lift all boats. so to speak. so, yeah, when they suffer, it has a ripple effect here whether you feel it directly or if it's some secondary or third consequence. >> it was really striking at the g-20 in cannes. president obama seemed to be a bystander. not because of who he is but just because the u.s. really doesn't have a role in this. >> right. i mean, we could give them money, i suppose, but that would be about it.

they have got to solve their problems. many of those countries have made far greater promises to their retirees than tay could ever pay for. you could forgive greece 100% of their debts and still the people would have to suffer through painful austerity measures because to this day, the greek government still borrows more money every single day more than it takes in in terms of tax revenues. so they must borrow. but no one will lend to them anymore because the markets have figured out their economy is so dysfunctional, they'll never pay it back. so the austerity measures are about more than raising taxes or cutting spending. they are about changing that economy so that it actually functions. it's about teaching them to fish rather than giving them fish. if we didn't want them to suffer any pain, we could donate a billion dollars a week to them for the rest of our lives. that would be it. >> not going to happen. not any time soon. michelle caruso-cabrera, thanks very much, from cnbc. coming up on wednesday, cnbc's john harwood and maria

bartiromo moderate a republican presidential debate folk aungs the economy. that's wednesday at 8:00 eastern, live from oakland university in rochester, michigan. and we will be there. developing new, investigators in pennsylvania are encouraging anyone who was sexually assaulted by former penn state defensive coordinator jerry sandusky to come forward and talk to police. two top penn state administrators, timothy curley and gary schultz will be in court in about an hour facing charges that they tried to cover up the sex abuse scandal. sandusky is accused of sexually abusing eight boys during a 15-year period. he allegedly met his victims through a charity that he founded for at-risk youths. headquartered right there at penn state. male announcer ] who'd have thought that the person you'd grow up to be -- how creative or confident or kind -- was shaped before you lost your first tooth? ♪ the first five years are forever. ♪

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one of the women who filed a sexual harassment complaint against -- >> don't even go there. >> can i ask my question? >> no, where's my chief of staff? >> i'm right here. >> please send him the journalistic code of ethics. >> jonathan martin is a senior political reporter for politico and broke the original story. i assume you've read the journalistic code of ethics, whatever that is. >> i've got my copy well thumbed, andrea. >> jonathan, really, we're seeing in our polling, as you know now, that 54% of republican voters do not -- are not troubled by this. >> right. >> that said, is this going away? can he just tough it out? >> those numbers don't really surprise me. this story is still being reported and new facts are still emerging. we'll have a woman here in a few minutes apparently in new york city who is going to raise some fresh concerns about mr. cain and his behavior.

so i think those numbers are fairly predict acable. those numbers are based upon the story so far, and not necessarily what the ultimate story is going to be. >> and hailey barbour who is not only the mississippi governor but one of the most experienced political republicans around, former head of the republican governors association, i first met him as a republican -- as a political operative in the reagan white house. this was his advice for herman cain on "meet the press." >> it's not like fine wine. it doesn't improve with age. he needs to get back on message. the way to do that is get all the facts on the table and get it behind him. >> which is exactly the opposite of what herman cain is doing by trying brush it aside and kind of steamroll over reporters asking questions, including yourself. >> right. and that's the advice from governor barbour and from really every professional operative to

mr. cain, which is be transparent. just say what happened. get this out there. the idea that mr. cain can decide to say, end of story, i'm not talking about this anymore and that subsequently the news media is going to stop reporting about mr. cain is, obviously, an uncertain proposition, shall we say. >> and cain is going to appear on jimmy kimmel tonight? presumably something will come up in that venue. he's also going to be on the platform at the debate on wednesday. it's an economic debate, but this is certainly an issue. i'm not sure that all of his competitors are going to back off as well. they are not all as cordial about all of this. >> i've been thinking about that. they've been quiet so far because, obviously, they don't want to anger mr. cain's supporters. he has a solid core of supporters. but at the same time if his numbers -- cain's numbers don't

start slipping, i think you're going to see the likes of a santorum or a bachmann start to move a little closer on this issue. you've already seen bachmann say there's no surprises in my background. and i think that kind of language is the start of what could be a more aggressive posture when it comes to this story and mr. cain from his rivals. >> jonathan, thank you very much. jonathan martin from politico. msnbc is the place for politics. mitt romney is now on the campaign trail this hour in iowa. speaking with workers at a sheet metal manufacturing plant in dubuque. we'll get more on romney's strategy in iowa next right here on "andrea mitchell reports." free gold ! we call that hertz gold plus rewards. you earn free days, free weeks and more fast. that's a plus. upgrade your ride. that's a plus. rewards with no blackout dates so you can redeem anytime. and it's easy to redeem your points online. already a gold member ? just select gold plus rewards in your profile

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company's slow response. in los angeles, jurors in the involuntary manslaughter trial of michael jackson's doctor are in their second day of deliberations. they return from a weekend off. they'll be deciding if conrad murray was negligent and responsible for giving the pop star a fatal dose of propofol. a u.s. district court judge is blacking a federal requirement that would force poto bako companies to put graphic warnings on packs of cigarettes. the labels were supposed to show graphic images of dead babies and diseased lungs but cigarettemakers have filed a lawsuit claiming a violation of their free speech. and the herman cain controversy has brought national attention back to an issue that first galvanized the nation 20 years ago with the clarence thomas/anita hill hearings. you have been with the eeoc for 30 years. what is the most significant change we've seen in this workplace conflict and in the

number of complaints being filed by men and women over these years? >> probably the most significant change is that everything has gotten a little bit more subtle. harassment in -- although we still see very egregious cases, we also see more subtle kinds of harassment, and i think the same is across the board when we talk about race discrimination or all kinds of discrimination where we are the enforcers. >> now when we talk about people filing complaints, does it have to be a hostile workplace? is that the sort of legal standard of what constitutes sexual harassment in the workplace? >> there 24 kind are two kinds. one used to be called quid pro quo. and that is if you want to get promoted you have to sleep with me. so it's very clear. and the other kind, which is much more common is hostile environment. and for a hostile environment,

it's got to be sexual. it's got to be -- the conduct has to be sexual. >> it can be verbal. >> it can be verbal. it can be -- >> suggestive? >> suggestive. it can be graffiti. there are all kinds of things that can constitute sexual conduct. it has to be unwelcome, and then it has to be either severe or pervasive. so it's death by a thousand stabs or something really egregious case of -- >> in your data, i noticed that more men are filing complaints. what is leading to that, and are these men filing complaints about women who are harassing them? women bosses? or is it in some cases men feeling, you know, harassed by men? >> both. and we don't -- we can't break them down. we only have the sex of the

claimant. so some of them will be same-sex harassment. some will be men harassing -- women harassing men. why do we have more? i think because we art the same stage with males as we were with females 20 years ago. people just don't understand it. there's not as much education out there about it. >> do you find that fewer people file complaints at a period of high unemployment and recession where people are afraid to lose their jobs? does that constrain people from complaining about this behavior, even though it is still illegal? >> it may. it may. we don't know for sure. sexual harassment claims have been going down. it could be because especially larger companies get it now. >> are doing a better job of training people. >> but it also could be because people are fearful and they are just not reporting it. >> and in general, the bottom line, since those hearings that did galvanize the nation, i was covering them 20 years ago, do you think that the workplace is

a safer and better and less offensive place for men and women? >> safer, but we have a long way to go. >> so nice to meet you. thank you very much. >> thank you. and mitt romney is in iowa today, which is unusual. it's only his fourth visit to the first caucus state this year. his money, however, has never left. for years, the presidential candidate has been offering big dollars and personal support to republican candidates nationwide hoping that they will return the favor, of course. nicholas writes about it all for "the new york times." nicholas, thanks for joining us. what do you see the pattern that you see in the way romney is preparing his national campaign? >> well, you find that in many of these key states like iowa, south carolina and new hampshire, romney has, for years, been spending time headlining fund-raisers, raising money and contributing money through a network of state pacs that he established that are kind of affiliated with him and

raised money from his donors and give money to other candidates. so dozens and dozens, in fact, 300 or more candidates for every kind of office you can imagine, the local level, including whole slates of challengers for the assembly in a given state or state senate have all gotten some help from mitt romney. >> snow thnow is that the equiv of -- decades ago we saw after richard nixon lost the race in 1960, he spent years cultivating local republicans and really preparing the way for his return in 1968. has romney been doing the equivalent of that with his money, his pacs since he lost three years ago? >> we often joke he spent the last four years running for president but in fact, he's also spent the last four years helping other people run for things. and it does matter in the long term. it builds a kind of favor bank and shows people on the ground, people who we call surrogates or validators for a campaign potential endorsements, people who are involved in primaries

and caucuses, it shows he's there, put something skin to the game. he's not just popping in in the year before an election year. >> what is your reporting telling you about whether mitt romney will make a play for iowa? because, you know, he's hedging his bets there. obviously, he got burned last time. doesn't really want to go in if it's going to be embarrassing again. but it could be a knockout punch if he did well in iowa, given his lead in new hampshire. we he could roll up his victories in the first two races. >> i think they have been trying to avoid the mistake of 2008 when he invested a huge amount of time and effort there and did not win. what he's done this time is keep a skeleton crew in the state and he's also been very active in local politics. as we discussed in helping raise money and giving noun local candidates for office, creating kind of good will, having some boots on the ground in the off years. so now, if the opportunity presents itself where a number of more socially conservative candidates, let's say, michele bachmann, herman cain or rick

perry are all splitting one part of the vote, that kind of gives a chance for a guy like mitt romney to come in and beat expectations and do a lot better and perhaps even win if the timing is right. >> do you thing sort of strange nature of this race with one candidate coming up and then the next coming in and we've seen the perry bubble and the herman cain bubble, if it's a bubble if it's going to burst. do you think that's all a reflection, really, on the fact that conservative republicans just can't seem to buy into mitt romney? >> absolutely. here is a guy who everyone seems to agree is the most electable. even people who don't want to vote for him in the primary. you can see that in the polls. he kind of seems to have a ceiling in the national polls of somewhere around one-third of the primary vote. he does lead in some states at different times. but you don't get the sense there are a lot of primary voters who are in love with him, who have the enthusiasm for him that they've had for michele bachmann at different times, for

herman cain even now and for rick perry during his high point. i'm expecting a boomlet for newt gingrich next and possibly santorum as well. it seems like every candidate has their day. >> and in new hampshire, is jon huntsman at all viable as a real challenger to mitt romney? >> well, you know, it's just hard to see any evidence yet that he is making a really strong play in new hampshire. he is trying to make a strong play. he's putting all his marbles there. you see him creeping up in some of the polls. but it's really hard especially against someone like mitt romney who has invested so much time and money and effort in that state. people up there joke he could be the third senator from new hampshire. he's well known. he's well liked. he's put a ton of time and money in there. so i think, really, at this point, given what we're seeing for jon huntsman it would have to be a gamble that he makes and a gamble that he wins. >> nick, thank you very much for joining us with your reporting on the romney campaign. up next, is iran on the verge of a nuclear breakout?

y? the atlantic's jeffrey goldberg next. [ male announcer ] tom's discovering that living healthy can be fun. see? he's taking his vitamins. new one a day vitacraves plus omega-3 dha is a complete multivitamin for adults. plus an excellent source of omega-3 dha in a great tasting gummy. one a day, gummies for grown-ups. how about making it brighter. more colorful. ♪ and putting all our helpers to work? so we can build on our favorite traditions by adding a few new ones. we've all got garlands and budgets to stretch. and this year, we can keep them both evergreen. more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot. here's a bright idea. trade in any light string and get up to 5 bucks off the latest christmas led's.

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hi, everyone. i'm tamron hall. coming up on "news nation" at 2:00 p.m., is herman cain the teflon candidate? the results from a new nbc news poll shows a majority of republicans are not concerned with the sexual harassment accusations against him. meanwhile, in the last hour, a fourth woman has accused cain of sexually harassing her. why some political insiders say cain is able to hang on. they say it's because the conservatives don't want romney. then developing news in the penn state child sex abuse scandal. in the next hour, two high-ranking officials will be arraigned on charges they lied to a grand jury investigating former coach jerry sandusky for sexually abusing children. "news nation" has the very

latest coming up. and the u.n.'s weapons inspection agency is about to report that iran has mastered the critical steps needed to brick out and build a nuclear weapon with the previously unreported help of a russian scientist. this comes on the heels of new reporting about nuclear fears in pakistan. the joint investigation by the atlantic and national journal is featured on both covers. jeffrey goldberg co-wrote it. he's the national correspondent for "the atlantic" and joins me now. first to iran. there have been a lot of suspicions for quite some time. the u.s. is trying to hang back and let the u.n. take the lead here because the u.n. agency has more credibility on this. iran is on the verge, according to the intelligence gathered by the united nations, on the verge of breaking out in key ways. >> the obama administration has long believed iran has a secret nuclear weapon. so this is not surprising to people who follow this. what is surprising is how close they seem to be. the israelis have argued to the

americans the iranians are closer that people believe. the iaea report from what we hear is going to buttress that argument and basically signal to the west that if you want to stop them somehow, you don't have much time to stop them anymore. >> the israelis have been saying this for quite some time. the u.s. had a number of intelligence reports suggesting the israelis were just too alarm bit of it, frankly, and that iran had, in fact, at one point stopped trying to develop weapons. now it seemed as though that reporting may have been incorrect and iran had the help from a former russian scientist as well. perhaps unwitting. perhaps. >> that's in the category of, i don't know if you call it shock bug not surprising. i mean, there are a lot of people out there especially in the post-soviet union era who have a lot of expertise in this and have that expertise for sale. what's so interesting about this moment is that the iaea, which, of course, is not necessarily interested in seeing war take place between israel and iran or iran and the united states, they are providing, basically, the

evidence or the support for israeli hard-liners to say, see, we told you so. >> right. >> and, therefore, somebody has to take action. if you don't, we're going to take action. >> and the u.s., of course, their stated point is that this can be done with tougher sanctions that russia and china have always blocked in terms of really tough sanctions. >> hasn't worked so far. >> hasn't worked so far. the u.s. and israel, widely suspected of having slowed down iran's program for a couple of years with cyberwarfare and also possibly the assassination of iranian nuclear scientist. >> iranian scientists. there are a lot of subter fuj programs going on. a lot of sabotage. >> is this likely to take action now? >> i've always thought israel was somewhat likely to take action. it waxes and wanes. >> but it may not work. it's underground. it's under a mountain. >> it may not work. one of the many reason yes israel should think very carefully about doing it. obviously, the united states has much greater capability of taking out these nuclear sites than israel.

the u.s. is much more hesitant to do that. however, i do want to remind you that the president has said repeatedly and publicly that a nuclear iran is unacceptable to him and he's left the military option on the table. and i, for one, take him at his word that all options are on the table. >> now, sorry, but moving on to pakistan. >> let's move on to the next. >> pakistan which is your cover story, and we, for years, we were told that we had control. we knew it was triple keyed. we knew exactly where their nuclear weapons were. now they are moving at a very rapid pace, according to bruce ridell and other reporting in his new book, and your reporting is that they are on the loose. >> well, this is what happened after the abbatabad raid, the pakistanis realized the americans have greater capabilities to penetrate our country, take action against whatever they want to take action and then leave without us even knowing. so you would think that the pakistanis would be most

concerned about a jihadist attempt, al qaeda or taliban attempt to take nuclear weapons away. but actually, the pakistanis are almost, or more worried, i'm afraid, that the americans are going to come and take their nuclear weapons away. and what the united states government wants, i think is not to take the weapons away. they want to know that pakistan and the pakistani military has certain control over their nuclear weapons and our reporting showed that the pakistanis do some -- what from our perspective seemed like dangerous things. like playing a shell game and moving their nukes around own open roads. of course if you were going to pick a place in the world where you would put 100 nuclear weapons it wouldn't be the country that's the global center of jihadism. and so this is a challenge -- a long-term challenge for the united states. >> it's great reporting. and, i mean, the idea of nuclear weapons just rolling around on the roads in pakistan is scary to say the least. jeffrey goldberg, thank you, my friend. >> thank you.

what political story will be making headlines in the next 24 hours? that's next right here. and be sure to follow the show online at andrea.msnbc.com and on twitter with #mitchell reports. i'd like one of those desserts and some coffee. sure. cake or pie? pie. apple or cherry? cherry. oil or cream? oil or cream? cream. reddi-wip uses real dairy cream. nothing's more real than reddi-wip.

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>> which political story will make headlines in the next 24 hours. managing editor of post politics.com. we are talking super tuesday and talking about the nbc news poll that will be released in depth as well as the fact that we have ballot issues in ohio and mississippi. the personhood. mississippi antiabortion issue. >> andrea, an actual election and a lot of places around the country, the governor's races in kentucky and mississippi. in mississippi, there is a personhood amendment that declared that a fertilized egg is a person.

obviously huge implications as it relates to the abortion fight nationwide. >> also in vitro. it goes well beyond what is traditionally defined as the abortion fight. >> haley barber has been on the show and this is something who is a conservative republican. he is supporting this amendment, but are you lukt antly. some are concerned about unintended consequences or consequences that could come from something like this. similar measures have been put on the ballot in the past and they have failed getting about 30% of support. we don't know where this is headed. there hasn't been enough polling to indicate. definitely keep an eye on mississippi. what happens in these off year elections tells us something about the electorate when voters vote. it's our best chance to figure out what they are thinking and why and what it tells us for

2012. >> a being issue for women and women voters are a key to the election next year. thank you very much. we will have haley barber on the show tomorrow. that does it for this edition. our super tuesday lineup is haley barber, susan page and time magazine's mark hal person. follow us online and on twitter. tamron hall has a look at what's next. >> in our next hour, a fourth woman has come forward accusing herman cain of sexually a raszing her. the results of the poll that shows a majority of republicans are not concerned with the allegations against cain. our "news nation" panel will weigh in on why cain is able to hang on with conservatives. >> developing news that is rocking state. two administrators are being arraigned as the da gives new

details about the case against former coach jerry sandusky. arnie duncan has comments regardings what happened at penn state. "news nation" is minutes away. ♪ state. "news nation" is minutes away. o. strengthen teeth... freshen breath... help prevent cavities... and kill bad breath germs for a whole mouth clean. so go beyond the brush with listerine® total care, the most complete mouthwash. now get all the benefits... without the alcohol. new listerine® total care zero. to make baby food the way moms wthis would.alcohol. happybaby strives to make the best organic baby food. in a business like ours, personal connections are so important. we use our american express open gold card to further those connections. last year we took dozens of trips using membership rewards points to meet with farmers that grow our sweet potatoes

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>>. >> breaking news on "news nation." is it more trouble for herman cain the attorney to be sexually harassed to file a lawsuit? gloria allred are front and center right now. new developments in the scandal rocking penn state. two high-ranking officials the be arraigned in court and accused of lying to a grand jury and investigating coordinator jerry sandusky for molesting young boys. #