pepper spray outcry. an investigation into the shocking video. police at one college trying to break up an occupy protest. a forum for gop candidates turns into a tearjerker. some contenders deliver emotional life stories. plus there's a new poll. not so super. the committee charged with cutting the deficit appears to be headed for failure. we're going to talk with one congressman who thinks that might be a good idea. plus, the changing retail landscape and black friday. one article out this morning suggests it will alter how we celebrate and view thanksgiving. good morning everyone.

welcome to "weekends with alex witt." new this morning, an inquiry under way in california after police are caught on video pepper spraying a row of sitting occupy protesters. her it is. the video that prompted the call for inquiry. a police officer there on the campus of uc davis pepper spraying people on the campus on the ground. >> we have the latest in los angeles. good morning to you. >> good morning, alex. whatever your politics may be about the movement, you watch this video and you can't help but be disturbed by it. it's certainly generating a lot of reaction on-line and across the world. more importantly, it's raising questions about how police are dealing with these encampments. >> the viral video provoked outrage. uc davis police pepper spraying a row of students seen here with

their arms locked and peacefully seated along a sidewalk, part of the occupy protests. >> we have a right to be here. this was a peaceful protest. >> now that the davis faculty association is calling on uc chancellor to resign for authorizing police actions against the student-led sit-in. >> i do understand the unfortunate and very bad really situation that was created for the students. >> the protesters pushing police back. the police chief said protesters were "cutting the officers off from their support. it's a very volatile situation." that incident capped off a week of police crackdowns, including this one of an 84-year-old woman seen here in this photo on seattle p.i..com. these latest crackdowns may be signaling how authorities deal with nationwide occupy protest encampments. but it may just be the students

who, by refusing to move, are bringing new life to the movement two months later. >> even the chancellor who is under pressure to resign described the video as chilling. she's ordered an inquiry into the incident and the police reiterated that the only reason why they did use the pepper spray was because they were surrounded by students in what could have been a very volatile situation. alex? >> do you have any heads up on what the protesters are planning next? >> according to on-line and others, they've been galvanized by this. they're calling for continued protests throughout the course of the week expecting on monday to be another big day on the campus of uc davis and other campuses across the country. >> okay. thank you so much from los angeles. so will the pepper spray incident give strength to the occupy movement? you can talk to me on twitter. my handle is@alex witt. i'll read tweets throughout the morning. politics took the spotlight

last night. all but mitt romney and jon huntsman attended the forum in des moines. they gave passionate pleas opposing gay marriage and a dorgs as well as sharing personal history. herman cain got choked up about his cancer diagnosis in the past and got a comforting hand from rick perry. >> i said i can do this. she said, we. [ applause ] >> i will fight to make -- >> rick son tore um fought become tears when talking about the disability his daughter was born with and he too got a consoling pat from rick perry. newt gingrich got huge applause when he went after the occupy wall street movement. >> all the occupy movements start with the premise that we all owe them everything. that is a pretty good symptom of how much the left has collapsed

as a moral system in this country and why you need to reassert something as simple as saying to them, go get a job right after you take a bath. >> mitt romney absence was dual noted. he was mentioned by name during a discussion on a healthcare mandate. >> you heard that -- mitt who in. >> he was busy in new hampshire holding a town hall. there is a senator that will endorse romney today. she's the first senator from any of the early states to back a republican candidate. jon huntsman continued his all in for new hampshire campaign and made a surprise appearance on saturday night live and gave repeated nods to the first in the nation primary voters. >> america, from dallas, texas, to manchester, new hampshire, from the majestic rocky

mountains to the new hampshire's lake win pa saki. >> i can't tell you that we do not fall for easy compliments. >> that's because you're wise like a dartmouth professor. >> wow. anyway, we'll have more on that later in this hour. the super committee members have had months now to work out differences over how to tackle the deficit. the options? raise revenues, cut spending or both. well, this morning both sides appeared just as far apart on those basic issues as ever and with no deal in sight, members of that committee are resorting to pointing fingers. >> we're not going to tax our way out of this. we need to grow. you can't grow if you raise taxes in the middle of the recession. when our democratic friends are unable to cut even a dollar in spending without saying it has to be accompanied by tax increase,s, that tells you all you need to know about runaway spending. >> i've heard this from

republicans in the senate and the house, who say the calculation has been made by many, they think they'll win the senate, the presidency and they want to wait until next year and write their own deal. the second and most significant block to our doing something right now, tomorrow, is their insistence, insistence on the grover norquist pledge and extending the bush tax cuts. i'm joined by political columnist for the washington post. fun times, right? >> great stuff. >> your paper, dana, has a headline that reads the super committee is poised to admit defeat as soon as monday. >> if the washington post says so, you can take it to the bank. barring some sort of miracle. it sounds like it was over before it really started. it was a nice idea in theory. republicans never budged from refusing to increase taxes and democrats never budged from

refusing to cut entitlement programs unless the republicans budged on taxes. so they were just talking past each other the whole time. it was perhaps the last best hope to get some sort of deal for the budget. but it just wasn't going to happen. >> in adding to your sentiments here, these triggers don't kick in until 2013. it gives congress a year to repeal the triggers or pass something else. was this from the beginning an artificial deadline? was this super committee a charade? >> it's artificial in the sense that people created it. we weren't up against any cataclysmic thing that will happen. eventually, there will be a problem. nobody knows when that will come. what's better, i think, in some of the super committee members were feeling this, it's bad enough if they fail to come up with a deal. what would be worse is if they came up with a deal and it was voted down by one or both chambers of congress. that would be a bigger disaster. they do have time to still work out plenty of solutions here. the problem is, since -- the

other commissions didn't work, now the super committee didn't work. everybody knows what has to happen here. the problem is there's not enough will on capitol hill to make it happen. >> see what the democratic co-chair had to say this morning. here it is. >> i'm going to be waiting all day, i'll be at the table as i have been, willing to talk to any republican who says, look, my country is more important. it's that pile of bills is not going to go away. the challenges that we have is not going to disappear. we need to cross that divide. i'm ready. i'm waiting. >> if the committee comes up with nothing, who do you think bears most of the blame, dana? >> patty murray, i picture her in the empty committee room and ordering a pizza or something like that. the public is going to blame everybody, alex. congress has 9% support from the american people. those 9% clearly aren't paying attention to what's going on.

this will presumably diminish that further. they want to fight it out in the election. each side figures it will have some advantage. you know what, neither side will have enough advantage to fundamentally change the dynamics. even after the election, they'll have to strike a deal just a matter of when they get people do it. >> do you think 12, 11 and a half months from now, this will affect the 2012 election? >> they're going to argue about it a lot. the democrats think they have a winning hand in taxing millionaires. polls show that they're right about that. republicans are poised to make some serious gains in the senate and hold their own in the house and possibly gain the white house. even approximate they do that, still going to have to strike a deal at some point. hopefully somebody at some point will grow up around here. >> okay. i am going to leave it right there. dana mill bank, many thanks. >> thanks, alex. what should have been a tailgating bash turned deadly at yale university on saturday. police say a rental truck carrying kegs of beer into a

parking lot at the yale/harvard game suddenly accelerated, striking and killing a 30-year-old woman before crashing into other vehicles parked nearby. two others were hurt, one critically. spectators observed a moment of silence in honor of the victims. they're still not sure what happened in that accident. let's go to the weather. a white weekend in minnesota. the state getting the first snowfall of the year on saturday. only a couple of inches in minneapolis. but it wreaked havoc on the roadways. state police reported in fact, 200 crashes in just a two-hour period. here now with the details of what you can expect outside today is the weather channel's jeff morrow. good morning, jeff. it's november. we're talking about snow. >> snow in the upper midwest. that's gone now and just like that, we're back to talking about the potential severe weather from little rock, to texarkana, dallas and waco. we'll take the rain in this area. because we're in a drought here.

nobody wants the severe weather. speaking of the heavy rain, we may see a lot of heavy rain. this is a big travel time of the year and a lot of folks on the roads. if you're traveling early, watch out for the heavy rain in the ohio valley into northeast texas. as far as turkey day itself, alex, not much of a turkey. snow in northern maine. the east and the midwest fine. the stormy weather on thanksgiving will be on the west coast as you're digesting that thanksgiving dinner. back to you. jeff morrow, many thanks for that. respect the bird. the vow many are taking this thanksgiving to resist the lure of holiday bargains. is tradition more important than saving a buck or two in this economy? driven to tears. more on the emotional night from the gop field. is it better or worse for the president that there's not a clear front-runner. you're watching weekends alex witt. [ male announcer ] all over the world, there's a battery

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new this morning, a national gingrich climbing despite his controversial ties to freddie mac. gingrich is leading the pack at 24%. slumping herman cain has 12%. rick perry with 10. joining me for strategy talk is former democrat candidate for u.s. congress crystal ball. she's an msnbc contributor. and michael steele an msnbc political analyst. good morning the two of you. >> good morning. michael, i'll talk to you first. is newt gingrich for real? >> yeah, he is.

flesh and bones the whole thing. >> you know what i mean. >> i do. actually, he is. i think what a lot of folks, certainly a lot of my friends on the left and the democratic party, you know, are hoping to make hay with all of the recent discoveries about newt's past and his investment and other behaviors has already been baked into this narrative about newt gingrich for a lot of it. no one can prolong time. they've watched him. they know what they like about him, what they don't like about him. i think this has afforded him an opportunity to talk approximate message. talk about the country in a way that gets people to listen. >> which means he is a viable candidate in the primary season, michael. does that translate to the general election? >> well, that's probably something that remains to be seen. how a candidate -- particularly one running in a conservative primary transitions to a general election where you have to be a little bit more centrist in your

argumenttation. i think newt can do that. i think newt will translate if he makes it that far. i think that a lot of the noise about newt is more about the political hatchet jobs that people want to form on him as opposed to everyday voters looking with that opinion. >> krista, this gop field has been like a roller coaster surging and falling. is it better or worse for the president that there's not a real front-runner? >> i think it's better for the president. this whole gop nomination process to everything that's going on has hurt the republican brand in a way, gives a sense that this group of candidates, this party is not serious. i did want to say to michael, we want to make hay will newt and his past and his flipflops and all of those things. i would love nothing more for him to get the nomination. i do think he would struggle

more against president obama than mitt romney has been a little more reliable. >> to that point, i want to pick up mitt romney here. michael, he skipped this family leader forum last night. here's what the head of that organization said afterwards. listen. >> i think governor romney is making a big mistake. he keeps saying how he wants to down play expectations and overperform. they know he's trying to win iowa bigger than life. he's dised this event and other events, he dised the republican of iowa's event, the governor's birthday party tonight. >> is he making a big mistake in iowa? >> for the eyes of those on the ground who feel slighted by it, yeah. they probably feel that way. but there's a calculation as krystal can tell you having run for office. both of us have. there's a calculation you have to make about these things. you're not weighing just the short term advantage but the longer term strategy of, in this

case, getting the presidential nomination. while the folks in iowa may be off put by the fact that romney didn't show up, romney is looking at a bigger picture that involves a little bit of iowa, but it's not central to his nomination strategy. >> of course, krystal, the bigger picture that romney becomes the nominee and giving his steady pace. a lot of the people in the big picture say that he will eventually be the nominee. how do the democrats oppose him? what do they do if he they have to face him? >> i think this is poorly suited to match up against president obama. one of the major problems, he's been seen as out of touch both from his persona and also because of his wealth. that's part of it. i think the other part is talking about his tenure at the capitol. talking about this is a guy who laid off employees, sent jobs overseas. while he wants to tout his business experience, that's not all positive. i think that's actually a matchup that works well for the president.

although i would say out of this field, mitt romney and jon huntsman are probably the strongest general lexicon tenders. what do you think about that, michael? >> i agree with part of that. i can see where the democrats would want to go down that road. end of the day, this is a referendum on the president's administration and his agenda for the last four years. an agenda that has showed us, unemployment, $15 trillion worth of debt and no, no sight down the road that says it's going to get better. i think the administration, while they may want romney had better be careful what they wish for. because mitt romney, like jon huntsman and newt gingrich can make a very, i think, good case against this administration, one that will stick. as clearly the polls are indicating. >> alex, one problem with that. even romney, the more centrist candidates have been forced to move so far to the right, to the extreme, they've alienated themselves from the normal

american public. i think any of the candidates are -- >> our primary voters aren't normal? >> no. i'm saying that -- you have to -- michael, you know in a primary election, especially when you're talking about caucus-goers in iowa, this is the far right of your party and they've all pandered to that extreme. >> but they're still unemployed like the rest of americans. that's the bottom line irrespective of what you see on the other issues, you're talking about folks who have not had a job for two or three years and they go to the polls and that's a problem for barack obama. >> republicans aren't trusted on the economy. they've offered no solutions or alternatives. >> that's the key thing, it happened on obama's watch. that's a wrap. good conversation. thanks, guys. first came mcdonald, now a major retailer is trying to drop an egg supplier after disturbing video is uncovered. defending thanksgiving. why some are saying no to the so-called christmas creep. you're watching "weekends with alex witt." ouncer ] how are we going to make this season better than the last?

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it's all visual. intuitive. and it's available free, wherever the web is. this is how trade strategies are built. tradearchitect. only from td ameritrade. welcome to better trade commission free for 60 days when you open an account. for the first time ever, more major american retails, including walmart and toys-r-us will be open for business on thanksgiving day. that's according to a story in the washington post. the move to push sales before black friday is at the expense of holiday tradition some way. the woman hiepd the article is here. good morning. >> good morning. you would think that black friday is bad enough in terms of the shopping craze out there. now they're pushing to sell on thanksgiving. why? >> well, you know, this is something that retailers call christmas creep. the idea is that every year it seems that christmas starts earlier and earlier and earlier.

this year, they want from going, opening on midnight on black friday to opening on thanksgiving day. they've had to win over more shoppers and get an early start on those deals. >> walmart is doing it, toys-r-us, best buy, macy's. they're opening at midnight. i can't imagine people working are very happy about it. what does this create in terms of stress and expectations for the employees in. >> not only will people be shopping but you need people to staff the store while folks are shopping. actually, what the workers are telling us is that they have to come in even before the doors open in order to get the store ready for people to shop. one target employee has started a petition on-line on a website called change.org that has garnered more than 200,000 signatures asking target to push back black friday. that means it's cutting into his thanksgiving time and he won't be able to impress his fiancee's parents when they sit down to dinner.

working on thanksgiving is becoming increasingly common. not just the retail employees. we're also finding folks tethered to blackberries and their smartphones are checking their work e-mail on thanksgiving day. people are working from home. nothing ever sort of shuts off these days. some folks are saying enough is enough. we need to take back thanksgiving and respect the bird. >> totally. it seems wrong, frankly. how about if we look at the cost of a turkey dinner with the trimmings. it's about $49.20 a person. 13% higher than in previous years. how is asking more people to shop helping that situation? >> even if you do want to celebrate thanksgiving and sort of take that time out with your family, it will cost you more than it has before. one of the things that's driving up the cost of a thanksgiving meal is the cost of the bird itself. turkey prices are nearing the record high of $1.67 per pound for a frozen turkey. that's something that will be hitting people right inside their wallets during a time when

we're all trying to save money and the economy is looking pretty tough. the other thing is that the demand for the bird is not coming from america. part of reason why turkey prices are so high right now is that mexico is eating more turkey than ever. it's not even americans trying to carve the turkey this thanksgiving that's causing this crisis to be higher. >> interesting. maybe, i don't know, turkey tacos. i don't know. many thanks for that. >> take care. target joined mcdonald's in dropping one of the largest egg suppliers. this comes after an animal rights police and undercover made at a facility in iowa, minnesota and colorado. the images include a worker swinging a bird by its feet and hens crammed into cages. they call the conditions unacceptable. they're made from whole roasted nuts and dipped in creamy peanut butter, making your craving for a sweet & salty bar irresistible, by nature valley. ♪

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tahrir square. this is the second day of clashes which has so far left two people dead and more than 900 injured. foreign correspondent richard engel is there. good morning. >> good morning. that injury toll is very likely going up right now. what happened over the last few minutes is that several hundred egyptian police, riot police and soldiers, that's a significant development that the army is involved, stormed into tahrir square to try to disperse several thousand demonstrators. the troops and riot police are armed with batons, with shotguns, firing rubber bullets and backed up by armored personnel carriers. i can tell you from personal experiences, we just returned from there, they are firing a

tremendous amount of tear gas into the center of these crowds. people have been collapsing. the riot police and the troops have also been setting fire to the tents and structures that the demonstrators had set up. they clearly don't want the people in the square, they don't want the people to stay in the square and are turning right now the tahrir square into something of a military zone. this is the latest development in clashes that have been going on for about 48 hours and the clashes and the demonstrators, they were triggered because of the people here believe that the egyptian military isn't serious about handing overpower to a civilian government. they believe that the egyptian military is trying to hold on to power and establish itself as some sort of custodian of the egyptian political system without any civilian oversight. that's what brought them to the street. this is one week ahead of elections with a new political season under way, violence on the streets of cairo. >> yeah.

richard, these demonstrators that were originally there in tahrir square, as i read, numbering about 200 or so, did they do anything provocative? my reading was that they were being peaceful. >> reporter: no. there were clashes under way. a lot of these demonstrators were going there. they were throwing stones. some were breaking paving stones. it wasn't 200. there was maybe 10,000. certainly in the thousands. maybe 5,000 to 15,000 at a maximum from what i could tell. they were -- many of them were peaceful but some were definitely throwing stones in the direction of the egyptian interior ministry. the volleys back and forth, the security forces were mostly firing tear gas. some rubber bullets. the protesters, some of them firing launching stones back on to the egyptian security forces and then a short while ago, a large force moving in to clear

out the demonstrators and burn down their structures. >> i think my comments were looking at what happened about 48 hours ago when it was uprooted. then again, thanks for bringing us up to date from cairo. let's now to washington. new wordfrom two members of the super committee. speaking on meet the press, senators jon kyl and john kerry were at odds about what a super committee failure would be. >> we do have the opportunity, even if the committee fails to work around the sequester so that we still have $1.2 trillion in savings over ten years, but it's not done in the very draconian way that secretary panetta is referring to. >> the downgrade, they may look at the $1.2 trillion of sequester, but jon talked about how they're not going to do that sequester. how they're going to get out from under it. there is a real threat that not only will there be a downgrade but the market will look again at washington and say, you guys can't get the job done. >> you can catch david gregory's

full interview with both senators on msnbc when it reairs. one lawmaker has said he hopes they fail to reach a daily. gerald in addition letter here in studio. why do you hope they fail and will they? >> it seems as though they have from what i'm reading. it's not ate question of hoping they fail, it's the question of the reality. we're in the middle of the depression. >> you say depression, not recession? >> i would say depression. this is a result, not of a cyclical downturn in the business cycle but a financial crisis that when the housing bubble burst and wall street collapsed caused $8 trillion to be removed from the economy. that's a depression following a financial crisis. history tells us that such depressions following financial crises normally last about eight to ten years before you get any

kind of reasonable employment back. unless government massively intervenes by spending more money on things like -- on employment insurance, public works, helping the states so they don't have to lay off people and so forth. the command to cut spending right now is going in exactly the wrong direction. and would reduce unemployed -- reduce employment and make the current depression much worse. we do not have an immediate deficit crisis. we have a long-term deficit crisis. we have to deal with it. we have an immediate joblessness crisis. what the super committee was looking to do, some combination of cuts in social security and medicare and general spending, which would be wrong but also increase unemployment and tax cuts, which is the wrong way to go. now, it's the super committee -- if the super committee has failed, i hope we can deal with the unemployment and when we get it down to 5%, which is where it was three years ago, then you

take steps to deal with the deficit. if we got unemployment down to 5%, that would reduce the deficit by 40%. >> you make good points there. the problem is, if we get unemployment down to 5% and how long it would take to get unemployment down to 5%. if you look at the deficit, the problem there, you say that it's a long-term problem. not an immediate one. there are a lot of economists who would back you up. except at one point do you make it immediate and deal with it because -- >> you deal with it. >> for long-term. >> first of all, you have to deal with it not by increasing unemployment. if you increase unemployment, it's probably going to be counterproducti counterproductive. you'll increase the deficit. a lot of the things they were talking about would increase the deficit because employment would go down and tax receipts would go down. you deal with it when you get the unemployment crisis under control. >> there are a lot of cynics who are looking at this super committee and saying, look, anything they were doing wasn't even going into effect until the beginning of january of 2013.

it's as if it was a false date. they put this date on the calendar that meant nothing whatsoever. >> well, it does mean something, unfortunately. because it's too fast. in january 2013, we're still going to have high unemployment. there's no way we'll get down to where we were a few years ago by then. massive budget cuts in 2013 would ensure that we don't come out of had recession or depression. it's too early to do that. >> it was suggested to me earlier on the broadcast that real think was doomed for failure from the start. that nobody expected it to work. those people, like yourself, were inside the hallowed halls of congress. >> i don't think that most people didn't expect it. it was very -- it was difficult to see how it would work when you consider the vast difference between the democrat and the republicans. the democrats by and large think that unemployment is the major crisis and the deficit has to be dealt with. but that when you increase taxes on -- when you -- you have to

increase taxes on upper income people to start reducing the deficit among other things. that you should not be cutting things like social security and medicare and education and infrastructure. the republicans basically think that the deficit is the cause of the unemployment, which is ridiculous in my opinion. by cutting the deficit, cutting expenditures you will reduce unemployment. few economists agree with that. if that's your view, you'll come to different conclusions about what you should do than if your view is making immediate cuts in government spending is going to increase unemployment. >> while i have you here, since we're not going to fix the problem here, although it would be nice, i want to talk about the occupy wall street movement. >> let me add one thing first. >> sure. >> if you want the proof of the pudding, look at germany and england and great britain right now where the-elected conservative governments a year ago. germany was doing well economically, they put in effect austerity budget and their economies are tanking.

that's what the republicans would have us do and we shouldn't follow that example. >> duly noted. let's get to zuccotti park where the occupy movement has been epicentered. let's look at what happened at the university of california davis just on friday wherein a police officer was using pepper spray to the protesters. they were already sitting down, already had been in that area. they were sitting peacefully. this video stirred a huge outcry at this point. do you think police and government officials are going too far in using force? look at that right there. pepper spray. they're sitting there. not moving. there are a lot of people outraged about this. >> that officer ought to be prosecuted criminally, frankly. >> an investigation is under way. >> yes. i mean, those people in that video are posing no threat, they are stationary. i don't know if they've been arrested already or not. he's assaulting themment pepper spray is an assault.

he ought to be prosecuted for assau assault. they're justified in using force to protect themselves or other people from the threat of the use of force or to apprehend criminals. other than that, they're not supposed to use force. if they do, they're committing a crime. now, do i think that police have used too much force generally? sometimes. it's always difficult to control any paranormal fill mary force with discipline. there's been instances that the officer, who in new york, who maced or tased those women, he's under criminal investigation right now. and maybe they'll find that he should be prosecuted. you have to control the use of force. otherwise, number one, it's wrong. but number two, you're making the situation worse. >> all right. representative gerald nadler weighing in. >> have a happy thanksgiving. >> you too. take this job and shove it. why more americans are quitting their jobs. congratulations.

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to 2012 politics. republican candidates courted the social conservative vote in iowa last night. six of the top tier contenders, including -- excluding mitt romney and jon huntsman focused on gay marriage and abortion. >> our country is based on a moral enterprise. gay marriage is wrong. >> a gay couple cannot adopt a child in the state of texas. >> we have for the first time in the history of our country taxpayers subsidized abortion because of obama care. >> part of what i would like to explore is whether or not you can get the congress to pass a law which simply says personhood begins at conception. after the forum, all of the candidates attended a birthday bash for the iowa governor held at the adventureland theme park. we have someone here who was at both of those events last night. alec, good morning.

>> hi, alex. how are you? >> i'm well, thanks. let's get first to the birthday party. everyone except newt gingrich spoke. >> that's right. all five of the candidates came and spoke. it was lighthearted. a happy birthday mr. governor. not too much politic. newt gingrich wished the governor happy birthday personally and apologized for tardiness. he had a couple other things to do after the thanksgiving day forum. >> what we played there, that sound bite, we're hearing from bachmann and gingrich speaking out against abortion. prior to the forum it was criticizing gingrich on abortion. can you clear that up what happened there? >> yeah. actually after the forum started. the bachmann campaign blasted out an e-mail criticizing newt gingrich that he was not consistent on his pro life. we'll see how they reacted after the forum was over. >> i have no idea.

i'm not going to comment randomly on e-mails i haven't read issued at a point where we're all together here. >> there are differences. we won't find video clips or you-tube clips or audio clips of me taking two different positions on the life issue or on the marriage issue. >> so with 44 days left until the caucuses, the candidates are fighting for the vote in iowa. it's wide open. as you saw last night, they're going at each other now in iowa. >> why am i not surprised? alex mow, thank you so much. more on the controversial week ahead for newt gingrich and a new poll showing voters may not care. we're going to show you the latest numbers when we return here on "weekends with alex witt." [ male announcer ] juice drink too watery?

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to politics now. an apparent front-runner in the republican race for president. an on-line poll released today shows newt gingrich in the lead with 24% support among registered republican voters. mitt romney is coming in at 22%

followed by herman cain with 12 and rick perry with 10. results are similar to a fox news poll released this week. that poll also showing gingrich out in front with 23% of the vote followed close by by romney at 22%. that is a statistical tie. i'm joined by susan paige and frank newport gallup editor in chief. he's here in studio. they're the co-host of election matters. good morning to the two of you. >> good morning. >> susan, i'll reach out first to you long distance. how do you figure newt gingrich, surging in a poll after this past controversies this week. >> we've seen an search for an alternative. we've seen the alternatives to him kind of come and go. have a surge, get attacked at the scrutiny of a front-runner and have problems and fade away. now, it is newt gingrich's turn. the question is, can he handle the questions about his corporate contracts and about his, the fact that he talks about so many various issues

over the past years. can he handle that in a way the other candidates failed to do so. >> i want to see how republicans feel about their candidates. you call this the positive intensity scores. here's the read. they represent the percentage of strongly favorable opinions of each candidate, minus the percentage of strongly unfavorable opinions there. that's how the math works. here we have newt gingrich and herman cain tied at 17 each. but while newt is up four points from last month, cain is down 17. >> he dropped in half. he was the highest we had seen at 34 a few weeks ago and his trajectory is down on this measure that republicans have intense feelings for him and newt gingrich is on the way back up. mitt romney, steady as a rock. but he's been at 10, 12 points on this scale, which means that although republicans like mitt romney, they don't tell our gallup interviewers that they feel stronger about it. he's okay, but they don't have an intensity that some of the other candidates did like rick

perry before he faded. susan, i pick up with what he's talking about the positive intensity scores. rick perry is it zero? what do you make of that? >> well, i think it under scores kind of the height he had when he first got into this race and how far he has fallen. it's not only his faltering -- it's his position on immigration and giving instate tuition to the children of illegal immigrant in texas. that's an issue that came up as soon as he was out there in the field. it's one he has failed so far to do with effectively. it's really undermined him with some republican voters. >> i can't get the zero, though. is that nobody wants to weigh in on him or for every one person says they like him, one person says they don't like him. is that how that reads? >> that's exactly right. the strength of antipathy is as strong as the strength in his favor. it's hard to imagine someone

with that kind of feelings in his own party will be able to win the nomination. let's get with the all important independent vote. when gallup was asking republicans and gop leaning independents who they expected to win shall regardless of who they personally liked, mitt romney is way in front, 45% of the numbers there. herman cain 13, rick perry 9, newt gingrich at 4%. the other major candidate, all of them at 3% or less. so interpret the expectations here for the romney campaign. >> partly, we're turning republicans into our mini investigative journalists out there. we're saying whoever you support, talking to your friends and neighbors out there, who do you think will win? mitt romney comes in three times the size of anybody else. we learned from that. we learned that republicans are telling us they think he's going to win which makes romney look better. the problem is although republicans think he's going to win, a lot of them aren't supporting him at this point.

which means he hasn't closed a sale with a lot of republicans. >> what is the predictor? >> we think they all go together. nothing is a good predictor right now. we're saying how are they auditioning but nothing predicts who will win. >> is there ever a good predictor one year out sm. >> no. i mean, a lot of economists and others say the unemployment rate, a lot of gross national product looks and all that. we're a little too far out in terms of the general election, alex, to make a predictor. too much is going to happen. we're too far out even for the republican nomination to really know who is going to win. we had rudy giuliani ahead in this kind of polling when we looked at it. when we were here in the fall of '07. a lot can change once people start -- >> quickly susan, your take that so many people expect mitt romney to win. how do you read it? >> it's a strength for him. it means he may be generally acceptable. but you know, as frank said, he hasn't closed the sale.

things could change that. the lead that he has is not formidable. we've seen it evaporate over and over again as the other candidates come forward. susan page, frank gallup, opening -- >> thanks, alex. protesters sprayed. the investigation under way about what happened at this california campus and how safe is your water? a warning about a homeland security threat. [ male announcer ] all over the world, there's a battery that's relied on to help bring children holiday joy, and while it doesn't travel by sleigh or reindeer, it does get around... in fact, every year duracell sends loads of batteries to the mattel children's hospital, u.c.l.a. of course, children here and everywhere don't really think about which battery makes their toy run... but, still... you'd never want to disappoint. duracell. trusted everywhere. helps defends against occasional constipation, diarrhea, gas and bloating. with three strains of good bacteria

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pepper spray and the outrage. police at a california university try to remove seated occupy student protesters. the blowback next. it's a big hand for newt gingrich. what did he say at a campaign forum that got such applause? >> he's not with the american people. he doesn't lead us. he talks to us as if we're

strangers. >> an office politics -- chris matthews on president obama. his failings and his repair work for reelection. you know, i'd like to start with something you never get to hear at the debates. governor huntsman, the first question is for you. >> just for laughs, jon huntsman drops in on saturday night live. good morning everyone. welcome to "weekends with alex witt." it's just past 11 a.m. 8 a.m. out west. let's get to what's happening. a new poll out this morning, is newt gingrich at the top of the heap in reuters -- finishing third and fourth. social issues took the spotlight in iowa. the eight leading contenders, all but mitt romney and jon huntsman attended the forum in des moines. opposing gay marriage and abortion as well as sharing their personal stories. herman cain got choked up speaking about his cancer diagnosis. he got a comforting hand from

rick perry. >> walking out of -- i said, i can do this. she said, we. [ applause ] >> herman cain talking about his wife there. rick santorum fought back tears speaking about the disability his daughter was born with. he too got a consoling pat from rick perry. meanwhile, newt gingrich drew huge applause going after the occupy wall street movement. >> all the occupy movement starts with the premise that we all owe them everything. that is a pretty good symptom of how much the left has collapsed as a moral system in this country and why you need to reassert something as simple as saying to them, go get a job right after you take a bath. >> mitt romney's absence was duly noted by the head of the family leader who said this after the forumment. >> i think governor romney is

making a big mistake. he keeps saying how he wants to down play expectations and overperform hopefully. everybody knows he's trying to win iowa bigger than life. what he's done, he's not only dised this event and other like ours, he dised the birthday party tonight. >> mitt romney stipd last night to stay in new hampshire where he held a town hall. senator kelly will endorse romney later today. that's a big granite state pickup. she's the first senator to actually back officially a republican candidate. joining me now is reed wilson, editor in chief of the national journals hotline. good morning. >> good morning, alex. what do you make of this new poll in. >> i think it's a little bit of a lagging indicator here. polls are always a couple of weeks behind what's actually going on in the race. newt gingrich has had a really difficult time with questions about his involvement with freddie mac, all of his foundations in the work they've done for corporations here in

washington, d.c. i don't think that newt gingrich is the actual sort of leader in the field. we may be seeing some polls that show that he's got a lot of name rec mission and lot of -- recognition and support right now. i think his dissent like his and rick perry and herman cain's and michele bachmann has already begun. >> you've written that rick perry has spend millions in iowa as well. he was once the candidate that republicans were begging to get into the race. why isn't this spending helping him? >> well, somebody said to me last night, they like chocolate ice cream and they have a high favorability of -- they see chocolate ice cream very favorably but at the end of the day they don't think it can be president of the you state. rick perry is sounding all the right notes in the advertisements, but at some point he's turned off as an option. he may not be in the consideration set and people may be saying, well, this guy not prepared to be president of the

you state. at that point, if enough voters turn him off, it's sort of the -- all the ads in the world won't be able to do anything for him. these ads are good. they come across well and they're being received well and all the strategist types in d.c. like them. but if voters are tuning him out, they're tuning him out. there's nothing you can do. >> how about the forum last night, who do you think was received the best? >> herman cain and rick santo m santorum, they're speaking to their fundamental basis. as people are looking for an alternative to mitt romney, there are too many options that all don't quite fit the mold. so all four of the candidate, i think, really had the crowd in the palm of their hand, but at the end of the day, it's not really going to do any good if you can't gather them all as an anti-romney force. >> it appears the super committee will not come to an agreement by tomorrow. big sticking point is the tax increases. what will this sound like in the

months and how will it affect the election? >> what you're seeing now and on the sunday shows this morning was a preview of the argument that's going to be at the core of the 2012 election. on one side, democrats want to raise taxes on those who make more than a certain amount of money. they want to bring in more revenue. they want shared sacrifice. you heard patty murray say that a lot this morning. on the other side, you don't raise taxes in the middle of the recession, we have to cut our way to growth as opposed to raising revenue for growth. the things that will come up next year in congress and on the campaign trail are the dock fik, extending the bush tax cuts, extending the payroll tax cuts. in all of these cases, the argument will be raising tacks or cutting spending. so we just saw in this sort of last 24 hours the collapse of the super committee. we saw a preview of what 2012 is going to look like. >> oh, boy. reid wilson with the national journal. thank you so much.

>> thanks, alec. let's go to more on the super committee. that divide between the democrats and republicans is still so vast. they can't even agree on what will happen tomorrow if the super committee fail. >> there is a real threat that not only will there be a downgrade but that the market on monday will look again at washington and say, you guys can't get the job done. >> there's going to be $1.2 trillion in savings whether the committee agrees on a method of doing it or it happens automatically as you say. this shouldn't foster a downgrade. >> nbc's mike vi carries at the white house for us. any hope left for a deal, mike? >> very gloomy. we spoke about darkest before the dawn. tomorrow there's talk now, pretty solid chance i'm told by a hill source that they're going to come out with a joint statement on paper essentially declaring failure. the mandate hopes were high when they had the big negotiation,

the debacle about reducing debt. they thought they had the answer. here are the triggers to cut defense cut med air if they were unable to come to an agreement. it peers that way. remains to be seen what will happen come next year. earlier today as you saw on meet the press, jon kyl, one of the top republicans on the super committee and john kerry, the democrat from massachusetts, we're familiar with them, they laid out the arguments. let listen to a little more. >> there's one thing standing between us and doing 1.2 trillion and that one thing is the republican unwilling less to not push for the bush tax cuts to be extended now. >> when our democratic friends are unable to cut a dollar in spending without accompanying tax increases, that's what you need to to know about the runaway spending. >> these are fram battle lines. one catch. the sequester to trigger the cuts to medicare, don't take effect until 2013. we're talking about political

and possible economic fallout after tomorrow's announcement if in fact they make that announcement, alex. thanks, mike viqueira at the white house. >> you can catch the full interview when meet the press reairs at 2 p.m. here on msnbc. president obama's back in washington after a nine-day trip to asia. he arrived at andrews air force base after a 21-hour flight from indonesia. he spoke to leaders on the phone from air force one urging them to agree on a deal. investigation into the chilling video from california that went viral thisthissend weekend. a police officer pepper sprayed people who were sitting there. >> that's the point that gets people. they weren't moving. they were sitting there. >> absolutely. you know when you look at the video, you hear the protesters

telling the police officers and those around that the whole world is watching, a lot of it was captured on tape, not just by cell phones but other crews as well. you get a sense from the protoers that they were trying to keep it peaceful. they at no time engaged the police, even after being pepper sprayed. they seemed to be sitting in a very pacifist position. the police, for their part, contend that those pictures don't tell the whole story. at one point they were being pushed back. the spokesperson for the uc davis police said it was a volatile situation and it was up to the police on the ground to act based on their risk assessment. >> the chancellor there of uc davis university ordered an investigation. but the faculty is saying they want her out. they want her to resign. what's the quibble here? >> the uc davis faculty association is calling on the chancellor to resign because she ultimately authorized the use of force to dispel the -- she did

give the order. not necessarily for them to use pepper spray. she described the video as chilling in her own words much that's why she launched it. the faculty wants to see this as they described it come to an end. that's why they're calling on her to resign. no indication, though, that she will at this point. >> has hee described what she meant when she said okay, campus police, use force? >> no, not yet at least. she has come out and said that the video is chilling and that she wants to learn from the inquiry how best to handle the situation. at least it raises the question as to how best to handle these situations. i think it raises a lot of questions about how police in general might be beginning to deal with a lot of the occupy protests encampments across the country. on one hand dealing with public safety issues and at the same time allowing protesters to maintain their right of freedom of expression. >> it is a quandary for sure. thank you so much. still ahead, a suspected cyber attack from overseas

damages a water treatment plant in this country and creates waves of concern across the nation. crisis and crackdown. syria's president vows to -- in office politics. chris matthews takes on the tea party. he gives us his take on why the gop can't find a candidate. it's quitting time. why are more americans leaving their jobs, especially now. you're watching "weekends with alex witt." ergent, but i found myself using three times more than you're supposed to and the clothes still weren't as clean as with tide. so we're back to tide. they're cuter in clean clothes. thanks, honey. yeah. you suck at folding. [ laughs ] [ female announcer ] just one cap of tide plus bleach gives you more cleaning power than six caps of the bargain brand. visit facebook.com/tide to learn about special offers. that's my tide. what's yours?

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new this morning. coach joe paterno's son is reiterating that the football team had no idea about the -- he's on the penn state campus with more. good morning, jay. >> good morning to you, alex. it continues to be a major question among many as to what and what they knew and when they

knew and who exactly knew of the allegations. there are a lot of questions surrounding the board of trustees at penn state. when they may have known about this. many said they had no idea until it broke publicly. hard to believe when so many high ranking officials at the school testified before the grand jury when the local paper had run articles about the situation. but again, they say they had no idea until this broke a couple of weeks ago, alex. that's something that everyone here continues to look into, including the ncaa. which has launched it own investigation here. >> how many different investigations are there right now into sandusky's actions? >> at this point we know of three. the local police, the university and their independent committee and now the ncaa. but nbc news learned that federal agents and federal prosecutors are looking closely into opening their own case after allegations that jerry sandusky actually took young boys across state lines, going to penn state bowl games and abused the children while the team was wa on the road and he

perhaps used the internet to contact or recruit potential victims. it would not be a surprise in the coming days or weeks to see the federal agents open up their case as well, alex. >> i suppose one lone bright spot, the fact that penn state won the game. notably the first time that they won a game without joe paterno on the sidelines since the 1960s. >> there was a lot of talk that they were going to bring the game ball back to joe paterno. they didn't get back until too late. the lights were out at the coach's house. some indications it may happen later today. jay gray, many thanks from penn state. america's water supply may be in danger, threatened by terrorists overseas. two separate ins incidents are raising concerns. a pump at a water plant failed in springfield, illinois. it's blamed on foreign computer hackers. which would be the first -- joining me now is the

congressman leading the effort to fight threats. he's a member of the house committee on intelligence. he is live from providence, rhode island. thank you so much for joining us. >> good morning, alex. >> representative, there was also some separate situation recently in west milford, new jersey at a water supply facility. we're looking at water supply sources right now. how safe are they? >> looking at all critical infrastructure, whether it's water treatment facilities, solar facilities or the electric grid, all of which in many ways are run by remote systems called skater systems that can be hacked electronically through the cyber systems and those systems could be disrupted. i'm greatly concerned about security of our critical infrastructure and the vulnerability to a cyber attack. we have a lot of work to do. i don't think that the owners and operators of the electric grid in particular or water and

sewer treatment plants are taking this threat seriously enough. but the potential attack that took place in springfield, illinois should be a wakeup call. the reports are still unconfirmed. the department of homeland security and the fbi are currently investigating whether this fact it was a cyber attack. all indications are that it seems that's what it was. >> if that is what it it was, are there any concerns or indication that is this could have been a dry run for a larger attack? >> well, anything is possible. our critical infrastructure is probed and attempted hacks are made every day. thousands of times every day. i've been trying to raise the alarm bell about how unsecure our critical infrastructure is and what needs to be done to make those systems far more secure from protecting against a cyber a attack. you can imagine, if in fact in the middle of winter the electric grid for example were hacked and turbines were closed

to spin out of control and burn themselves out, that a whole sector of of the country could be out power for a significant period of time. the turbines that create power are not just sitting on a shelf somewhere where you can just pop in another one. they take months to build, ship and install. idaho national labs in a test that they did actually demonstrated that we could cause a turbine to spin up out of control and burn itself out. i'm troubled by this. i don't think we're taking the threat seriously enough. >> i'm glad we're discussing it at least. i need to switch to another topic. you are a member of the intellyens committee. i want you to hear about what was said a few minutes ago and the new report from the international atomic energy agency. here it is. >> people understand now that they're determined to reach nuclear weapons. no other conceivable explanation for what they've been actually doing and that should be

stopped. >> congressman, does the iaea report provide the evidence that the u.s. and israel needs to make the case that iran has nuclear weapons in the works that will be ready for launch imminently? >> it's my assessment that the iaea report is exactly on target. it's very accurate. i believe that iran is continuing to develop a nuclear weapons program. this should be a wake-up call to the entire international community to unite and speak with one voice that we're not going to allow iran to have nuke letter weapons. it would be destabilizing not only in the middle east but in the world. it's a very dangerous situation now. i believe my assessment is that the report is accurate and iran is continuing to develop a nuclear weapons program. if iran wants to have nuclear power for peaceful purposes, there's a way to get to that point. there have been many generous

offers made to iran, in particular having russia reprocessing the fuel and bringing the fuel in and out of iran. so that it's not being processed in iran where it could be weaponized and used to develop a nuclear device. but clearly, iran is, i believe, continuing on the march to developing a nuclear weapon. i'm hoping the world community can speak with one voice and impose harsh sanctions on iran that it will cause them to abandon its nuclear a.m. bigs. >> sobering discussions with congressman james langevin. thank you for your time. congressman chris matthews takes on the tea party. in sports beyond the scores. georgia bulldogs coach mark rick gets the unusual or the usual gatorade treatment. we see that all the time. he had a big win to advance the conference championship game. then he finds his wife, engages her in a sideline smooch that lasted eight seconds in you're counting. it seemed like longer. nice.

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the newly row opened investigation into the death of natalie wood is raising questions. after a night of dinner, drinking and arguments with her husband robert wagner on their boat 30 years ago. was it a tragic accident or the result of a lovers quarrel gone wrong. we're joined with insight. good morning to you. >> hi, alex. to the news that actor christopher walken hired an attorney, it's a bit of a surprise because he's not been described as a suspect. >> no. but he's not only a gifted actor but a smart man. people should always hire attorneys because nobody wants to be talking to the press especially after 30 years. you know what, talk to my

attorney. so he's a smart man. >> what kind of evidence or discussion do you think is out there that could warrant opening an investigation 30 years later? >> well, let's use an example of a case that we've covered. the michael, martha moxly that was in 200. that took a confession and autopsy report that said homicide on it. two things we don't have here. we have inconsistent statements. is that enough? in that case -- this is an accidental drowning. the autopsy report said accidental drowning. so really, fighting against that, there really has to be something substantive and it's not here. >> if you want to talk about rumor, speculation, it would seem that's been brought into the picture. because there was suggestions there was a lovers quarrel between the three on the boat. husband, wife -- >> hollywood, of course there's rumors. >> is that a prevailing thought into the investigations sm. >> obviously, it has been because the only thing that they have right now are inconsistent

statements, the captain saying he lied. there's nothing that we know of that has been reported that's substantive. no new evidence. dna we didn't start using -- >> no hard evidence. no physical evidence in. >> not unless they're keeping it to themselves and reopening the investigation. like i said, usually when you have an autopsy report, you have to say that it's unidentified or no cause of death. that way it stays reopened. here, we have an autopsy report with you that doesn't say homicide. it says accidental drowning. there's no hard evidence or confession or dna which we don't have here or some kind of new evidence that points to something very specific other than a lie, where are you going? i mean, 30 years, people forget. >> interesting to see what comes of this. you'll have to come back and see the result. >> absolutely. it may be a good economic indicator. time magazine takes note of the fact that more people are quitting their jobs. 17.3 million people have said sayonara to their bosses since

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♪ new developments on the story we've been bringing you out of egypt. more deaths in the clash in tahrir square right now. we're going to chief foreign correspondents richard engel live there. what is it, more deaths reported at the scene now? >> reporter: we are. when we spoke about an hour ago, alex, there was a major operation under way with egyptian police, riot police and soldiers moving in by the hundreds with clubs and tear gas and armored personnel care yes, sir to break up crowds of demonstrators who were throwing stones at egyptian security forces. two people, according to the ministry of health, were killed in that crackdown. but the clearing operation didn't last very long.

now thousands more egyptian protesters have returned. they have managed to turn the tide on the egyptian security forces and the protesters have reoccupied tahrir square. it has been a running battle that we've seen so many times here in cairo where the egyptian security forces move in with force, try and clear out the square and at one stage did clear it out killing those two people. but the protesters gathered, more protesters arrived and now the demonstrators seem to have retaken the square in the center of cairo. >> a constantly evolving and dangerous situation. thank you for covering it live from cairo, richard. moving to politics, mitt romney is picking up an endorsement in matt hampshire. kelly ayotte is supporting mitt romney. meantime, other candidates are working like mad to chip away at his lead in the state. i'm joined by ms. kent in

manchester, new hampshire for us. there's some polls suggesting that newt gingrich is gaining in new hampshire. but live telephone interview shows, romney is way out in front. give me the sense of what the feeling is in new hampshire. do you feel anyone is gaining ground on romney. >> newt gingrich is surging against mitt romney in the latest poll. you can tell that this is important, why? because mitt romney's campaign is doubling down on their strategy. they've been campaigning for three days in a row. they'll be back tomorrow. you can tell they're watching their back, not taking anything for granted, which is unprecedented in this cycle so far, alex. let's move on to jon huntsman. people are talking about him where he was poking fun at his candidacy. let's play some of it here. >> i love all of america from

dallas, texas to manchester, new hampshire. from the majestic rocky mountains to the lake win poe saki. from silicon valley to the affordable outlet malls in new hampshire. >> i can't tell you that we do not fall for easy compliments. >> that's because you're wise like a dartmouth professor. >> all right. you can't just -- >> jon huntsman, did he do himself any pavers? they were laughing but you what do you think -- >> everyone in new hampshire saw that huntsman know or his script writers know new hampshire trivia. he's committed to campaigning here. he did his 101st event last week. he needs to meet more voters, get his name out there. his super p.a.c. ran an ad trying to introduce him to people more on the airways here in new hampshire. the question remains, how much does he get out of it?

how much more does he need? someone who has been campaigning here since june surely doesn't have good poll number. he's still at 8%, alex. >> interesting. jolene kent, many thanks from manchester. it's time for office politics and more of my interview with chris matthews, host of hardball. he talks about how president obama should confront challenges to his reelection campaign and he also takes oon the tea party. >> what do you tell him as a potential adviser to say to the american people who are leaving him to make them stay sm. >> join us. stop being the isolated president isn't -- we didn't elect you to be peter the permit. join us. build a band of political confederates around you. make them democrats. unite with the democratic party. run as one political faction, you and the democratic leadership. everybody in congress is a

democrat. he hasn't asked them do. first thing i would ask the politicians join, then the people. he doesn't lead us. he talks to us as if we're strangers. he acts uncomfortable in the office. michelle act uncomfortable in the office. i don't know why. they're potentially extremely popular people. people like them, they want to like them. politicians feel they haven't gotten a phone call from the guy since the last election. i think it's a lot of asking the american people to do which he's never done. he never asks us to do anything. he never says write your cheg man, get involved. i'm preaching to him because i want him to change. i want him to ask the american people to join him. maybe we need a ccc kind of program. maybe when the guys come back from iraq. keep them in the military. give them work like rehab or education. put them in school. don't dump them on the unemployment rolls. i'm serious. >> in this interview, i would have said what is it about the

gop, there doesn't seem to be somebody people are adhering to. there's no passion. >> they don't like likeable people. >> perhaps in your opinion. >> dealing tea party people like people? you think they like leaders? they don't like leaders. they basically -- >> they have to pick somebody. right now -- >> i don't think they want that job. they don't want to pick a president. they don't like government, tacks, don't like life itself. they're unhappy people. they do not want to pick a popular leader and say he's our guy, he's our woman. we want that pirn to run the country because they don't want to run the country. >> how do you explain the seeming break away, mitt romney -- >> can you imagine mitt romney going to a tea party meeting even now? if there's one down the street, would he go to it? about as likely as he would go to an aa meeting. those people are below him. it's a class thing. a lot of it is class. he looks like a happy guy with a

happy family and most of those people look unhappy. >> the tea partiers look unhappy? >> they're miserable. they don't like the country the way it's going. he seems to like the way it's going. do you think he has major complaints about american life? he likes it. he likes corporate america, likes the profit system, likes the capitalist system, like the way he made money, he basically likes the way the country is doing. if you look at him. the tea party people are rip they're so angry at the country. they don't like the way it's going. >> do you think beginning to support newt gingrich. what is this surge about? >> yeah. he's angry and snarky and unpleasant enough tore them to pick as a leader. they don't really like leaders. they want somebody to shoot spit balls bigger than they shoot. they want somebody in the back of the room who will shoot spit balls at the front of the room. that's what the tea party people like. they don't like leadership. they like people antagonistic towards leadership. >> there's a picture of you behind you there in the peace

corps in africa. >> yeah. >> did that begin your love affair africa? >> kathy, my wife and i and our family has been back to africa so many times, we've been so luck toy go back. gone on safaris. maybe it's tarzan, the jungle, but i always wanted to go back. it's where we all came from. mankind came from,africa. i just am -- i was thinking about it today how much i want to go back again. when in doubt, i want to be out some game drive somewhere looking at the animals. just want to be with them. >> chris has wonderful photographs from the southwest. i have to share with you, he can do terrific animal person nations but refused to let us put cameras on him he has a new book out. called jack kennedy, elusive hero. you can catch him on hardball on msnbc. in just a moment, our big three

panel weighs if on chris matthews' criticism of president obama. is he right in claiming the president isn't leading like he should? you're watching "weekends with alex witt." what's going on here? hey, whats up guys? this is not how witness protection works! when we set you up with that little hardware store we didn't intend for your face to be everywhere. but fedex office makes it so easy. not only do they ship stuff, they print flyers, brochures -- everything i need to get my name out there. that's the problem. now we need to give you a third identity. you're paul matheson. and you're gonna run your business into the ground. erik gustafson would never do that! there is no erik gustafson. hey that's erik gustafson!!! there is no erik gustafson!!!!! [ male announcer ] small business solutions. fedex. solutions that matter.

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... as the people inside them. congratulations. because when you add verizon to your company, you don't just add, you multiply. ♪ discover something new... verizon. welcome back to "weekends with alex witt." it's time for the big three in politics. president obama, 2.0? . pepper spray in politics? and the super committee not so super. i'm joined by chris la han, worked in the clinton white house and for al gore's presidential campaign. jackie kucinich and robert train a&m the comcast network. thanks for joining us. >> good morning. chris, i'll talk about the president first with you. the potential need for more change. we heard from chris matthews in an interview before the break. he says the president "does not lead the american people.

he talks to us as if we were strangers." do you think this is fair? where is it coming from? >> there's no question, this is a president who is calm, cool, collected in terms of how he applies himself. you look at the leadership record. stop the economy from going up, the healthcare, bin laden, libya. the successes are there. one of the things chris matthews mentioned is the likability factor. despite the enormous economic challenges, this is a president who is still very much liked. that's really interesting. if you project this out into the campaign, that means two important things. number one is that the public is open to listening to him. which means he'll be able to make that compare and contrast with whomever the republican nominee is. secondly, any time there's a close competitive election, ultimately the issue is public trust. likability, you look at the history of the modern american presidency and elections, whoever is the most likeable candidate almost always win. you have to look at that likability.

i think that goes to leadership, particularly once you're outside of washington, d.c. >> chris, i want to pick up with something from yesterday morning. during which time in office politics chris matthews talked about this president versus president clinton. you worked in that white house and chris matthews said president clinton always appeared as if he was enjoying the job. that he liked coming to work every day, no matter how hot it got, he liked it. and that is not something that gets translated with this president. >> again, i think you have two different people with two different leadership styles and two different time periods. president clinton in large part because of the policies, help produce one of the greatest times our country has seen. it's good to have a hop in your step and people have jobs out there. obviously, this president is governing in a very difficult and challenging time. that means his tone and pitch is designed to reflect it. ultimately, going forward what he needs to do is really give people a sense and a vision of where he really wants to take

the country. given the challenges that wee face. again, you look at his style. he is who he is. he is calm, he's cool and takes in the facts and applies them to particular situations and the record has been pretty good in terms of how he's progressed with situations as they come along. >> jackie, you covered this president. i want your take on what chris is saying. do the people want calm, cool, collected in. >> you know, i think it's hard to say. i feel like a lot of times they want divided government until they don't. right? i think that calm, cool, collected, it's good until it's not. i think you're going to see a lot more fiery speeches on the campaign trail. there will be a lot more of that coming soon. but at the moment i don't -- honestly, i don't know. it seems like every time they tried to change course, go a little bit this way or that way, then there's criticism. it's hard too say. i think the american people are just upset about the economy they want someone to fix it. just fix it. >> robert, i'm curious what

people think about candidate obama. do they share some of the views that were being espoused? where is the president most vulnerable? >> clearly on the economy. go back to chris matthews point and chris la han's point. there's no relationship between the president and the american people. when you look at successful presidents, john f. kennedy, bill clinton, from the darkest days of world war ii, there was a connectivity there between the american people and also with their president. i think a lot of americans out there saying you know what, i like president obama but there's no connectivity. to answer your question, alex, i think that's what the vulnerability is that this president seems to be transactional with the american people. when you listen to mitt romney and rick perry and the others, they're saying, you know what, we don't understand this president or this president doesn't understand america. this is a different time that we're living in.

thus, in the process, this president doesn't seem to understand the times that americans are living in right now. to me, that's code, again to say that the republicans are saying, american people, we understand your frustration. your your frustration, and your frustration is that this president doesn't connect with you. >> we will take a short break, and i am frustrated at having to do it because i would love to continue this, and if we have time, we will get the three bigamist reads here next. pposedo and the clothes still weren't as clean as with tide. so we're back to tide. they're cuter in clean clothes. thanks, honey. yeah. you suck at folding. [ laughs ] .ide plus bach ves you more clear than six caps of the bargain brand. visit facebook.com/tide to learn about special offers. that's my tide. what's yours?

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take a look at the actions at the campus feet at the university of california, pepper spraying the movements. they were getting pepper sprayed as they sit. i am joined by my guests. is this a potential iconic moment for the occupy movement, one that could strengthen it? >> i think that that is the case. i think for too long, too many folks on both sides of the aisle have been miss interpreting what

is going on with the occupy wall street. this does speak to a lot of how people feel. a lot of people will not put themselves in the plazas and universities, but they are upset about the economic justice in this country. i hear people say, what does occupy wall street mean and what is their message. if you look at the polls and spend time out there in the country, people are upset. this is a type of moment, and we have a series that captures the anger out there, and it will manifest itself as this campaign moves forward. >> i want to get to the voters. how does this play out politically speaking? is there a party that stands to benefit one over the other? >> i think it depends on what the unemployment rate is this time next year. but there is no question that president obama identifies with them more. he tried to align his campaign with him, at least that's what he read in the papers.

and it's very un-american to attack other peoples' respect. republicans have said we want you to be the 1%, we want you to make as much money as you possibly can, and thus in the process we want to lower your taxes. i think it depends on who you are speaking to here. >> we have to get to the super committee mess. is there any hope on that being effective and coming to a conclusion? >> it doesn't seem like it. seems like everybody is ready to throw in the towel, and they are not left holding the bag, whichever party. but here is the thing. unlike a lot of things that congress deals with at the last minute, the cuts don't even start until 2013, so they have time to work with this and i think they know that. >> but it suggests a disingenuous date there, don't you think?

everybody knows that cuts, anything they would decide would not begin until over a year from now, so they have the time to get past the big deadline that is hanging over everybody's heads. there seems to be something from the outset, and some say it was set up for failure. >> looks like whoever said that was right, and it was worth a shot in some minds, and we are looking at two things -- this debate that they have been going through, taxes, entitlement cuts, and these are very big stopping blocks, and they were not able to get past it. i just don't see it working out this time. >> i wanted to get your must reads, because we have 30 seconds, so -- we will show you your must reads as you give us a final thought. >> the front page of the hill, they should cut half their pay if they don't do their job.

>> we will see. not anytime in the next 15 seconds, because we have to go. many thanks to all three of you. that's a wrap for this edition of "weekends with alex witt." thank you so much, i appreciate it, i'll be right back. they didn't take a dime. how much in fees does your bank take to watch your money ? if your bank takes more money than a stranger, you need an ally. ally bank. no nonsense. just people sense. ♪ ♪ that you need ♪gs ♪ come at just the right speed, that's logistics. ♪ ♪ medicine that can't wait legal briefs there by eight, ♪ ♪ that's logistics. ♪ ♪ freight for you, box for me box that keeps you healthy, ♪

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