breaking news starts a new week in "the cycle" government forces make progress on the al qaeda group holding innocent people hostage. about to address world leaders here in new york city, we'll bring that to you live in minutes. the senate is back in session, it's a critical week in america, days out from a government shutdown and we're right back where we started. >> the president is ready to host what's called the civil society round table here in new york city as he prepares to speak to the u.n. general assembly tomorrow when terrorists and kenyan troops are now shooting at each other

inside that shopping mall in nairobi. the toll stands at 68 dead, nearly 200 injured and there are americans believed to be in that total. moments ago the president made the first on camera comments about the situation. >> i've had the opportunity to speak with the president directly about the terrible tragedy has happened in nairobi. and we are providing all of the cooperation that we can as we dealing with the situation that captivated the world. i want to express personally my condolences to not only the president who lost family members in the attack but to the kenyan people. we stand with them against this terrible operation that occurred and we'll provide them with

other law phoenmenforcement sups necessary. we're confident it will be rebuilt. this is the degree to which all of us as the international communitys have to stand against the senseless violence that these kinds of groups represent. and the united states will continue to work with the entire continent of africa and around the world to make sure we're dismantling these networks of disruption. >> joining us on the phone is senior correspondent for after africa based in nairobi -- [ indiscernible ] >> since then it has really

quieted down. we haven't been hearing the sporadic gunshots over the last couple of days since it began. and for the last part of the afternoon/evening has been -- which have been on scene the last few hours. >> that's tristan mcconnell, sorry if that was hard to hear. we're trying to get accurate information on ground. stay safe. here's the monday gee og fee. why hit kenya? because uganda before them, kenya has thousands of troops fighting al shabab control. they haven't had troops since the blackhawk down massacre in

mogadishu. we think and see a similar attack could happen here in america. joining us now, bill brat ton at one time ran police departments in l.a., boston, new york city. surely you have spent considerable time thinking about the possibility of multiple gunmen working in a terrorist capacity and working in a criminal capacity attacking a large soft targets like a mall. i'm sure this is the kind of thing that scares a police commissioner to his core. is it and how can you possibly defend a large mall? >> well, it was a number of issues of concern in terms of the large environment, they have to try to basically now secure. after the mumbai incident the american policing with multiple incidents occurring in a large city such as mumbai. the advantage, it is only in one location.

you could imagine the chaos if they struck at two or three or four. they are having a hard enough time to deal with one. difficulty here is certainly the desire to try to save hostage lives and also the assault forces trying to reduce their casualties as much as possible. also the idea that is this a suicide mission per se or is there a potential likelihood that these individuals will try to get out of there. these were the difficulties that the enforcement authorities are having to deal with. >> bill, we heard the president saying that we would be providing what law enforcement support would be necessary. what kind of coordination would you be expecting from the united states with kenya at this point? >> well, at this point if the kenyans are agreeable, expertise to deal with the current situation, going forward, certainly training and expertise equipment to prevent it from

happening in the future, also, the sharing of intelligence that nobody does it better than the united states as far as the gathering of intelligence of the one of the things they'll clearly be looking for after this event is did we miss something in the sense of the run-up to this event. it seems to be very large scale. the number of people participating and intelligence gathering capacity in that area, did we miss something or did we have information that was not shared in an appropriate or timely fashion. >> it seems like there are some similarities to the terror attack in mumbai back in 2008 when more than 160 people were killed in the sense that it was an attack on a landmark that symbolized wealth and western prosperity and people have been killed for a dozen different nations. what do you think the motive is? is it to create shock? draw attention? >> certainly there's probably multiple motives, the fact they are attacking this complex, this

shopping center western style where a lot of westerners would be gathered in any event, the symbolism of it and multiplicity of target opportunities and knowing muslim target opportunities for them and they are killing in an indiscriminate pattern now. there are all types of symbols as well as the potential to get a lot of media attention. it's the capital of the country. there will be a lot of media there in any event. the idea when these types of engagements to prolong as long as possible. similar to mumbai, in these efforts what you try to do as quickly as possible, get in, take them out so you don't have this pop began da capacity of multiple days of coverage. >> walk us through the operations and investigators when they first get on the ground in a situation like this. >> the investigations are already beginning intelligence analysis, where they indicate is possibly we had that were

misinterpreted or miss it all together. that would be on pt u.s. side. the idea would be also in the sense of learning from this as we did from mumbai. when i was the chief of police in los angeles at the time of the mumbai incident, the fbi in a month was conducting intelligence debriefs with major departments around the country. we totally within 60 days, reorganized the lapd to deal with multiple events in which in the likelihood similar to this that hostages were in fact not going to be negotiated as part of the deal but in fact were all going to be killed. it totally changes the type of response from a police perspective that you have to engage and you get in very quickly, try to save as many lives as possible. this was not about negotiating, they are about propaganda and causing as many casualties as possible. the investigation will focus on what were the motivations and what can be learned. we learned an awful lot out of mumbai.

>> if something were to happen like this in america it could be devastating on many levels. what do you want to see maul owners and operators and security directors do right now in america? >> i've been in contact with a friend involved and the dilemma they face is most malls have unarmed security. the dilemma is something like this is occurring in a large campus type environment, do you use your louds speaker systems to notify people there's a terrorist attack under way? do you risk telling people that the attack is in the north part of the complex or fifth floor and unknown to you the terrorists are waiting for that so you're pushing them into additional terrorists. the dilemma for maul owners is extreme and extraordinary. something they'll certainly all seek to learn from this event, how can they both harden as well as improve their ability to exit their customers out of these events if and when they occur.

there is always that potential. >> learning more about this group, al shabaab, help us understand their history. i know they made threats years before this. what do we know about them and how that organization changed over the years? >> it's actually almost two organizations, the al qaeda influenced group which is about spreading throughout the region, throughout africa and continuing efforts throughout the world. you have the more focused group that's all about somalia and ensuring that the country becomes a country that is focused on having islamic religious principles governing the operation of the country. it seems that a number of factions within this organization, one of the things we'll seek to learn, which faction created the plan and carrying out this particular

event in nairobi. one of the most active and aggressive organizations, probably the strongest in the heart of africa and the one we're having great difficulty with, concerning the united states certainly is the very large somalian population that we now have in our country. and the ability apparently of these people to attract young men from that population to leave u.s. citizens to leave this country and go to the horn of africa and train and participate in these events. the concern would be some of them actually coming back into this country and basically having received training over there. that's something that will certainly be looked at very closely. interestingly enough this seems to be also a tendency with our u.s. citizens who go there to train. they seem to very frequently want to follow this organization and number of them have been assassinated by the organization probably for concerns about betrayal or whatever as recently as a week or so ago we had a report of one of those type instances. >> that sounds extraordinarily

frightening in this concept of american sit zens going over to these countries controlled by al qaeda and likewise, like minded groups and getting training. how do we know that is happening? >> what you would watch for, certainly what has been very much in the news recent weeks, nsa, their capabilities to not only look at communications but all of what we try to do with our travel watches, terrorist is a lerts on people leaving the country and going to regions of the world where you are concerned they might engage in this type of training. the intelligence apparatus we spend hundreds and billions of dollars on is constantlyrying to ferret them out. the idea deal being with terrorism, you have to have a response capability but with a response capability, you're dealing with casualties. the idea is intelligence, intelligence, get them before they get us. and thus the extraordinary effort and extraordinary expenditure that the u.s. has made over the year since 9/11 to

increase our capabilities to get them as early as we can. sean so once again this exercise will -- this incident will spawn a whole range of new intelligence information for us to take a look at. >> another day in post 9/11 america. commissioner bratton, thank you very much. the foreign and domestic agenda will collide as the president attends the u.n. this week. he's arrived in new york city and at one of the first events on a packed schedule. it's monday, it's september 23rd. ever ybody has different investment objectives, ever ideas, goals, appetite for risk. you can't say 'one size fits all'. it doesn't. that's crazy. we're all totally different. ishares core. etf building blocks for your personalized portfolio. find out why 9 out of 10 large professional investors choose ishares for their etfs. ishares by blackrock. call 1-800-ishares for a prospectus, which includes investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses.

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president obama is in new york city ahead of the address to the general assembly and the big topics are what to do about syria. right now the president is hosting a round table with other heads of state and private foundations, chuck todd joins us now. obviously a lot to be discussed, a resolution towards syria. is it something that's enforceable but something i'm interested in seeing, president obama's interaction with the new iranian president rowhani. will they actually shake hands? there's a possibility they'll cross paths in the hallway. this would be the first time a u.s. leader shook hands with an iranian leader since 1979. >> before then and highest ranking since 1979. there will be a high ranking meeting between john kerry and his counterpart in iran. already you're seeing what i was

described to me as a symbolic award to rowhani for the statements he's making and different symbolic gestures he's been making since in office. as for this meeting, there is still some logistical issues to get through if it happens. the seconds thing is where do you make it happen? i'll be shocked if it's caught on television cameras, any sort of meeting maybe something we find out out of the fact, that something very low key, this is all about trying to sends the message and what the white house is calling key allies and adversaries of iran to reassure them it would be a symbolic gesture, there snts going to be any promises that go with this. this is to reassure the israelis and the saudis and other u.s. allies that are essentially in the adversary camp.

whatever it is, it's going to be quick. small and if it happens. there's still logistical hurdle because they might not cross paths and rowhani may not go to the lunch because alcohol is being served. there's all sorts of logistical hurdles without organizing a meeting and that hasn't happened yet. >> chuck, if i would have told you a year ago that syria would be ready to sign onto the chemical weapons plan and work with the soviet union on letting inspectors in, that would be a huge step and huge victory? >> on the other hand the administration faces fair criticism for the way syria has been handled and the delivery. how much of that from white house officials plays into the kind of address that the president needs to give this week? >> i can tell you they won't describe it this way but they do want to put a shine on what they know has been an uneven rollout of what they've been trying to

do with syria. one of the things i was told that the president wants to emphasize, it may have been messy in how it worked but look at this. diplomacy is working. sometimes you need -- you need to carry a stick and shoep the threat of a stick will be used in order to get to the table. you'll hear the president make the argument that without the force you wouldn't have had assad do whatever he did, deliver a fairly significant inventory of his stockpile and the president will say without the sanctions with the u.n. -- and make a plea to the u.n. and say, guess what, you can make a difference here. look at what you've done on sanctions with iran. look what the world community has done on sanctions with iran and look how they are responding. you have the public electing most mod ral candidate in doing it without a runoff and rowhani making these gestures.

do we know if they are empty or not? that's to be found out. one of the things to stress and plea with the u.n., it's working with iran, why don't you get tougher or syria? you've got to put teeth into these resolutions in order to make -- force diplomacy to happen sometimes. we all want diplomacy over war but he's going to emphasize you need these threats if you want diplomacy to happen. that will be among the ways he makes his case in front of the united nations when he makes the speech tomorrow. >> in addition to that speech, the president will be speaking this week about health care and president clinton speaking about health care. what is the administration hoping to actually accomplish with those speeches? >> if you recall, they actually already signed up bill clinton to be their explainer in chief as they -- or explainer -- secretary of explaining stuff, excuse me. they use another s word,

internally but stuff is for public consumption. he's done the first health care speech on september 4th it was during the whole week of syria so it got drowned out during the entire push with congress and all of those things. but this is part two of the two of them together making the case for explaining what is in health care and what it is and what it isn't. there's interesting a little intersection here of the past with bill clinton. we're literally within a day or two of bill clinton's speech to congress in 1993 where he held up his fictional health security card trying to make the case for health care himself and at the time trying to get the public to view it as something similar to social security. this health security card and this will guarantee you health care and access to health care. all of this synergy coming together.

tomorrow's speech domestically the white house views as important and arguably for the domestic audience for important than the speech at the general assembly. >> mr. todd, when you talk to people inside the white house, how optimistic are they to get some sort of disarmament from iran? >> they are being very skeptical -- not trying to be poly annish on this. they are being very publicly and privately skeptical going, let's see what happens. let's see what ayatolla will allow him to do. they are -- they can't -- you can't ignore these gestures he's made and part of the delegation, bringing one of the jewish members of the iranian parliament with him. he is trying to do a p.r. offensive and they feel they should resip indicate but they

are not ready to do anything beyond that. >> optimistic exceskepticism. >> what everyone is talking about today, the emmys, plus krystal ball winning, much more "cycle" ahead. [ sneezes ] [ coughs ] i've got a big date, but my sinuses are acting up. it's time for advil cold and sinus. [ male announcer ] truth is that won't relieve all your symptoms. hmm? [ male announcer ] new alka seltzer plus-d relieves more sinus symptoms than any other behind the counter liquid gel. thanks for the tip. [ male announcer ] no problem. oh...and hair products. aisle 9. [ inhales deeply ] oh what a relief it is. ♪

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vice president joe biden will continue to tour storm ravaged colorado. it is estimated the cost of this disaster will run into the billions with a "b." the captain of the ship wrecked costa concordia claims it never would have happened if another crew member didn't attempt a

last minute maneuver. it was uprighted in a delicate salvage operation and they'll comb through the wreckage to try to determine what really happened. the captain is charged with manslaughter but insists he's a scapegoat. the prime time emmy awards, requested modern family" grabbed the fourth straight win tieing an emmy record and the top drama prize went to "breaking bad" which will sadly come to an end this sunday night. i will miss you, walter white. many were shocked to see brian clam cramp ton robbed. the emmys were a bit of a roll eve er coaster ride. this one is from edie falco.

you know james gandolfini the actor, i was lucky enough to know him as i man. for many more years as his friends and its jim, the man, the very dear man that i will miss most of all. >> i don't know how she got through. neil patrick harris turned to certain dynamic duo for tips. >> take your pants off. >> take your pants off. >> and twerk it. >> yeah! >> work that twerk. >> i've come to awards shows for the twerking. >> stop, no. i'm not twerking. i'm not going to do that. that would be degrading. >> it might be degrading but we would be degrateful. >> it's expected those two nbc stars will return to host the golden globes on nbc in january. >> footnote on that tour'e was the only person who predicted

"breaking bad". >> that's right. >> awards were flowing at "30 rock." check this out, krystal ball became the second ever winner of up against the clock during the show's seconds week. >> 300-point question, hillary clinton said this week which of the state's elected officials quote has just been enentered as the luckiest politician? >> josh? >> pat quinn. >> pat quinn is correct. that moves you into a tie with evan for second place and not enough to catch the once and still champion krystal ball, you are the winner of up against the clock. >> that is huge. grand prize, including a coffee mug and $50 gift certificate to the little poland restaurant. that is nice stuff and a booking here as a guest on "the cycle".

>> i might be a little busy that day. >> i'm busy that day, sorry. >> let me tell you what's not included, the latest issue of new york's magazine, hillary clinton kept the door open to another presidential run saying i'm both pragmatic and realistic and i think i have a pretty good deal of the governmental challenges facing our leaders and i'll do whatever i can from whatever position i finds myself to advocate for values and policies right for the country. i'll weigh what the factors are that would influence me making a decision one way or the other. we're going to spin on that very long nondenial denial. what do you make of it? >> i think it's remarkable she's openly saying i'm thinking about running. that in and of itself is remarkable she's not just totally pushing it off. everyone expects her to run. i certainly do but i have to say, she can't play it safe

here. i think the democratic party has moved on from clinton era try angulation. i think she needs to make sure she has her finger on the pulse of where the democratic party is now and out there on this. otherwise she could be vulnerable from maybe elizabeth warren and someone who could capture a more liberal -- >> you're so far lefty -- i love elizabeth warren but she's so far left. i think she's sort of this 800 pound gorilla and most affect nat way possible, within the democratic party. everyone is going to run for cover because you don't want to waist the cycle trying to get money and losing. i see a republican party seems to be almost trying to help her winning. and they know they need hispanic people and yet attacking immigration and they know they are doing this attack on abortion rights. who do they think will vote for them? >> you have to think, some up and coming politician within the democratic party is going to get their name out there and throw

themselves into that primary. i think there's an opportunity if she tries to play it to save. >> there's going to be a point where she can't play safe. she's leaving the door open for a run every move she has made since moving the state department. >> this is basically saying i'm running. >> she's also made a good point she knows what she's getting into. she knows the campaign can get totally derailed by your husband and egos and people withal tear yor motive. >> why are we talking about this now? why not next year? give yourself time. >> i think that also goes to the overwhelming political and media interest in this race. i think it's a problem and mistake we often make to look way too far ahead and it has a cost. that was an interesting point beyond her flirting with a run, when she said the election is more than three years away i don't think speculating on 2016 is good for the country.

it's like when you meet someone at a party and they look over the shoulder to see who else they can talk to. ari does that all the time. it's so annoying. >> real quick to you, ari. how does this set things up for 2020? >> i'm so glad you asked. that's key. she's right to indict those of us in the press who are too much focused on what's next and what's after that. she's a former secretary of state, that's all she is. let's give her the time she needs. >> the best day is the day before you decide to run for office, it's true. >> has that been your experience? >> i'm not saying anything but that has been said. that has been said. >> it's a tv -- >> okay. we have the high stakes game of political poker over obama care. harry reid is looking to call their bluff. we have an ace on economics and health care to tackle that next.

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as you have already seen we're in the midst of kind of a huge political week. today in new york the president is prepping for the big u.n. speech to the general assembly. in d.c. they are staring down a budget battle and yet aaanother attempt to strip funds to the affordable care and a possible government shouut down on octob 1st. why are we suddenly hearing so much about increasing premiums? because when obama care is enacted is largely up to the governors which means a lot of dis information and really ridiculously creepy uncle sam ads. here to help us get past the politics is emily oster, professor of economics at the university of chicago's booth school of business. i want to start with the

question the different states are implementing this legislation, california obviously working with the president as much as possible. texas not so much. is experience going to vary widely state to state? >> yeah, there's no question it's going to vary widely. we don't know how but since the exchanges are set up by each state and some states in conjunction with the federal government and not in conjunction, it's very difficult to tell without seeing it, which i guess we won't until the change is open next week, how many people will offer and insurers will offer programs in each state and how much it will cost and compare to what the states have now. i think it's very hard to tell how the marketplace is going to look when it opens. >> the reason why -- will there be differences from state to state don't have anything to do with economics, all politics, isn't it? >> yeah, it has to do with how many insurers are going to offer things or exchanges and how comprehensive those plans have been. one of the issues that comes up

a lot of people have been complaining that the reason that some states are going to have lower prices the insurers offering plans on the exchanges don't have comprehensive networks. there aren't a lot of doctors and some states have more comprehensive plans with more doctors but those will be more expensive. >> i wanted to ask you why we had you about your research. you had findings that show when people are expecting to live less long, when they have lower life expectancy rates, sometimes it seems according to your research, that they are less likely to actually do things that would be good for them like complete school if he have that option or do job training. one indicator was 20% difference around the world on that factor. can you explain that and is there any kind of public policy way to address that and have a sort of improving effect? >> so, in that research we look at people who have very big differences in life expectancy coming out of a particular genetic disease and we observe

when people find out that they have this disease, which will really limit their life expectancy, less likely to go to college and do job training and invest less in things with long term future consequences. if you take that to smaller changes in life expectancy, things that would be more consistent with the experience that kind of every day people have, i think what we might learn is that if you increase people's life expectancy they could invest things like college and job training which could be good for the economy. there's something good there about what happens if we make people healthier which in principle the health care law can do but we do don't know if it's going to come to fruition. >> there's incredible pressure on young people to sign up for the exchange, 2.7 million as we were saying. the white house is estimated and we already talked about these creepy uncle sam ads that have come out. let's creep you out a little bit in case you haven't seen them

yet. >> lay down and bring your knees to your chest. >> is this necessary? >> we'll try to make this quick. >> so emily, what's the reality if they don't get enough young people to sign up. what will happen? >> i think that in general like a lot of the republican efforts trying to get people to not sign up and a lot of obama administration's trying to get people to sign up. the concern is partially if no one signs up you may end up with only really sick people in the

exchanges. there's also an issue in general that the success depends heavily on whether people actually want to be on these exchanges and it's just very unclear. >> we'll have to wait and see. thank you so much. >> thank you. >> up next, more controversial than obama care, the obvious place for chopping, funding community service of course. we'll talk to a few next. [ female announcer ] it's simple physics... a body at rest tends to stay at rest... while a body in motion tends to stay in motion. staying active can actually ease arthritis symptoms. but if you have arthritis, staying active can be difficult. prescription celebrex can help relieve arthritis pain so your body can stay in motion. because just one 200mg celebrex a day can provide 24 hour relief for many with arthritis pain and inflammation. plus, in clinical studies, celebrex is proven to improve daily physical function so moving is easier. celebrex can be taken with or without food. and it's not a narcotic. you and your doctor should balance the benefits with the risks.

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wait for some other person or if we wait for some other time. we are the ones we've been waiting for. we are the change that we seek. >> hard to argue with that sent. but not too hard to defund it. one of the programs that could once again be in jeopardy is the national service organization putting young people to work tackling the nation's toughest problems in exchange for small living stipend and scholarship. it promised to keep strong levels of funding for national service including ameri corps but that has become a favored gop target for budget slashing. irpically it comes as they celebrate a big milestone, 20 years this week, president clinton signed legislation

creating the domestic equivalent of the peace corps. a grass roots movement fighting for the communities it serves, zach is the executive director and friend of the show tommy veeder is a crusader in their effort. break it down why we have to have americorps. >> thanks for talking about an issue that is not always on the front page of the papers and is critical to communities that are underserved. what we're talking about kids who take a very small stipend to do disaster relief in places like colorado or joplin missouri or after hurricane sandy and and they give back to their communities. they serve for a year. and it's a critical part of our effort to serve these people. and we de-fund these programs at the level they were set because it's a bipartisan issue we all should get behind. >> an article from "daily beast." i joined when a republican

president george w. bush recognized the value of service and signing legislation that expanded the number of service opportunities. applications hit a record of 600,000 last year but nearly 85% of those applications were turned away because this congress has refused to fully fund it. what's going on on that piece? >> there's no doubt that there's report on the republican side. we need those supporters to become champions and use political capital on the issue. last 15 or 20 years, half of the big champions are republicans, senator hatch co-authored the bill with ted kennedy. we need those champions and supporters to get out and really pound the pavement and work with congress to get the issue back on the front burner. >> it's certainly a bipartisan effort. you are celebrating the 20th anniversary. 50% of americorps is in education and you're sharing 20 stories over 20 days to help people better understand what it is you do. and i've read some of these

stories and their incredibly inspiring. is there one that stick out that best exemplifies what you do? >> the work in education is incredible. there's one to the states and spoke no english, and through her work with an americorps member, started the year with a list of ten reasons she didn't deserve to go to college, self esteem was down, and no english. and over the course of the year, this americorps member, kate, worked with her, day in, day out, to sumpt the work of the teachers and by the end, had ten reasons why she does deserve to go to college and is looking to pursue a career in medicine and science. >> wow. before we get out of this segment, can i point something out about you? >> please. >> a lot of people would think you look like a young cartoon. >> wow. >> and they don't realize you served on the president's national security team, older in experience than might appear. given that experience with the

president speaking to the u.n. this week, what goes on in the national security team, when he's walking into a place where the leaders from all over the country -- countries all over the world are gathered and he wants to make his points about syria, iran, et cetera and also plan for the chance encounters we were discussing on the show today? >> i think you just called me dead inside, but i'll go from there. basically, you know, the u.n. general assembly is about as big a cluster as you can ever imagine. it's every country from across the globe and you go in --

speaking for the group, tommy. >> handsome features. >> i wanted to ask about another thing that service nation is working on. you're also pushing legislation to amend the g.i. bill to help veterans reintegrate into society. tell us about that. >> yeah, that's an effort. not sure if it's going to be a legislative route or not. but there are veterans coming back who are looking for ways to continue leading. that's what they want. that's what they're incredible at. but they need some time and space to figure out what they want to do long-term with their education and career. and a group called the mission continues has really piloted this effort that a term of service can help them reintegrate and figure out their

long-term plans. if we were to add flexibility to the g.i. bill, we think we could scale that effort so more veterans can take advantage of the opportunity. >> zack, thank you. tommy, sorry, he means well. >> thank you for having me. up next, keeping it real with ted it cruz, the man has a gift that keeps on giving. none of them charge annual fees and all of them offer low cost investments. e-trade. less for us. more for you. there's a lot i had to do... ... watch my diet. stay active. start insulin... today, i learned there's something i don't have to do anymore. my doctor said that with novolog® flexpen, i don't have to use a syringe and a vial... or carry a cooler. flexpen® comes prefilled with fast-acting insulin used to help control high blood sugar when you eat. dial the exact does. inject by pushing a button. no drawing from a vial. you should eat a meal within 5 to 10 minutes after injecting novolog® (insulin aspart [rdna origin] injection). do not use if your blood sugar is too low, or if you are allergic to any of its ingredients. the most common side effect is low blood sugar, which may cause symptoms such as sweating, shakiness, confusion, and headache. severe low blood sugar can be serious and life-threatening. ask your health care provider about alcohol use,

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our generation has a phrase we like to say. that phrase is "keep it real." people say it to me all the time. dave, have you got that show? remember, brother. keep it real. very good advice. not always as easy as it seems. sometimes, folks, keeping it real works against you. so now, ladies and gentlemen, we would like to show you one of those times in a new segment, when keeping it real goes wrong. >> you're watching "when keeping it real goes wrong."

>> for years, the republican party had told their base that everything obama did was wrong. especially obamacare. it was, they said, a train wreck that would lead to the ruination of america. it was, they said, the worst piece of legislation passed in the last 50 years. >> we think obamacare was the worst piece of legislation in the last 50 years. >> so when congressional republicans found themselves days away from the law's implementation, they had two choices. they could suck it up and move on to the next battle and hope the law's failure would help them in 2014 and 2016, or they could shut down the government, and keep it real. they were warned by members of their own party that even though americans disliked obamacare, they disli liked republicans shutting down the government over it even more. many worried that a shutdown would damage the republicans' national image so much, that it could turn the house blue in 2014, behind the scenes in whispered asides, some republicans are now worried that

keeping the house is not such a done deal after all. they look back to two elections, in 1998 and 2006, in which republicans seriously underperformed expectations and they wonder if 2014 might be a little like those two unhappy years. but one man didn't care about any of that. his name was ted cruz, and he believed in keeping it real. >> the house voted last week to fund the federal government. if harry reid kills that, harry reid is responsible for shutting down the government. ♪ ♪ it seems that everything has gone wrong since canada came along ♪ ♪ blame canada >> cruz had a plan to ride that to the 2016 nomination. all he had to do was keep it real. what he didn't know, the republican shutdown of 1995, 1996 was a disaster. >> we don't have to hypothesize what a shutdown would look like. that we have, in fact, seen that in 1995. we saw the parade of horribles

that is brought out did not occur. planes didn't fall out of the sky. >> and more than that, during a shutdown, the government doesn't actually shut down. social security checks go out, troops stay in the field, the it tsa keeps on feeling people up and implementation of obamacare continues unabated. all of which unveils cruz's shutdown dance as little more than an adult temper tantrum. as everyone knows, back in the winter of 2013 obamacare was implemented and there were lots of glitches and mistakes, but republicans had lowered expectations so much, the law wasn't considered a failure, and america was added to the long list of nations with universal health care and the republican party was judged to be not quite adult, thus gift wrapping the 2016 election for the democrats. that's what can happen when keeping it real goes wrong. that does it for "the cycle". martin bashir, keep it real. >> i will. good afternoon, it's monday, september 23rd. and as the president