>> excuse me. excuse me! >>his week on "inside washington," thedventures of herman cain trade is mitt romney now the inevitable nominee? >> i believe we need to show the world that we can live up to our obligations. >> the european debt crisis and the occupy wall street protests -- is there a nnection? >> i am worried you are going to fail the country. >> barack obama as a populist. how is that working? >> it makes absolutely no sense when there is so much work to be done, that they are not doing the work.

captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- >> last week i began this broadcast by asking about the herman cain phenomenon. i asked if he was poor real. here we are -- he was for real. hee are back again with more on mr. cain "inside washin. he is alleged to havsexually harassed women in the 1990's at the national restaurant associatn. mr. cain's responses to the allegations had evolved over time. >> i have ner sexually harassed anyone, and those accusations are tally falsese. i am unaware oany sort of the settlement. i hope it wasn't f for mike. there w was a financicial settlement -- i hope it wasn't

for ch. there was a financial settlement, and it was in the vicinity of the three to six months' severance pay. >> tt is how it went all week long. we are hearing about a third accuser and a $45,000 severance package. colby, towards the end of last week's broadcast you warned us not to count herman cain out. i'm wondering if you are willing to repeat that. >> let's pick up the town -- 5 6, 7, 8 -- wewe are at 9 at this point. [laughter] >> how about you mark? >> the of all the explanations are a textbook example of how not to handle a scaal. this has just been a disaster. they ended up by accusing one of their opponents, rick perry, and

then sang it is that the left that is behind the whole thing a la clarence thomas. they are pointing fingers but not explaining much. >> evan? >> it does not matter what we think, it is the vors in iowa. he might get away with this as a media elite lynching thing, but there are problems with that. one is that he has accused perry, aa conservative, of leaking beholding. second, if he is going down, it is b because one of these women comes forward anand sasaysys it was not just joking around, he invited d me to his room. it looks like an actual, overt sexual pass. if that becomes the fact that she is out there saying that, it will happen where it counts with the ters in iowa.

it has not happened yet, but that would be the final straw. >> nina? >> wching herman cain throughout this process, you knw it would be a moment where the you-u-know-what hit the fan. and this is it but his numbers have n not gone down. i am not willing t to write him off yet, because i don't see a commensurate drop in h support numbers in the polls. >> people are willing to donate to his campaign. >> i don't buy that argument. i think it is going to catch up. there is a time lag here. there e is an impression that comes across. "politico," as i understand it gaveve 10 days -- he had 10 days to recall what happened, to reflect on it, go to the restaurant association and ask them to look at the documents get hiss family preparedor war was going to come.

he went out there and has given this evolving story. that is the part ththat i think is a disturbg. >> i am not saying he will survivehis. i am saying ththat most people would have already had a calamitous reaction in fundraising and numbers, and it has not happened yet. >> two things, to reinforce colby'point. any republican you talk to, oever they are backing they always in need of the conversation with "we have to beatarack obama." i don't care what campaign they are working for. thisthe secocond thing is that he has used one of the oldest tricks in the game, and that is instead of responding to the substance of the charge, i accused the source, "this came from." for those too young tremember

when joe biden was exposed in 198888 for havg lifted entirely thspeech of a british labor leader without attribution, the biden people and several in the press said it was leaked by the dukakis campaign. it makes no difference whe it came from. if the charge is true, the charge is true. >> who leaked the story in the first place? he says iserry pry says it is romney. >> that is beside the point, who leaked the story. the question is whether it is true or t. going back to ken beat barack obama, anannoulter has a vw on this thing, herman cain versus barack obama. she reminded me of something that i thought was settled with

the emancipation proclamation dishe said "ourr blacks are better than their blacks." i did not know we were still owne but evevery day and at every way i i get srter. as a matter of fact, she said it, the next day after the first statent, "because ours are more impressive." >> i want to say a good word about rick perry. he came out this week with what i thought was the cleverest phrase of the whole campaign, "are you better off and then you were $4 trillion ago?" >> but he is on a down slope. can he come baback? >> of course he can. $17 million, that as a trpoline. >> the reasonn why cain is in the

ballpark and all is because nobody really loves romney. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [ multiple sounds making melodic tune ] ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] at northrop grumman, everery innovation every solution comes together for a single purpose -- to make the world a safer place. that's the value of performance. northrop grumman. o0 c1

>> the president's philosophy and that of the people around him is extraordinarily misgidided. they take their inspspiratioatfrom those who believe that government knows better than free people how t to run our liveves and build an economy. >> that is mitt romney at town meeting in new hampspshire. he has been running against rack obama f frorom day onene forget the others. friday's "washingtonost," columnist eugene ronson writes about the inetability of romney, but then he goes on to say, "it is hard to see how roromney can win it either." if not romney, w? >> mitt is the prohibitive

farite, but there will be a stumble between now and the coronation, if there is a coronation. this is never a direct, linear experience. don't count outhe chubby fellow from georgia the rehabilitated newt gingrich carrying along a bogus iq and other baggage. >> his numbers are coming up. >> but never found out his abilility to say something completely outrageous that t will get him m in trouble his as likely as herman cain to do. > -- to do it.t. >> was a story in "the washington post" about a meeting at t mitt romney at when he was governor of massachusetts with people "i can soften at the republican hard-line onon abortion gay rights," colby.

>>t pains of t the picture of romney people are cticizing who will tack whatever way he passed. that will not go away. thatat will intensify. >> romney has been amazingly it disciplined, and thahat is the whole game here. everybody knows is a flip- flopper. the question is if he doeses more flip-floping or reacts badly. he was not great in the debate against perry, there are little cracks in his armor. his ability t take a punch and keep cruising along has been remarkable.. he has got to keep up. >> at the town meeting, he talked about the situation in greece that we will talk about later on, saying that if it

comes toto a defaultltn america there is nobody to bail out. he is talking about serious stopop. -- stuff. >> he is therown-up in the room. he may be the ken doll grownup but he is the grown-up in the room. and thway he navigated the health-care issue for him it has been r really maerful. it is the only way to describe it becse he signed aill in massachusetts that became e model of obamacare and he found a way to navigate through those shoals without coming to a tal shipwreck. >> two pois. romney's stregy has been, in my judgment, the wisest one. he has never gone after the president personally. it has always been on policies, while the others had been in many cases just intemperate in their accusations and indictments of the president's.

as a consequence of that, at the white house firing back as hard as they he on romney are making them the heavy. the other thing he needs is some sortrt of epiphaha to explain w why he moved from the positions you outlined it tohere he is now beyond just political expediency. there has to be some personall experience he has gone through that moved him from a pro-choice to pro-life -- >> i disagree with that. he just needs to show she is steady. the electction turns on n middle- class, suburban n housewives who are fearful. they wanto see somebody they think is s steady and reliable and that they can trust. if he can just maintain his current persona, he does not have to get intan elaborate explanatioions of what he was this and that. he has to o be pretty much what he is right now, and that ought to do it. >> i is a great. -- disagree.

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>> i think it is no surprise that we spent most of our conversation focused on strengening the global economic recovy. >> if italy were to default, it is absolutely unsalvagable. >> the department at, this week's meeting the0 biggest economies in france -- there you ve it, this week's meeting of the 20 biggest econonomies in franceut what happenens if italy defaults? >> i hear disaster because it drags in the united states in a big way. the theory is that becausee it is such a disaster, it cannot happen. that is the letter of this. -- l logic of this. they might l greece go, but

italy -the central bank w will issue one ever getare necessary. i am not sure if the european central bank can save italy as the feeling of a slow-motion car wreck. >> i don't thinktaly is going to g down. it actually as close to a lanced budget. it has huge debt. and it has berlusconi, which iss a realroblem. but the immeate problem is a greece. as we sit here, wdon't know what is going to happen greece. >> can you draw a connection between the wall street protests which are spreading across the country, and d what is goin on europe? >> i can't do that. the street demonstrations in greece have been a lot like the demonstrion to have had here. but the causeses are different. i think weould be a l little stretched to try to draw some correlation between the two.

what was interesting about greece is papandreou first talked aboutaving our referendum -- aeferendum, and the europeans let it be known that thiwould be a disaster, because the greeks wod reject this package and you would get out of f the euro. >> how do you convince people who don't want to papay taxes and don't pay taxes that it i is time to pay taxes in a society where the maximum social security yment as of $48,000 as opposed to $28,000 in the united states? >> how do you convince republicans in this country to pay taxes? >> the same thing. >> you cannot answer a question with a question. >> the only good thing abo this cris, and it will afct usus in matter what, because europe is the ggest market for china, it is the biggest market for us -- everybody is buying

american bonds. in a world off midgets, we are the tallest midget athe moment. >> we owe much to greece, fm democracy philosophy to drama. much of o culture, no questioion about it. but they have brought free lunch to a concept that nobody else has even tched around of the world. that is painful. we ought to keep our eyes concentrated on the administration and the acceptanceof of pain in democracy. > argentina faced the same thing years ago. they were way yond their means. they had a day of recning. at the beginning of thiss broadcast, i shod a small clique of erskine bowlesalking to the committee saying, but what i am woied it you are going to fail the couountry."."

we a coming into the november 23 deadline with this super committee. where do we stand on this stuff? >> failure. almost sure bethey will n get it done. the automatic cuts will be triggered. the net total bottom-line answer, absolutely nothing will happen in the way of f fiscal sanity between now and election. >> i i think the ratings agencies would have no choicee but to downgrade us if not only the committee fails, but then we fail to allow the cuts to take plac the absence of political wi in the united states -- why rate us goodaper when we don't ve that? >> theuts that don't take place for a year, and i figure congress will find a way to wiggle out of it. >> thehe administration is trying

to get pieces of its jobs bill passed. >> i think this is dring the nes, and is important for 12. that is where we are, quite frankly, on this legislation brought as farar as -- on this legigislation. as far as the debt reduction committee, i think tom gallagher, the analystput it well. we are in a time of negative sum politics. we had the fiasco in the summer about the debt ceiling. it hurt the president, yes, but itit also heard the republicans. -- hurt the replicans. it is going to hurt bh. whatever deal they can come up with, it cannot be fine-tuned. it has to be voted up or down as it comes out of the committee. for that reason, ihink there is hope for action. >> we have movoved from- it i is interesting to watchhe

conversation. the politil conversation outside of wasashington hasas moved from the debtrisiss to ththe inco gap, and what that means for resolvinthe debt crisisn the immediate sense i just n't know.

>> we can't wait for congngress to do its jobob. if they won't act, i will. and that is why today i am announcing that we are actually going to expedite loans and competitive grant for new projects all across the country that will create thousands of new jobs foworkers like these. >> there you have president obama at keybridge connecting in georgetown and d.c. to arlington, virginia. he will order the transportation department to award thousands of dollars inoad and brge repair grants by the end of the

year. how is this working evan? >> it is not hurting him, but it will not win re-election for him. he asked to win -- has to win independents. playing the populist left the card may energize his base, but i don't think it works all that much on that, butut it will not work for the election. presumably he will tack back between now and -- >> i actually don't agree with you,u, evan. i think it is working. he is talking about something people care about. when he tries to push a jobs bill based on a tax on millionaires, it resonates with people. you don't want to be runnnning against that. you don't want to be running against redressing g some of the tax equity to make js. > voters in battleground states

evenly divided between the president and mitt romney at this stage. >> i think obama is doing the righthing in the sense that he has a comprehensive package and now he is gog piece by piece putting them onecord, vote after vote after vote, on this. you get a vote ke the other day, 51 to 49, and he still lost -- >> republicans say, "we have jobs bills of our ownnd at the democrats wi meet us halfway." it is all just noise and chatte i don't thinknk it has any impact on national polititics at all. >> the fact that the president is running even with anybody is pretty good.d. congress gets 9% appral rating, whicis as john mccain puts it, includes blood relatives and staff, and that is about it [laughter] > the uneloyment rate drops

to 9%, still leaving nearly 14 million people out of work. that is a big rock to roll up the hill. >> will we be there at this point it next t year? i don't think we will. will see a gradual improvement. >> ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [ multiple sounds making melodic tune ] ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] at northrop grumman, every innovation every solution comes together for a single purpose -- to make the world a safer place. that's the value of performance. northrop grumman. o0 c1