>> he is a nice guy. i just think he is misguided and in over his head. >> this s week on "inside washington," who is an ner guy, and he would do better th the onomy? scandals with the gsa in las vegas. >> where crimes have been committed, people wiwill go to jail. >> secret service partying in colombia. >> what has gone on is embarrassing. >> the behavior depicted in those photographs violates both our regulations and more importantly, our core values. >> discovery's final flight and

a feature of space exploration. >> it will never gon the air again. >> a changing media landscape and a salute to politico's bulova surprise-winning cartoonist matt wuerker. captned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- let's talk about nice guys. a cnn poll reveals that preside obama has a double digit lead on mitt romney on likability confidence, and with women, but on who is more likely to get the economy going, at they a tied. in the c poll, among independent voters, obama's approval gap narrows to 5%. >> what do you sayay to presidt

and mrs. obama? >> srt packingng. >> not so fast. yohave to get voters to warm up to you. >> my responsibility is to get people to see the other side. >> "inside the circus," e-book by evan thomas and mike allen. what will it take to get voters to warm up to the man? accordg tthe lates cbs-"new york times" poll, when it comes to the economy, did and just about even -- they by just about even. >> nice guy stuff doematterer buwhat matters more is the economy. the cloud on the horizon is europe. spain's s problemsms -- you canan feel theear of the ripplee effect. spain has a real economic crisis europe has the economic

crisis, ththat is a threat to obama. >> nina? >> we up here e mayot care who is nicer, we should care about who ha better judgment. but the history of electionss do not show that. al gore did not become president because people did not think he was a nice guy and george bush was. >> colby? >> also, we are early. they have not had dates, have not got face-to-face with each other. ronny's rather patronizing statement that he is a nice guy but over his head is going to be tested during g the campaign. >> charles? >> well, i guess early. romney's problem is not that -- well, i guessarly. ronny's problem is not that

people think he is an offensively not niceuy, but that his stiff. spain is a real cloud o on the horizon, and behind it is italy, even worse. if that becomes a real issue leading up to election day, i don't think it is going to matter. stiffness being sober stable, even solemn will work fofor the advantage of the challenenger if it theconomics is th issue of the day and he is the guy with experience. >> john boehner, m mit mcconnell came on board this week. what about the conservative base? >> the base has nowhere to go. it is obama or romney. the base had six other choices but that did not work.

the last man standing before a romney presidency is barack obama. that will motivate the base. people areot going to stay home. >> i agree, sort of. but the numbers come reblican turnout in the primaries, has been ler this year to my amazement. i am not sure that there will be the kd -- when you are talking very small perceages, it makes aifference. that is what karl rove determined. the 2000 election was so close that he needed torive at the base, , and that is how george bush won reelelection in 2004 because a small numbeof pple turned out and more enththusiastic. >> even with these endorsements, like mitch daniels, it is sort of damning with fain praise. mih daniels came out this week and said, "look romomney is

campaigning to win, not as he would govern." he is not speakiking t the pple he needs to speak to, young people, poor people, to say i hahave a program to bring you i in the system. he is just talking to the guys who can y big bucksks. >> i am with nina on this. the get out the vote stuff, unbelievable how fine this is. karl rove was able to find voters about certain type, and both campaigns do this now. finding a specific voters in specific places. 10 make the dfererence -- that can make aifference. . >> poll -- police arrest came in first, then it chris christie, -- condoleezza rice me in rst, then chrishristie, marco rubio, paul ryayan. marco rubio says no thanks.

>> you never believe that. >> rubio is coming up with his own version othe dream act. if rubio passes the veing process -assuming hehe does, he is the obvious choice. if he says he does not want it, he will find a horse's head in his bed and the next day he will accept. [laughter] ronny will not take no foror an answer. we have ways [ male announcer ]

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week. this one involved secret service agents in colombiaia. colby they said nothing counts when you are out of totown, but that does not apply with the secret service. >> they are in a top spot. -- tough spot. this has been a bad week for federal employees, but take the overall recorord. i spent 19 years as one. they do great work every day. wh h happened with the military happened at two years ago. what happened with the secre service -- that was last ek. the gsa scandalal also a year or so ago, and that was caught by a gsa employee. the system worked because he wass ining after waste, fraud, and

abuse and he found some. >> we ve the photographs of the american military personnel with body parts and so forth "the l.a. times" had these pictures. a soldier said this is indicative of the breakdkdown in discipline. thmiliry asked them not to run them, and they did any way. s that a good ide evan? >> yes. t the military is going to do this s stuff, at they should expose it. there is always the tension between the disciple, whwhich by historical measurement is very high -- the american military as measured against other militaries, is extraordinarily disciplined. but in bondnding ruals t these guys have, they sometimes go out anand sba, and they have been doing that forever. -- go out and misbehave, and they have been doihat for

every somometim it ts the better of them. >> i would not have run them. maybe i am a wuss, but if tomorrow some sort of bomb went off and people were kille -- i don'n't thinyou learn from those pictures -- i grant u there is shock value, but the article talks about it and for me that is enough. >> charles? >> well look, the decision of the newspaper was probably one thatat we would make, thatat ought to be made. if there is information -- if you always worry about the possible effects, you end up not learning anything. i think they chose a sample ofof the large number of photographs.. i don't understand why people are so shocked. this happens in every war. in ft, there were a lot of trs brought home after the secondnd world war korean war

vietnam war. now, you are not supposed to do it you shouldn't do it, at any desecratioion of a body of a soldier or civilian in an of itself is an offense. however, l let's remember wis going on. these were the bodies of suicide bombers, not people who respected their own bodies. re are people who deliberately and maliciously destroyed themselv as a way to destroy others. i thinink that, on the ale of what is immoral, is lower than it wouould be in the case of a soldier was shot or civilian injured. it is a sign of lack of discipline, and that, i think, is t issue and white they have to be reprimanded atat the least. >> colby? >>he action is in the reaction. the u.s. mitary responded appropriately. thsecret service is responding appropriately, and so is the

gsa. to me that is the key. these things are g going to occur, but in the full scheme of things, federal service has been elected. >> there has been a political mileage thesa scacandal. >> d darrel issa is capitalizing on it. i want to say one thing about ththe secret svice thing. that's not get carried away. whatever to enter the was of planting -- whatever danger the was of planting the bomb, there was a simar dger from room service. prostitution is illegal in colombia. i am not h happy this happen -- prostitution is legal in colombia. i amot happy this happen, but let's out pretend there is a huge national security danger. >> my sources tell me there was a language problem negotiating a group rate. [laughter] > you are bad.

>> there is a questionbout whether our culture, which is crude and getting cruder, could extend it to institutions like the secret service. you wonder if we are getting cruder. >>on't you think it happened 50 years ago? >> i do, i hesite to say that but you wonder. >> everybody has a video and a camera, so y see it much more. >> we do have some video of the space shuttle d discovery.

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for our families... our neighbors... and our communities... america's berage companies have created a wide range of new choices. developing smaller portion sizes and more low- & no-calorie beverages... adding clear calorie labels so you know exactly what you're choosing... and in schools, replacing full-calorie soft drinks with lower-calorie options. with more choices and fewer calories, america's beverage companies are delivering. >> it is the sad glad day because i thought the decision to gund the shuttle eet was made prematurely.

>> astrona john glenn. this week, everything in washington andth west virginia it came to a halt as the space shuttle d discovery landed at dulles nationanal airport pririor to delivery to the smithsonian. says that the discovery is a national symbol of optimism and leadership and the decision to terminate the program was a mistake. i know this is a favorite topic of yours charles, so run with it. >> it is retirement, embalming inin a museum, a sign of rreat. wewe lead the world we went to the moon, then he became an interested. -- then we became uninterested. the real tragedy is nothat it is is retired -- it had to be ultimately -- but the follow-up was canceled.

we have no way to get into orbit for the next decade at leaeast unless we get a ride with the ruians. the russians have doubled their price, the chinese will be on the mound on the next decade,e, walking in -- the chinese will be on the men in the next decade, walking in our footsteps. >> thousan of jobs lost in keep caneral --cape canaveral, colby. >> we are stopping the manned spaceflight program. we're not canceling exploration of space. that is still going on. we do move on. >> but, you know, not to the extent -- people say that we have lost our image of a fronti society. > i think we a continuing exploration that we started

excepte're not using manned flights to do it. we are using other kinds of technology. what is wrong with that? >> i am not prepared to compete for the romance of the man space project, but every other program that we have, we talk about how we have to cut and we are such dire straits and we don't have money to find new sources of energy, that would be wrong we have to rely on private industry. but suddenly there is romance with the space industry and space exploration. i understand it, but, you know, there is a sort of dichotomy here. >> evan? >> what is going to generate new technonology is th driver for me. you can convince me that space exploration will generate technology too make our lives better, keep it going. just don't know enough to say. maybe wewe should be spending on

energy and environmental stuff. >> but space is the frontier. all kinds of things to be leararned about there. >> but our dying planet is an immediate thing. >> we are already on our way to mars, other planets would not manned flights, but with other technology. >> what i is the greatest legacy of the european powers of the last half of the millennium? the age of exploration. they said exploration sent expeditions to the south the seas north america. we a the ones who went into space and we say that we are no longer interested. you want to spend it on a solyndra or gsa -- [laughter] >> oh, come o

>> you choose where you invest, and this is an area for only the government can do it because of the risand expense, and the payoff is enormous. all our technology, global positioning satellites, weather system -- >> we are just not producing more john glenns. >> i am kind of with

-->> i grew up in a political family. we were all news junkies. >> political cartoonist matt wuerker, who want a pulitzer prize this week. politico and the huffington post were two primarily online news services that won. times the changing, evan.

>> i hate to see the end of old print newspapers, but i don't think that is inevitable, and made the best man win. >> is the morning newspaper a thing of the past, colby? >> i start my day with t internet i read on the internet. ver thought the time wowould come where i did not have a newspaper that i could feel and touch. i read the newspaper, but i get my news otherwise. >> i hate getting news on n line because i have no sense of what editors think is important, no ability to see storiries and sort of brown and rick -- browse and sethe first paragraph of somethg i think does not interest me and say "that is really interesti," and keep reading. something is r really lost, not just your eyesight, by reading

online. >> we are complete dinosaurs. it is like lamenting the death of t the dewey decimal system. [laughter] when you are i collegege, you would go through the courts and see a book did not ow existed. now you go on line and that is eight. my son is a courageous leader of news. he has no experience of hololding a newspaper. the entire generation never developed that habit. dead trees are d dead. it will be considered as obsolete as slavery. >> let's hea fm matt wuerker. he says his job is a place where politics and art come together. >> i have a great job. it is a unique little perch in the world of journalism. i am old school. i think they're really good joke will cut through it anand get

people, no matter r which side of the aisle theyre on. i think people areisisarmed by humor. thisis i ithe great economic r bowl, and we hahave a china at all lined up, and on the other side, usa, and we are pummeling each other. sports methors is a tradition in. -- in cartooning. obama is fun to draw. he h that great and what s -- memegawatt smilele and those years. i moved to washington in 2000. it is different watching politics in d.c. you have a front row seat to all this stuff. it has been an education for me. >> matt wuerkrker congratulations

on the pulitzer prize. his inspiration was his neighbor growing up, paul conrad, a great political cartoonist for "the los angeles tis." he was kind of an angry guy, but matt isot. >> talk about old surprise winners, there is one right here crles scott hammer - -- charles krauthammer -- >> and you.