politico's reporter covering the cain story, maggie haberman. "wall street journal" columnist kim strassel, and republican strategist, alex castellanos. >>> good morning. exactly one year to election day 2012, as republicans battle for the right to take on president obama, and there's a new side this morning to the sexual harassment accusations against republican presidential front-runner herman cain. first reported one week ago, may, in fact, be affecting his standings with voters. a new online reuters/ipsos poll released just this morning shows mr. cain's favorability rating falling nine points from a week ago. last night appearing after a tea party debate fund-raiser with newt gingrich in texas, mr. cain, visibly frustrated, tried once again to put this issue behind him. >> i was going to do something that my staff told me not to do and try to respond. okay? what i'm saying is this. we are -- we are getting back on message. >> thank you, mr. cain. >> end of story. back on message. read all of the other accounts. read all of the other accounts

maggie haberman. it seems when you're caught that wrong footed on something with a wild charge that turns out to be 100% wrong that there's a family connection between the awould you sayer and a report in the reporting organization, people begin to know that you don't know what you're talking about. >> karl rove went on fox news earlier and he was the first person to say something, you know, who was within the fox world and said that herman cain has -- his campaign is hurting their credibility when they say things like this that are provably not true. i think mr. cain is not the first candidate who has had negative stories, to blame the media, to use the strategy of saying he's being attacked and to attack the accusers. i think that, you know, there is a potential risk for him. it has worked so far very well for him, but there's a potential risk for him if he goes too far of looking negative himself. i think it'll be very interesting to see how this question comes up at the debate tonight. as mark hal

let's dive right into this with senior political writer maggie haberman. she's joining me by phone. >> good morning. >> so was newt gingrich lobbying for freddie mac, or was he a historian, as he has asserted? >> i think being a historian is somewhat in the eye of beholder. the problem for gingrich is lobbying becomes a fungible word. he was not lobbying in the sense that freddie mac also says, no, we did not hire him to do that. he was giving what has now been described belatedly as strategic advice. the problem is that every time newt gingrich reminds voters of his long ties to washington, of a more than $1 million fee, which is obviously a lot of money, especially as people are reminded in this economy, it reminds voters what they didn't like about newt gingrich before and what were questions for him before in may when his campaign collapsed. he had a collapse so long ago that he is able to try to come back and rebuild, and he certainly has been effective at it. he has stayed trudging through the summer when frankly most political reporters were questioning why he was even still

. >> senior political writer for politico maggie haberman joins us now.e to see you. >> thanks for having me. >> all right. let's take a listen to the latest from cain this morning. >> i was falsely accused, and secondly, the word settlement suggested to me some sort of legal settlement. and as i recalled what happened 12 years ago, i recalled an agreement. i wasn't thinking legal settlement. and so the words have been fly spect and i do recall an agreement. i have never committed sexual harassment in my entire career. i absolutely believe that this is an intended smear campaign using these two cases. >> all right. so that was earlier this morning. some mixed wording there. also a quote, a smear campaign. are you surprised by this morning's comments? >> i am not to the extent that he has something of a bit of an evolving comment from this starting yesterday when this was false to acknowledging that there had been accusations during his time at the nra and there had been some kind of agreement, despite what the language is being used, a separation agreemen

msnbc's crist matthews is here talking about his new book on jack kennedy as well as maggie haberman of politico. "the wall street journal's" kim strassel and republican strategist alex castellanos. right after this break. - - i volunteered. - i was drafted. - i enlisted. - i was nervous. - and there i was in asia. - europe. - the gulf. - and i saw things. - incredible things. - and people you never forget. - i did my job. - for my country. - my buddies. - for total strangers. - and i was proud. - so grateful. - for my family. - my freedom. for all who served and all who serve, we can never thank them enough. congratulations. congratulations. today, the city of charlotte can use verizon technology to inspire businesses to conserve energy and monitor costs. making communities greener... congratulations. ... and buildings as valuable to the bottom line... whoa ! ... 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. >>> coming up, they're all here. will the events of the last w

race with mark halperin of "time" magazine, couthor of the best selling kboox game change "also maggie haberman of "politico" which broke the story about herman cain. >> there is one track of the soap opera of all this and how herman cain is dealing with it in the spotlight and another of investigative reporting. there is a finite amount of investigative reporting wattage at the news organizations that still do investigative reporting. almost all of that is currently trained on herman cain. so it is's not on mitt romney and his record or rick perry or anybody else. 's all on him. >> rose: we continue this evening by looking at the g-20 conference in france and the ongoing greek debt crisis with gillian tett, u.s. managing editor of "the financial times" and ian bremmer, president of the your asia group. >> it is a g-0, not g-20. there is an absence of leadership. after world war ii, the last time we had an emergence of a new world order, the united states put 10% of its out there. the chinese aren't that the japanese aren't that no one out there is going to make that kind of a fix, so we are tr

maggie haberman, and matthew rafer is our embed with the campaign. >> the better the stronger he staysn the numbers. so does your reporting, from what you've been able to compile, do you think that the numbers will plummet for him, or do you think they'll continue to stay strong? >> i think it depends on how much further it goes, i think it depends on what he says, as you alieded if the national restaurant association allowses this woman to -- not some statement that gets too specific. then i think it could become much harder for him coming forward, but if things keep going this way, look, he 'defied political gravity -- >> how much time does it -- >> i'm sorry, ask it again. >> from the one side of the national restaurant association, how much behind the scenes pressure is it to release this information as there from the cain side to quell this. >> i think the association is less likely to release something and say let's do this, because this will end the focus on us, but i do think they're afraid it will set a precedent essentially. if you do that once, you have to do it in other cas

my panel is john holliman of new york magazine, dan rather and maggie haberman, senior political writer'll talk about newt gingrich flavor of the month. we'll see you next on "now." oldu to use new and improved pam so you'd come out in one piece like those muffins up there. look i gotta go. pam helps you like pull it off guaranteed. to the flu. an accident... to asthma. a new heartbeat... to a heart condition. when you see your doctor, you don't face any medical issue alone. you do it together. at the american medical association, we're committed to preserving that essential partnership between patients and their doctors. because when it comes to your health, you need someone you trust. the ama. protecting the relationship between patients and physicians. ♪ ♪ mama said there'd be days like this ♪ ♪ "there'll be days like this," mama said ♪ [ male announcer ] the toughest job on the planet just got a little easier. with one touch technology and even an air scrubber. the nissan quest. innovation for family. innovation for all. get up to $3,050 total savings on the 2011 nissan quest. ♪ ♪ ♪

michael smerconish who is on camera there along with new york congresswoman, a republican and maggie haberman, writer for politico. i will let you start off here. no one likes to -- everyone saw it felt uncomfortable with the situation, but the reality is that is part of presenting yourself to the american public and you were able to take the pressure that you can stand the heat. what do you make of the day after in your thoughts on rick perry last night? >> let me say to the public that i came out in support of mitt romney. without a disclosure there. it is sad. we have been in the positions where we have the brain freezes, however we are not running for president of the united states and as republicans, we are not running against barack obama. president obama is eloquent and does well at the debates and public speaking that republicans have to look at someone's ability to stand to toe with the president coming through the primaries and it's not the first time. if it was the first time and didn't play into the narrative that we have over governor perriy that he is not quite competent at any