then i have a panel of distinguished historians, walter isa isaacson, sean wilentz and edmund morris to look at an eye to the past. what do past campaigns and past presidents tell us about this nail-biter? also americans might be anxious to learn tuesday's results of the chinese are even more anxious, perhaps, to learn who their new leaders will be, why they might have more at stake than we do. but first here's my take. whoever wins the election on tuesday, on wednesday either barack obama or mitt romney will have to start worrying about the same urgent challenge, how to stop the united states from falling over the fiscal cliff. this is, of course, the second cliff hanger that the united states has faced in two years, the first being the debt ceiling debacle. how did the world's greatest democracy start functioning so badly? maybe the next president can try to fix this broader problem. but first the fiscal cliff. unless congress act, the spending cuts and tack increases that would be triggered automatically next january would take 5.1% out of the country's gdp in one year according t

walter isaacson -- >> tom ricks. >> a woman walks up to you at a lecture dinner, "i want to do research on you," which i guess is a euphemism, and he proceeds to give her a credible access. i don't want to be one of these people who plans the woman, but there's no need for match.com if i can go around and say, "could i write a book about you," and that is how i am introduced. it was so foolish of them. -- of him. first of all, an inexperienced person -- is not a biographer to come on, colby. >> is the obama administration guilty of a cover-up in the benghazi attack? >> i think she knew better, and if she did no better, she should not be the voice of america. . >> for them to go after the u.n. ambassador, who had nothing to do with benghazi, and was simply making a presentation based on intelligence she had received, and to besmirch her reputation, is outrageous. >> they're talking about our u.n. ambassador, who could be the president's nominee to be secretary of state. this is about her appearance on talk shows on september 16 following the september 11 attacks in benghazi. charles krau

war of words over susan rice from the senate and house foreign relations committee, senator johnny isaacsonnd senator barbara lee. this is "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. wants that pink castle thing. and you really don't want to pay more than you have to. only citi price rewind automatically searches for the lowest price. and if it finds one, you get refunded the difference. just use your citi card and register your purchase online. have a super sparkly day! ok. [ male announcer ] now all you need is a magic carriage. citi price rewind. buy now. save later. woman: what do you mean, homeowners insurance doesn't cover floods? [ heart rate increases ] man: a few inches of water caused all this? [ heart rate increases ] woman #2: but i don't even live near the water. what you don't know about flood insurance may shock you -- including the fact that a preferred risk policy starts as low as $129 a year. for an agent, call the number that appears on your screen. when you give a child a toy, it has to work. ♪ make just one someone happy and when it's a toys for tots child, well, what coul

it could be walter isaacson -- >> or tom ricks. >> a woman walks up to you at a lecture it dinner and says, "i want to do some research on you," which i guess was a euphemism. and then he proceeds to give her incredible access. i don't want to be one of these people who blames the woman, but there is no need for match.com if i can go around in my job and say, "can i write a book about you," and that is how i am introduced. it was so foolish of him. >> what was foolish? >> first of all, an inexperienced person -- she is not a biographer could come on, colby. giving her all that access, i'm sorry -- >> is the obama administration guilty of a cover-up in the benghazi attack? >> the reason i don't trust her is i think she knew better and if she knew better, she should not be the voice of america. >> for them to go after the u.n. ambassador who had nothing to do with benghazi, simply making a presentation based on intelligence she had received, to be smartrip reputati -- to besmirch her reputation, is outrageous. >> they are talking about un ambassador susan rice, who could be the presiden

. >> let's get more reaction to warren buffett's comments and let's bring in senator johnnie isaacsonom georgia. senator, welcome to the program. i'm sure you heard our discussion there. warren buffett says if we raise taxes on people making more than $250,000 a year, or the rich shall the middle class will feel better. what's your comment? >> well, warren buffett can speak for billionaires, but i don't think he speaks for small business america, we're over 900,000 small businesses and see their taxes go up because of the president's proposal so i have a great deal of respect for warren buffett and very successful, but he doesn't speak for small business, he speaks for billionaires. >> okay, do you think he's talking down to america, i'm not trying to put words in your mouth, but some company americans are steamed that it seems to us like class warfare. >> well, to me, it's one american against the other american, that's wrong. to a certain exsent. that's what's wrong with the yez's approach. he's trying to isolate americans and finish them and it's time to punish them for being succe

johnny isaacson is "outfront" tonight. thanks very much for taking the time.we can report, this is late r reporting here that we have tonight, but the bell jensen community is saying look, we made the changes, we made them. do you believe it? >> well, it's the first i've heard of it, eastern. you got me on a surprise, but i know director clapper very well. i'm not going to question his word, but it's a little late given all the testimony we had. we had late september briefings with director clapper in the room. no such admonition came out, so i'm a little bit surprised, but somebody's got to fess up as to what happened. it wasn't susan rice. it was somebody in the administration or intelligence commune and we know it wasn't david petraeus. >> do you think it's possible that anyone at the white house could have known the full version of events or possible series of version of events and yes, they are handed an editeded version, the same one ambassador rice received, but they knew there were alternative ones that said it was preplanned, not spontaneous. >> for t

i still sold a lot of the stock for my charitable trust after listening to isaacson.ouldn't act on it immediately because of my trading restrictions. i never pride myself on calling the exact top in the stock. apple was way too big a position versus everything else because of a high quality problem. so we took some off the table. that said, if you think the fiscal cliff is going to be resolved by tax rates not going up that much and apple falls to a level that is just too cheap on a dividends basis which wouldn't be all that far, you may be tempted to hold on for new product we don't know about that's been developed post jobs, tall order. again, i save some stock for action alerts. i feel like something good could happen. if you want to hold on to your apple? you have to write your congress person. she's in charge right now, not apple. and last i looked, i would rather pay uncle sam $1 today than $2 tomorrow. stay with cramer. n you take a c. ...at the best schools in the world... ...you see they all have something very interesting in common. they have teachers... ...

first, dave maraniss and isaacson. the aspen institute and museum cohosted this for a period >> before the election, we're putting together some of these panels and we had one titled, why did he went? why to do this? this is about obama and other titlist how did he went? we are having three authors of excellent books about president obama. jonathan alter, ron "the promise" and david maraniss will be interviewed by the great biographer and my former editor at "time" magazine, walter isaacson, who always asks a question whenever i was writing a profile of a political figure, but is he really like? >> and where is the profile? >> is on my laptop. i'll get it to you. >> thank you all. it's great to be here. [applause] for those who can't figure which is which, david, jonathan, ron. [inaudible] last night in the next book still be doing. i will start in the middle with john -- i can say her title, right? we're breaking news here, but for those of you who like the falconer, things fall apart the center cannot hold. his book

the speech by isaacson who says it's a year. now i can start talking about what new products are on the book. i agreed not to talk for a year. now i'm talking. it's itv. itv requires cable. you waited a year, isaacson. use the conversation to be able to say itv was supposed to be 2013. i just don't see cable companies caving. i think that matters. there's a lot of people who want it. >> you hear about 800 pound gorillas. they tend not to make them that big if you know what i mean. we're still analyzing the recovery of sandy. east coast looking to recover from superstorm sandy. in new york city, more of the transit systems are being restored. most schools are open. there's still about 1.5 million outages in the states hit by sandy as colder temperatures now hit the region. the lines at the gas stations continue to be long as you have no doubt seen over the weekend and we should point out it will get cold. it's going to get stormy. there's a nor'easter on the way to this part of the country coming wednesday, thursday. it's going t

>> my first impression is, normally you think of someone with that kind of spirit, walter isaacson wouldly had a interesting background, west point graduate, fitness expert. all kind of reasons to bring together some kind of commonality. >> she was not a journalist or author but she gained this extraordinary access. >> of which no one else had had. >> yeah, exactly. >> okay. >>> president obama is holding meetings this week to work on a deal that would avert the fiscal cliff. those tax increases and spending cuts may kick in 50 days from now. bill plante is at the white house and joins us with the latest on that. bill, good morning to you. >> reporter: good morning, gayle. that's right. the president meets with business, labor, he'll talk to congressional leaders on friday and take his case to the country after thanksgiving probably. over the weekend, democrats and republicans both suggested that maybe they have the outline of a deal. democrats seem willing to cut some entitlement spending. republicans after losing the white house and losing members in both houses of congress seem to be

and the arts and it was thanks to the division of the accomplished author and journalist walter isaacson who's the ceo of the aspen institute who approached the owner of the of cleantech, david bradley, about partnering to create a new event called the has been ideas festival. in less than a decade, the house and ideas festival takes place every summer in the beautiful aspin campus in colorado has become an influential leader in the global event arena. for the success we decided four years ago to take elements of that great show on the road and with the partnership of general and the newseum, the washington ideas for rahm was born. you'll hear the greatest journalists interviewed felt makers and leaders to discuss topics as varied the future of the entrepreneur should, global health, education, the future of china and many more subjects. so if you bear with me i would just like to offer some words of appreciation or the organizations and people that have made this event possible. it starts at the top of the list with a big thank you to margaret is the editorial director of the washington

and i know that walter isaacson has opposed the sort of significant re-org which i thought made a lot of sense. frankly, i'm not sure where it is these days. but made it more hopefully would make it a highly functioning organization. it is, we need every tool that we have in our arsenal. we need to be able to deploy them effectively. and i think better coordination i think would make a lot of sense. at the same time you got to be sort of aware of the fact that it does have its journalistic standards mission which i think are important. in terms of going back to my previous comment, a whole concept of authenticity, you need to have that. we weren't able that schmidt i think there are about 40 on the team now, but what we did was put in place, which again i think you had started do a much better coordinating function between a state and dod and others who are doing the same thing so that frankly we can take advantage of the numbers that they were able to deploy against a similar mission. so it's in a much more coordinated function with the state actually helping to provide, or at least

thanks to the vision of the accomplished author, walter isaacson who approached the owner of the atlanticd bradley about partnering to create a new event called the aspen ideas festival. in less than a decade, the festival chrks takes place every summer in the beautiful aspen campus in colorado has become a leader in global events arena. due to to its success, we decided four years to go take elements of that great show on the road and with the partnership of jim duff and the museum, the washington ideas forum was born. over the next two days you'll hear some of the world's greatest journalists interviewed, discuss debates, topics as the election aftermath, global health, education reform, the the future of china and many more subjects. so if you will bear with me, i would like to offer some words of appreciation for some of the organizations and people that made this event possible and it starts very much at the top of the list with a big thank you to margaret carlson who is the editorial director of the washington forum. she is not only wonderful and talented but she has been the creati

>> johnny isaacson, and dennis and ross about israel and gaza. >> and your most important guest is, whos it? >> mark halperin. >> yes. great rarity. mark really does that. >> that is the correct answer. andrea mitchell, you win a prize. tell them what they win. coming up next, a t lot of big news is made on "meet the press." yesterday david gregory is going to join us and also here onset, fortune magazine's andy and we are going to be talking about the businessperson of the year and this guy could be the businessperson of the decade. i just want to give her everything. [ whistles ] three words dad, e-trade financial consultants. they'll hook you up with a solid plan. wa-- wa-- wait a minute; bobby? bobby! what are you doing man? i'm speed dating! [ male announcer ] get investing advice for your family at e-trade. [ male announcer ] get investing advice (child screaming underwater)... (underwater noises). this reduced sodium soup says it may help lower cholesterol, how does it work? you just have to eat it as part of your heart healthy diet. step 1. eat the soup. all those veggies and be

it was really thanks to the vision of the established author and journalist walter isaacson presidentand ceo of the aspen institute who approached owner about partnering to create a new event called at agency pen idea festival. less than a decade, the aspen idea festival, which takes place every summer in the beautiful aspen campus in colorado has become a leader in the global event arena. and through the success, we decided four years ago to take elements that have great show on the road. and with a partnership of jim duff about museum, the washington idea forum was born. so overt next two days you'll hear some of the world's greatest journalist interview news makers and leaders, discuss and debate topics as varied as the election aftermath, global health, education reform. the future of china and many more subject. as we bear with me. i would like to offer words of appreciation for some of the organization and people that have made this event possible. it starts very much at the top of the list with a big thank you to margaret karlson, who is the editorial directer of the washington

walter isaacson, my colleague in doing this work, wrote a cover story in "time" in 1997 about bill gates. here is how it opened -- when bill gates was in the sixth grade, his parents decided he needed counseling. he was at war with his mother, mary, an outgoing woman who harbored the belief that he should do what he told him. she would call him to dinner from his basement bedroom, which she had given up trying to make him clean, and he would not respond. what are you doing -- she once demanded over the intercom. i am thinking, he shouted back. you're thinking? yes, mom, he said fiercely. have you ever tried thinking? [laughter] the psychologist they sent him to was -- and this is in bill gates' words -- a really cool guy. he gave me books to read after each session -- freud stuff -- and i really got into psychology theory. after a year of sessions and battery tests, the counselor reached this conclusion -- you are going to lose, he told the mother, mary. you had better just adjust to it because there is no use trying to beat him. mary was strong-willed and intelligent herself, her husban

we'll talk to senator isaacson later this morning. >> "the washington post" is doing some fabulous coverage on the fiscal cliff. really devoting the front section to it. they have a piece this morning which says that grover norquist, which suddenly revealed is the man behind the curtain, is losing people and -- there are some. >> mostly senators. it's not congressional. >> that's what's important. does boehner really own his own people? if i am worried about the fiscal cliff, does boehner own his own people and are there democrats that favor higher taxes for the rich and are willing to do anything to get those including going over the fiscal cliff? you do have more polarization with business community. jamie dimon being the key man? >> certainly one of them. a lot of the business community is more down the middle given the two constituencies you just mentioned. >> we'll talk -- buffett had thoughts on that this morning that we'll get to in a few minutes. the case shiller home price report is out. which cities are making the fastest move to recovery? >>> also ahead, when it comes to the holi

walter isaacson wrote a cover story in time in 1997 about bill gates. bill gates was in the sixth grade, his parents decided he needed counseling. he was at war with his mother, who believe he should do what he told him. she would call him to dinner from his basement bedroom and he would not respond. what are you doing -- she demanded. i am thinking, he shouted. yes, i enjoy -- thinking. she said -- have you ever tried thinking? the psychologist they sent him to was a cool guy. he gave few books to read after each session. korean stuff. the counselor -- freud stuff. the counselor said you will lose. there is no use trying to beat him. mary was strong-willed. she came around to accepting that it was for tall to try to compete. my 91-year-old mother is here in the third row with us today. [applause] ipad and of bringing that was full of protection. hi i ever said to my mother -- yes, mom i am thinking, which you ever try thinking? it turned out to be a good thing. he has had two of intellectual chapters of thought in his career. for 30 years he was the do