let me bring in loren fox politics reporter for "u.s. news and world report" and "usa today" washington bureau chief susan paige. good morning. >> good morning. >> good morning. >> the president clearly thinks he has the upper hand. your poll yesterday suggested he does but is he in danger of overplaying it? >> well, it's always possible. we'll see what -- how much people really feel the impact if the sequester cuts go into effect as we think they probably will next week. but what we found in the new "usa today"/pew research poll is that about half of americans say it is going to be the fault of congressional republicans if they can't reach a deal. just 31% said they'd blame the president. that's pretty good standing for the president going into yet another one of these fiscal cliff hangers. >> they're talking about very serious cuts, one that could have by some accounts dire consequences especially for federal workers, and it somewhat devolved when john boehner's spokesman started tweeting during jay carney's press conference. i think t

on the ancient and unique process of picking the next leader of the roman catholic church, fox corsphondant loren green joins us from new york. >> very good. shannon. >> this is it a fascinating process. >> cardinal said something important. they will pray for what the church needs and one. things i heard from the catholic hierarchy. what the church needs is reevangalation and a lot of talk of picking a pope from latin america and afa ca. it is growing without a pope representing those countryings whampt the church is waning is europe and america and the western world. that is where they will have a focus. pope benedict xvi was trying to reach out to the european nation and to the americas because he knows that in the industrialized world there is it a lot of people who don't stee the relevance of the religion and he wants to reenergize that faith. he started the uro faith . amms wrote a book evangelical of catholicism and calling for the church to deepen people's faith. janet? >> all right. thank you very much for the update. can you tell us about what comes next in the process? this pope had sp