but if they did, i can tell you that arianna huffington would b. she's hard charging and visionary. she's the president and editor in chief of the huffington post media group. her columns can be read in publications around the nation. and indeed the world. and if that weren't enough, she's only allowed no more than 13 books. "time" magazine named her to the 50 most influential people. not just once but twice. today is a great opportunity for us to hear from someone who's led the media charge to focus our national conversation on issues related to the middle class and jobs. she's here with us to discuss what role mayors who drive our metro economy duringing in the national debates, please join me in welcoming arianna huffington. >> thank you so much, mayor villaraigosa. thank you all so much for inviting me to be with you today. and let me just say that i have been obsessively checking on four square and i'm not the mayor of the mayors conference. but power has not gotten to my head yet. >> i'm flat which made me really uncomfortable because ever since i moved from greece where i was

arianna huffington. >> well, ms. huffington has made a call. all of us can link up with our neighborhood patch and blog and tell our stories and the story of america's cities on huffington post. thank you very much. arianna huffington. i'm now very pleased to introduce -- i understand she's in the house, my good friend, the friend of cities all across the nation, nancy pelosi, democratic leader of the house 37 now, i don't use friend lightly. every single time we come to washington, d.c., we ask for a meeting. with nancy pelosi. we get it. every single time that we've come to washington, d.c., with a problem, nancy is working with us to find a solution. every single time we've said it's time for the congress to act on the issue of jobs and economic development, she has been there right along our side. please help me in welcoming my friend, our friend, a woman who was with us in baltimore whose dad was a mayor of baltimore, tommy d. alessandro, a grit leader for america, nancy pelosi, the democratic leade

arianna huffington joins me next. in the rewrite, we'll hear what contraception expert rush limbaugh has to say on the hot topic of the day. and we'll close with whitney houston the way she should be remembered, singing for nelson mandela. [ other merv ] welcome back to the cleaning games. let's get a recap, merv. [ merv ] thanks, other merv. mr. clean magic eraser extra power was three times faster on permanent marker. elsewhere against dirt, it was a sweep, with scuffed sports equipment... had it coming. grungy phones... oh! super dirty! and grimy car rims... wow! that really works! ...all taking losses. it looks like mr. clean has won everything. the cleaning games are finished? and so are we. okay, but i just took a mortgage out on the cabinet. [ male announcer ] clean more, work less, with the mr. clean magic eraser extra power. [ male announcer ] aggressive new styling. a more fuel-efficient turbocharged engine. and a completely redesigned interior. ♪ the new c-class with over 2,000 refinements. it's amazing...i

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that's arianna huffington. >> yes. >> she pushed it in. >> she pushed it deeper in. >> oh, my ooesiaaady, but i wouldn't let her do that for me. >> this past weekend was world sword swallowers day, the reason they celebrate it in february is because it's national swallowing disorders month. we have dan myer with us. how in the world do you become a sword swallower? >> careful, careful practice. it takes most people from three years to ten years to learn to swallow a single sword and another five years to master it. some people never learn. >> how long did it take you? >> it took me four years, about 13,000 unsuccessful attempts before i got my first sword down in 2001. >> where does it go? >> okay. what you have to do is slide it behind the back of the throat, behind the adam's open, flip open the epiglotas, past the diaphra diaphragm, past the liver and kidneys. piece of cake. >> can you do this for us right now? >> sure. i'd be glad to. ♪ >> tell me why you started doing this? >> as a little kid i suffered from social anxiety disorder, low self-esteem. the other kids would beat me u

arianna huffington, the editor in chief of the huffington media group and dana loesch and matthew dowdbig events, george, you had florida, big win for mitt romney and he follows it up with another one in nevada last night. seems like the inevitable nominee. >> i think he is the inevitable nominee but in florida turnout was down 14%. in 2008 there was a ballot initiative that may have pumped up -- still enthusiasm seems to be down. in nevada where it's really ground zero for the pain of the economic downturn, you would have thought enthusiasm for the republicans would be up, down again there. the romney people have always said we're not counting on enthusiasm to produce winning, we're counting on winning to produce enthusiasm and i don't see that happening yet. the second place candidate, newt gingrich, has no debate which is his strength until february 22nd. in the south he's already lost the biggest southern state in florida. he's not even on the ballot in his adopted home state of virginia. i think this is over. >> yeah, dana loesch, he says he'll continue to go on. there were rumors

with me now, arianna huffington. also with us is cnn contributor will keen. arianna, is this a sign of weakness in the american economy or a sign of strength? it was designed to catch and maybe it's doing what it's supposed to do. >> it's a sign of what a terrible state our economy is in and how the impact of the financial disaster is still being felt widely. because when you look at food stamps, for example, they are no longer just for people who are out of work. a lot of people are supplementing their income with food stamps. people go to food banks to supplement their income. poverty is up in the last ten years by over 50%. so there's something front door happening, which is the downward mobility trend in america, which is the exact opposite of the american dream. >> now, will doesn't really buy into 100% that there's a big income equality and people are getting hurt so much more or not that -- >> no, it's not that i don't buy into the existence of inequal y inequality, but that ip ee zalt a problem. what i agree with, as arianna just said is that we have h

. >> being debaters tend to do well in britain, arianna huffington was at cambridge.. are you going to do as well as her? >> maybe better, hopefully better. >> what is the role of accents, she is from greek origin. does it make a difference when you get to these great british universities with the wits? >> i think initially it does because -- >> favorable or unfavorable. >> unfavorable to begin with. in england, if you have a foreign accent to begin with, it's unfavorable, less so than earlier times. now people don't make that effort to adopt the english accent. but what happens is over time because there have been so many singaporeans, australians, canadians. >> americans. >> americans as well who have blazed a trail of glory, if you distinguish yourself, over time you are seen as the exotic foreigner who can thrive on the english scene and to the credit of both oxford and cambridge and england as a whole, argument and rigor in argument is a prized trait, less so than before perhaps, but still a prized trait. >> have you been to ireland, rigor and argument is often r

washington, including remarks from democratic leader nancy pelosi and "the huffington post" blogs' arianna huffingtonand local food sustainability and renewable energy. with president obama releasing his $3.8 trillion budget proposal for fiscal year 2013, a number of his cabinet secretaries will be heading to capitol hill tuesday to testify about the newly released request. at 10:00 a.m. eastern, c-span 3 will have live coverage of a senate finance committee hearing with treasury secretary tim geithner. and over on c-span, defense secretary leon panetta and joint chiefs of staff chairman general martin dempsey will testify before the senate armed services committee on the defense department's 2013 budget. it calls for $525.4 billion in discretionary spending. a 1% decrease from last year. and that gets under way at 9:30 eastern. >>> now online at the c-span video library, speeches from last weekend's conservative action conference. >> we must outsmart the liberals. we must outsmart the stupid people that are trying to ruin america. >> it's about one country united under god. we aren't red americans,

. >>> and then "get real," the real arianna huffington reacts to the fake. we'll talk about that.e watching "starting point." whoa. whoa. how do you top great vacations? whoa. getting twice the points on great vacations. whoa! use chase sapphire preferred and now get two times the points on travel, and two times the points on dining and no foreign transaction fees. whoa! chase sapphire preferred. a card of a different color. apply now at chasesapphire.com/preferred today is gonna be an important day for us. you ready? we wanna be our brother's keeper. what's number two we wanna do? bring it up to 90 decatherms. how bout ya, joe? let's go ahead and bring it online. attention on site, attention on site. now starting unit nine. some of the world's cleanest gas turbines are now powering some of america's biggest cities. siemens. answers. ♪ >>> that's so sad. welcome back, everybody. the this morning president obama is going to submit his 2013 budget proposal to congress. the plan includes a tax hikes on wealthiest americans and targeted investments, including this. $476 billion for in