one blogger we spoke to, beth perry, posed a question for our panel. >> how does the concept of a postracial america affect your day-to-day reporting? and for those of us who have lived experiences that prove that we might not be there yet, how do you plan to address that? >> sam? >> that's a good question. i mean, i came to washington in february of '61 and participated in some extent covering the great civil rights movement and the marches and what have you. and of course, we looked at it in a different way--talk about conflict, talk about the danger and all of that. now, with our first african-american president and with the country moving more rapidly, i would hope by geometric progression, toward nirvana, where we hope we'll eventually get, the coverage is different, and the way we look at things have to be different. >> jim, pew center for people and the press surveyed and asked people where they get their information with all this stuff out there. 70% say tv, 40% say internet, 35% say papers. where's it going? >> i think increasingly, it's going to be on the internet, but then probabl

campaigns when all they are interested in is stirring it up between the candidates. >> well, beth it does sound like the perryany more debates. and if you look at their history, they believe he is better at doing the hand-to-hand campaigning. >> debates are definitely not his strong suit. that's obvious. but the other thing we've learned from this primary so far is that debates do matter. we have learned a lot about the candidates. it's always fashionable to say there's too many debates. frankly, we've learned about the candidates have sort of revealed themselves in all of these debates. i'm not sure that perry is doing himself a favor. i think he needs to prove that he can go toe-to-toe with whether it's romney or eventually obama, and so he needs to get in the mix. >> michael steele if you are mitt romney, don't you want less debates now as well because every time we've had a debate it seems like the guy that benefits is herman cain. >> from romney's perspective, that may not be a bad thing. at the end of the day, it's all about organization on the ground when you are talking about the january 3rd kickoff i

he had the worst of it last june beth worst in june and fourth again today it was yesterday that he was unsure about it i mean it is calling it a flip flop as rick perrybut rick perry is trying to beat him for the nomination. but i mean look he was there was just kind of gives bush in that reason stuck his foot in his mouth he has the right position now so they have what you have you guys were a question that i hope you'll answer with some small amount of candor because you know i've been unwilling to be critical of president obama on times that you've asked me this if mitt romney you know if we were talking two years ago on the field is wide open and nobody even knew would you be defending him as aggressively as as you i'm not going to get i didn't i say obvious contribution i was saying i was most charitable reading is that. the obvious the untrammeled reading is the one that you gave i don't know what's in his mind he you know i think he's got a i think he's doing this and i think he's been doing that for a long long time and i think what undermines him doing this by the way and putting his hand to the to the wind and seeing where it's that he was

beth rhinehart. nice to see you. thanks for joining us. >> thanks. >> it's not the first time we've been here. this is an issue raised by steve forbes, now advising perrywas gary bauer during the 2000 campaign. but it's an issue that really hasn't produced a winner, so why do you think the perry camp thinks that it's going to work this time? >> i think that they're seeing the excitement that herman cain's 9-9-9 plan generated, the idea of throwing out the old tax code and doing something completely different, has a lot of political appeal so they're trying to capture some of that. today newt gingrich is campaigning in iowa on what he's call an optional flat tax, so he's climbing on the same band wagon. >> the flat tax would lower income tax rates for the rich, under most flat tax plans it would eliminate taxes on capital gains and dividends, which most often benefit those with more money. i'm going to throw up some poll numbers right here, a recent "national journal" poll found 59% of adults completely agree or mostly agree with the occupy wall street protesters. we're looking at this right here. so what do you think? is lower taxes for the rich really