we'll talk to former secretary of state madeleine albright and former national security adviser brent scowcroft. >> ifill: and i'm gwen ifill, in tampa, florida, where we've come for a weeklong look at what americans think about their government. tonight's topic: the economic downturn hits home. first, paul solman reports on florida's real estate crisis, the high cost of foreclosure. >> reporter: do you feel bad? >> absolutely. i cried every night. how can i not pay these people sfwhak this is my home. it's hard. >> reporter: but finally you had no choice. >> no. it's been hard. >> ifill: then, we look at how the sluggish economy is costing individuals their american dreams, and what they want the government to do about it. >> lehrer: plus, ray suarez looks at poland two days after the plane crash that killed 96 people, including the president and other top government officials. that's all ahead on tonight's newshour. major funding for the pbs newshour is provided by: >> what the world needs now is energy. the energy to get the economy humming again. the energy to tackle challenges like climate

." >> host: and brent scowcroft's depiction of cheney. >> guest: i'm aware of that description.'ve talked to a number of people who have known cheney over the years. i heard david gergen recently on cnn talking about al haig after he passed. and haig had a quadruple bypassed and how he changed after that. when i was writing "worse than watergate," i talked about cheney's health and the fact he wouldn't release his health records. and i did a lot of digging then. and i actually talked to a doctor very recently who was doing some more research on this subject as to whether a quadruple bypass does change a personality. 'cause i think there were two different cheneys. it's only anecdotal at this point as to whether personalities change in these sidewalks. -- circumstances. but from those who knew -- i didn't know dick cheney at the nixon white house in his earlier iteration. i knew people who worked with him when he was white house chief of staff. they were not overly impressed with him then. i must say that i find him a rather troubling character. i find him a very typical authorit

. >> host: in jordan and syria you describe brent scowcroft in both places and increase in the price of food which in c rea is extremely serious and the kind of small resentment that began to build up within jordanian and syrian communities that began to think maybe we working to much to these refugees. >> guest: think about this. you described all of the bad things that have happened so you would think that at some moment both jordanians and syrians would turn on these refugees because they are in neighborhoods easy to find but the more important thing is they haven't. his there is crumbled no doubt about that those iraqis are rough and they don't say these are thank you and we thought they were more sophisticated than they are. there's a lot of grumbling. i had to move out of my neighborhood because i had it with all these iraqi. yes that happens. but considering the impact on their own societies it has always been impressive to me that both jordanians and syrians have accepted these are iraqis in to their necks. now mind you christian neighborhoods, sunnis go to sunni neighborhood

was not a good i know people made a lot out of the toast and there was more going on with the brent scowcrofttoast to the chinese leadership but tiananmen square was horrible. >> host: that was a downside of the realism that if you're the idealistic and tiananmen square happens you react and push back on china. if you are a realist to say that is an internal affairs. >> guest: i tended to be critical of democratic and republican presidents both on china i don't think the case can be made when we cooperate with china things get better. i don't think the case can be made out was one of the only people and by a organization was rumsfeld, jack kemp, from global trade relations but i didn't. they should be tougher and they should be tougher now. we are way too easy because what they are doing is bad. the policies are bad. they killed girls. that is a terrible terrible thing and other oppressive things. >> host: i also think it in a oppressive society suppresses free flow of information will end up losing to win in india which is a messy economy but allows a free expression that will be a struggle