a democrat named liz mathis. and perhaps they picked her because they were treated to calls like this against her. >> so before you support liz mathis, call her and ask her which homosexual sex act she endorses. >> yes, that's how the campaign went in iowa. we'll have more on that coming up later in the show tonight. so the democrat won that race in iowa. the democrats, there, hold on to the state senate in iowa. and the genius republican plan by the genius republican governor there is foiled. that happened in iowa. even though there was national focus on ballot measures in a few different states last night, off-the-radar places like iowa and new jersey and kentucky had some pretty striking results. in kentucky, a number of statewide office holders were up for election, and it was nearly a clean sweep for the democrats, in kentucky. democratic governor steve bashir and abramsome won re-election by a 20-point margin. the state auditor's race and the attorney general's race, despite some big national guns weighing

so the democrat won that race in iowa. the democrats, there, hold on to the state senate in iowa.plan wa. by the genius republican governor there is foiled. that happened in iowa. even though there was national focus on ballot measures in a e1 few different states last night, and new jersey and kentucky hadi some pretty striking results.+ in kentucky, a number of statewide office holders were up for election, and it was nearly a clean sweep for the democrats, in kentucky. abramson won re-election by a 20-point margin.5a the state auditor's race and th attorney general's race, despite some big national guns weighing on behalf of the republ'ç people like mike huckabee, rudy giuliani, sarah palin, the republican in the ag's race just got creamed. and in fact, in all of those other races.lpe1i]c actually, a quick correction on the attorney general thing. i have been calling the pa-pool, because it's spelled p'pool, but it's pronounced my apologies.q the only race that a republican won last night in kentucky, only statewide race was for agricultural commissioner. despite that electo

they will all take for democratic candidates. we have wonderful democratic candidates all over the country. the republicans sit in six districts that were either won by president obama or john kerry in the past. >> do you have the optimism that the president will be elected and democrats will hold the senate? leading democrats will be back in charge of everything. >> the president will be reelected and the other side is doing everything they can to help us. the republicans have not indicated they like any of the candidates in any substantial numbers. i think president obama is coming up in the polls and that is a reflection that the american people believe he is what he is. that is a thoughtful and courageous leader that has looked at health problems and has tried to come up with solutions. >> you were at a political gathering in your district where you were reported to have said that no president since abraham lincoln has had a tougher job than barack obama. do you believe that? >> roosevelt had an extraordinary economic challen

you're a democrat. he's a democrat. >> right. >> you are jewish. he's jewish. you vote the same.erence? >> you want a congressman where you know if you have a problem with the federal government you can tap him on the shoulder and tell him good-bye. that accessibility is probably the single most important thing. >> in a race between two almost identical politicians, the bumper stickers aren't going to be so clear. he's been in congress pretty long. you have been in congress a real long time and both somewhat effective. where are you going to be able to get the message across that i'm even better than him? >> it's your last point. both somewhat effective. if you want to get down to what we have accomplished in congress, there's really no comparison. >> and no end to this fight. the reform movement in california did not stop with redistricting. voters made another change. next year there will be one super primary for everybody. republicans, democrats and independents. and the top two vote getters will square off again in the main election in november. >> it may create situations wh

floor. >> it be democrats take the house next year, do you want his do -- if the democrats take the house next year, do you want eric cantor's job? >> i think we will take the house. the president's numbers have come up over the last 30 days. that is a good sign. they are not where we would like them to be. the president has taken the message that we are on the side of working americans, trying to get a jobs bill passed, trying to stimulate the economy, to grow and create jobs. the american public sees that as a positive effort. that is why his numbers are going up. the president has led a successful effort to eliminate osama bin laden, he limit his number 2, and see muammar gaddafi, one of the senate interests -- significant terrorists of our time taken out without a single loss of life. this president has shown the effectiveness to the international community. the fact that he has focused on jobs at home means his numbers are going up. let me tell you why we will take back the house. the independents in america are looking for solutions. the independents looking for common sense. they a

please welcome back to the program house democratic leader nancy pelosi. and applause] [cheers and applause] thanks for joining us again. >> my pleasure. >> jon: how are you? you know, congress oh, for goodness sakes. they are so sweet. their approval rating right now is slightly below, from what i understand hepatitis c. >> and you wonder who are these people who approve of congress, the 9%? [ laughter ] >> jon: why do you think that is? >> let me -- last time i was here in april of 2009 -- that was the last time i was on the show, democrats were in control congressional rating was 40%. 40%, you remember that? note to self. >> jon: not only do i not remember that. the whole 2009 thing you mentioned that went past me as well. >> we have work to do. >>. >> jon: it feels like they take good intentions. it's where good intentions go to die. >> no. well, not when we were in the majority. we took them to a place to make survival to success. >> jon: i understand. working class families. look at me pelosi. [ laughter ] it's we'll use the example of this vocal rul

that was our offer to the democrats. in addition to which there was other revenue, you know it, total about $500 billion. this had never been proposed by republicans before because it would mean that people in the upper brackets, whatever their tax rate was, would be paying more taxes because their loopholes, the deductions and credits that they take advantage of, would no longer exist. >> i want to ask you quickly where we go from here. so the question is, if you fail, ultimately, there are automatic spending cuts that happen. one of the big ones is on defense. secretary panetta has said the following about the impact of that. sequester, he said, which is the process by which those automatic triggers go into place, will lead to a hollow force that in effect invites aggression. he also said in a letter to senator mccain of armed services, the impact of these cuts would be devastating for the department of defense. as a result we would have to formulate a new security strategy that accepted substantial risk of not meeting

to democrats in a state that tends to provide the democratic base. it's such a one-party state i think there are five republicans in the state senate and 25 too or something like that the margin is start but when you get a republican who can appeal to the democratic voters or independent voters that republicans can surprise some democrats. they raised something like $400,000 in the first three days as a candidate. that's more than both of her democratic opponent raising the previous quarter. so it is a sort of sleeper race to watch an opportunity for the republicans may be to create a bit of a surprise. in connecticut interestingly i think it's the end of the day we will break towards democrats the two contests on the republican side better going to be such, competitive next year for the races in nevada which i think is the greatest contrast of the need to candidates who are going to run up against each other. you've got dean heller, the guy that rides his horse into the sierra nevada mountains for his idea of a vacation every summer from carson city

it's a winner for the democrats. senator charles schumer told "the new york times" 2012 is going to be a lot different from 2010 for voters because, "jobs and income inequality are going to be the number one issue. simply cutting government isn't going to work." i toldly agree. you know, i picked up the paper on thanksgiving morning and i read in "the new york times" an editorial, it said the poor, the near poor, and you. and i thought that this was so well written and so to the point because you couldn't -- you don't even have to be a news follower to follow this one, okay? it said loud and clear that one-third of americans, one out of every three americans, is living in poverty. we sit here bickering over a little bit of a tax cut, we sit here bickering over a little bit of an unemployment extension of benefits, but in the big, big picture, what are we going to do? where's the war on poverty? where's the big lift? where's the big idea to turn this whole thing around? what's so disheartening about it is if you can't

the amount of entitlement savings that was proposed by democrats on the super committee, senate democrats, exceeded the amount of savings proposed by simpson-bowles and everyone said that's a very, very serious measure. yes, there were some democrats who didn't like it. but, we knew we had to do that, and we did. and just one other point, everyone in the room agrees that democrats put entitlements on the table. rob portman, one of the republican super-negotiators, said when asked did democrats put entitlements on the table, he said, yes, i give them credit for that. that's his words, not mine. >> senator, let me ask you about simpson/bowles. this, of course, was the panel that was convened, it was set up by praums, alan simpson, former senator of wyoming republican, erskine bowles, a democrat. it did call for tax increases. it did call for cutting benefits to social security and medicare. it did call for sweeping tax reform. there a prospect of some revival of simpson/bowles now? >> yes. i believe this is a contrarian view, but we have a good chance of actually getting the big package, bi

look, first of all, liberal democrats, let's be clear, liberal democrats are very happy with this presidenty with president clinton too. [f you look at the gallup weekly tracking poll, go all the way back, very far back, i mean, obama stays in the 70s, goes up into the 80s with liberal democrats. >> let me go with that. joan, you've perked me up here. i'm going to challenge you and you can tell me what you're thinking here. here we have the latest nbc/"wall street journal" poll making that same point. should the democrats nominate obama again. 73%, that's a pretty good endorsement by the disgruntled liberals. only 20% nominate someone else, hillary or someone else. how can you say that crowds like the ones who watch this show and myself oftentimes are disgruntled and permanently so? >> you know, there's a difference between wanting to dump a guy out of office and being happy with him and liberals are in between there. they're not ready to dump obama. some of them are, but most of them aren't ready to dump him. but there is a broad dissatisfaction, right? the people who are approving of him

our economy certainly is not democratic so we believe that we need to democratize the economy and frankly that means everything from making it easier to form unions and getting more people and even larger economic decisions i mean if you look at what happened a few years ago on wall street there was a few people that were screwing the rest of us and then they turned around to the government and said we've been gambling with the public's money and now the economy is about to crash so you better bail us out or the economy is going to crash and they essentially force the public to bear the brunt of their mistakes i once they start making money you know the old you know socialism has had many definitions. and the definition of definition was basically the state owns everything the means of production and supply that's not at all what you're talking about you're talking about is something that is like the system in norway or from other denmark or sweeteners or france and germany for that matter are democratic socialist nations so what is it or why is it that these nations that are democratic s

>>chris: are you saying this is all the democrats' fault? >>guest: i am not saying it is anybody's fault. you have people who have very different views, frankly, of what it means to produce, what it takes to produce jobs and to produce economic growth. it is not about assigning blame, but, we are unaware of any democratic offer that didn't include at least $1 trillion tax officer on the american committee. now, again, that is not a matter of blame. but it is a matter of fact we believe that is bad for the economy. >>chris: let me pick up on that and we will talk with a democrat congressman about entitlements on what they were willing and not willing to do. the fact is republicans, they say, republicans would not grow to a sizable increase in taxes especially on the wealthy because even the toomey plan, yes, it would do away with deductions but it was going to have a 20 percent reduction if the tax rate, not only would the bush tax rates be extended but there would be a 20 percent reduction to 28 percent and the result would be a huge tax win

blame congress. >> eric: democrats had a -- >> bob: democrats had prose sal, too late. they had a proposal. came from the president of the united states the members of the committee. they said fine, you buckled on entitlement. we will give you the tack cuts but you got to keep pushing. >> dana: who wanted the tax cuts extended is president obama. that's when he had a big ceremony. regardless of grover norquist as a person, what he embodied is republicans stand for government cutting spending. what i think needs to happen is we have to have a reality check on entitlement spending. the budget is a pie chart. entitlement are growing like this. everything else is squeezed. everything we care about. maybe it's education spending or this and that. every day we wait -- >> eric: this is important. can we talk -- right now the super committee builts. >> bob: here is what you are faced with. what happens at the end of the year payroll tax cults go away. they don't get extended 2 %. the extension of unemployment benefits go away. the last thing is they are not going to do away wit

sarah on the democrats' line.aller: i would be for a third- party candidate if it was just to give you a third option, but usually a third-party candidate is thrown in there by one side of the others to work their campaign. you know what happens is we become even more divided at the country. i think having the two parties is divisive enough. why would you divide it three times, four times, five times? the last guy said six times. can we get along? host: let me see if you can clarify -- the you see any value for having a third party at all? >> caller: i want the part -- the best person to be president. currently, i think that is barack obama a. at that stage is for me, i will vote for someone else. i do not want somebody in there just to have a card party and make it harder for the other candidates. i want the person to be a really a legitimate candidate. host: mesa, arizona, you are next on our independent line. caller: we need a third party. we have to have an entire congress and president altogether with a new i

>> that is a democrat's plan. not the democratic plan.ix democrats are on this committee and though i i have a great deal of admiration for all of them, democrats have no not coalesced around a plan. >> chris: isn't that a problem ten days out that the democrats don't have a plan? >> republicans don't have a plan. we're there to develop a bipartisan plan. that's why it's 6-6. i believe we can get to a bipartisan plan. we've got to get realistic about these so-called tax increases. how do you define the close of a loophole as a tax increase is beyond me. if you have someone who is supposed to be paying 30, 35% in taxes yet can find loop hopes not to pay anything and say it's fair, but it's unfair to close the loophole, i don't understand that. >> chris: that's not the typical situation. say you're in the 35% bracket and take a mortgage deduction on your home. instead of getting the full value of that dedsk, if you have two-thirds, you're paying more in taxes. that's a tax increase. >> that's not all we're talking about. we're talking about

that is a concern for democratic governors as well. we believe that leadership involves not only making right cuts but also protecting right priorities. knowing where we need to invest in things like education, innovation, infrastructure, rebuilding our country. so all of us have had to deal with pension sustainibility and keeping pension system solvent. difference is that we've done it and we have enough problems without turning on one another and undermining the basic dignity of work. >> what is your take on the other issue? issue three? which rules out mandate on the president's health care law? seems like a swing vote. >> i didn't pay attention until tonight seeing it on your program. then, i went online and read about it. and saw that what it said in there and that is what we plan to allow people to do from that universal health care and look to be one of the earliest because we think that that will be an advantage for us for small business creation and bringing down costs of health care. >> do you think health care will play as a

mcdonald works with democrats. chris christie works with democrats.. it's not a difficult formula. >> you said it right, joe. i don't think the people are ideological as much as they want jobs. they will look to whoever is focus on their needs. seems to be doing the job and creating jobs isn't waving a magic wand. it's a series of small steps the governors can take to just improve the economy bit by bit. those doing it will get re-elected and those that aren't won't. >> what's great to see is mcdonald was very much about accountability. it's about taking ownership and people want practicality and practical initiatives that are going to lead to job creation. >> whether you look at bob mcdonald from virginia on the right. >> yeah. >> or martin o'malley, border state on the left. both guys are aggressive and lean forward in their own way. they are rewarded by the voters. >> they are ones to watch for sure. miles, thank you for being here. >>> still ahead, eric bates with how occupy wall street was born and where it is going now. [ thunder rumbles ] what

they respect the rules of democratic politics. the suggestion that a faithful muslims cannot thrive in a democracy is insulting, dangerous, and wrong. they do it in this country every day. reasonable people can disagree on a lot, but there are things that all parties, religious and secular, must be right. not just for us to trust them, but most importantly for the people of the region and of the countries themselves to trust them to protect their hard-won rights. parties committed to democracies must reject violence. they must abide by the rule of law and respect the freedoms of speech, religion, association, and assembly. they must respect the rights of women and minorities. they must let go of power if defeated at the calls. in a region with a deep divisions within and between religions, they cannot be the spark that starts kong -- a confrontation. what part is called themselves as less important to us and what they actually do. we applaud ndi across the political spectrum and around the globe. we needed to reinforce these norms

fdr democrats. they just did not like each other and humphrey was one of the people that convinced them they will never win an election if they did not get together. >> he ran for senate, then? >> he ran for senate in 1948. >> we will talk a little bit about the speech. from 1960, when he first seriously thought about running for president. this is one of those joy of being a politician. let's watch. >> how do you think your race is going? >> it has been an uphill fight. i think we have been doing quite well. >> what has been the most exciting part of the campaign? >> right now. >> thank you, senator. >> this is good fun. politics ought to be fun. >> boats for hubert, hubert vote for hubert, hubert humphrey, the president for you and me ♪ >> ec am enjoying life. did he bring this to his politics all the time? >> it would be 11:00 at night and he would get off of a plane and work until 3:00 in the morning. he would still be like that. >> what were some of his other characteristics? i read that he was