>> to you first and then i'll to go donna brazile.to barack obama here? >> at this juncture, i still the it is mitt romney, rick pery and possibly bachmann in that order. bachmann has to prove she can go beyond this coliseum. right now she can capture the hearts of the right wing. she has to prove she can be a general election candidate before republicans will really take her seriously and move her into that top tier. so it is romney, perry right now. >> that question to you, donna brazile. is there anyone you see that pose as threat to the president in 2012? >> i won't disagree with his analysis. but the biggest threat is lack of enthusiasm and lack of jobs. if the president is able to turn the economy around, at least people believe that it is turned around and the base and swing voters are enthusiastic about voting, then i don't think the president needs to spend any sleepless nights worrying about michele bachmann, rick perry or mitt romney. >> i was going to ask. what would be the definition, do you think, of turning the economy

i want to bring in cnn contributors, donna brazile and alex castelanos.erstand you got information from your democratic sources. do you have more information? >> the minority leader leads by consensus. she enjoys listening to her caucus. i have just received a copy of some of the broad outlines of the proposal. i believe tomorrow when she has an opportunity to really get into the details she will be able to explain the framework of this. look, we knew from day one that the democrats could not swallow cuts, cuts, cuts. it appears that the cuts in the discretionary part of this so-called framework will come from what we call the safety net. the social safety net as well as defense. that should at least on the issue of fairness, that should give some democrats reason to take another look at this deal. there is also an exemptions of medicaid and programs for low income americans. after all, we are still coming out of the recession. for many americans they are still in the recession. in fact, some americans are in a big depression. i think they are going to lo

and joining us, donna brazile, george will and jeff zeleny of "the new york times." every time a local business opens its doors or creates another laptop bag or hires another employee, it's not just good for business -- it's good for the entire community. at bank of america, we know the impact that local businesses have on communities, so we're helping them with advice from local business experts and extending $18 billion in credit last year. that's how we're helping set opportunity in motion. ♪ >>> the secret is out, it seems within seconds -- >> sarah palin was also at the fair today. >> on this day, she happens to in iowa. >> another leg of her one-nation bus tour. >> grabbing the attention of iowans, and, yes, the media. >>> then mother of the momma grizzly, sarah palin with a slick new video. acting more and more as a candidate. she told me last week in iowa, she'll make her final decision next month. joining me on the political "roundtable," george will, democratic strategist donna bra zile, frank luntz and jeff zeleny. thanks for being here. george, i'll start

brownstein and two women who know the personal and political tolls the monster hurricanes can take, donna brazile and cokie roberts. >>> welcome to the program, i'm jake tapper. christiane will be back next week. welcome to a special west coast edition of "this week." lots to get to. and the news since your morning papers is that hurricane irene is bearing down on new england. they are bracing for the worst. the streets are desserted. and thoususds are takinggover in city shelters. irene up and down the east coast, we have seen devastation in north carolina. at least nine people have been killed. more than 3 million homes are without power. abc news has team coverage with correspondents akrocross the region. irene is up the east coast. ashleigh banfield, we see the winds are kicking up strong behind you. >> reporter: boy, are they? i have been told they are up to 65 miles an hour. my personal gust meeter is not up to bar. the story here is not as much wind as it is surge. we are expecting an eight-foot surge. you see boats at the same level atat the houses. these houses, mandatory evacuation. the

. >> and we spoke to donna brazil about how she thinks the president performed during the negotiation autos the president took the position that he wanted to protect core principals of the democratic party protect medicaid and civilian and a to os ls protect social security. so he did not get everything he wanted including revenue increases, closing loophole his role is to unite the country to fight this battle sometime again in the future. >> and emphasized the need to get the economy running by getting people back to work. >> remember the days when bay area cities had large budget surpluses and growing economies? city leaders in brentwood say that is what they're exkbreernsing now and this is despite the recession. >> despite having 10 year housing boom brentwood is in a financial position most other cities would envy. >> they've been well managed. >> and the director of economic development points a project that is just one example of a well his community enjoy autos there is a 30% budget surplus. and we've kept our permit counter open 45 hours per week and have no cuts in services

, but i was having a conversation with several prominent democrats, including our contributor, donna brazile recently, who said they were hearing rumblings that some liberals said let's find somebody to fund a third party liberal candidacy to stand up and say obama's not tough enough. is that going to happen? i don't think so. but the depth of the sour grapes and raw feelings, again, the challenge for any incumbent is very different. i believe and most democrats believe the challenge for this incumbent democrat, because he ran as an aspirational, transformational hope candidacy, did inspire some new voters to come to the process. if they somehow feel they were let down, it's harder to get them to come out to fight, not just to vote, but to volunteer and to come to the office and to do all the little things the obama campaign did masterfully in putting together a great campaign. if they're off their game just a little bit in a competitive year, could make the difference. look, it's a long way out but that's why when axelrod left the white house, they understand if it's a 50/50 race, it is cri

here to talk about it, democratic strategist donna brazile and republican consultant alex, they're bothnn contributors. what everybody is talking about right now is this new book by cheney, which is essentially says among other things, i think the headline that we all jumped on today was, in 2007, years after iraq and afghanistan started, there was this apparent nuclear plant in syria, and they found out about it. cheney advised the president, let's go blow it up. the president said no. none the less, i mean, when you look at that and you look at the to totality of what the bush administration done, now we have the arab spring and democracy rising apparently or perhaps in the middle east. did george w. bush have it right? >> i think you're going to have a pretty good case that he did. george bush got out there before anyone and said, is democracy something reserved for us alone? is that something that belongs to other people? one thing you can credit the democratic party, they led on civil rights in the united states. they said this freedom thing belongs to everybody. doesn't matter wha

i want to bring in donna brazil and alex castelanos. sultant and former adviser to mitt romney's campaign. donna, imagine that. using the senate floor to come to consensus, to listen to someone else's arguments and get your point across while being civil at the same time. >> well, look, there is nothing wrong with that, don, as you know. alex and i have civil conversations all the time. the question tonight, don, is what's in the deal for the vast majority of americans who wanted to see a balanced approach. i think when the president tonight outlined that there are core priorities that are protected. i think democrats are going to look to see if social security was protected, medicaid protected. of course civilian and military pay protected. student aid and student loans and many of the things that will not only help those who can least afford any more draconian cuts, but we don't want to see anything that will stall our recovery. when i heard "supercommittee," i said i hope they will consider job creation. we need to start growing jobs

. >> we'll get donna brazill to help co-anchor with us tomorrow. i like that idea. >> it was fun. tomorrow morning 9:00 eastern, noon, state of the union. thanks for letting me crash your show. >> loved this. see you back here at 10:00. good night. >>> tonight on "cnn presents" rescue. what it takes to become one of the coast guard's elite rescue swimmers. >> here we go. >> we'll go inside a rescue mission. hollywood hustle. >> you say you've been robbed for the last few decades. >> what would you call it? >> pop star david cassidy claims he was ripped off over a pop idol image. but first, a pizza delivery man robs a bank with a bomb around his neck. >> these suckers say you got 55 minutes, man. what are you going to do? >> and that's just the beginning of one of the most bizarre crimes ever. cnn's drew griffin unravels the twisted tale of the man known as the pizza bomber. >> 911. what is your emergency? >> yes. we've just been robbed. >> was anyone hurt? >> no. he just walked out the door. >> august 28, 2003, erie, pennsylvania. within minutes of robbing a bank brian wells is su

spoke earlier with donna brazile and a republican strategist alex castiano. >> it's true that texas hasation in creating jobs since the recession but many are in the public sector and funded by federal stimulus money. when he criticized president obama's performance, isn't he hypocritical here? >> that's a difference between playing in the minor leagues and big league ball in a presidential race. you have to think two or three moves down the road. i think on some of the big government issues, governor perry will have a lot to explain. his ben bernanke comment will come back to bite him because it turns out as a governor he wrote a letter to bernanke asking for that t.a.r.p. program. what you say has to match up with what you do at the presidential level. >> governor perry isn't alone though. a lot of governors who criticized this went to accept the funds. >> in the case of texas governor perry used the money to basically fill that gap with the budget shortfall and it allowed him not to tap too deeply into the rainy day fund. also at a time when other governors were cutting back and furl

let's talk to donna brazile. cnn contributors. let me put on the table, here's one potential.f texas, he had the george w. bush and early john mccain immigration and illegal immigrants go to school and state resident rate. here's what he said to describe the support for that. you must describe in a texas classroom, we don't care where you come from but where you are going and we're going to do everything that we can to get there. that must include the undocumented workers. alex n. a tee party republican party, might that be a speed bump, if not a road block for governor perry? >> i think in a very conservative republican party that might be a speed bump along with governor perry spending a lot of money in texas. it's a large state. he tried to expand the trans texas corridor, which is a new highway system for the next 50 years in texas that would have take answer lot of texas land, big government grabbing private land. so there are a lot of things that he's going to have to deal with. one of them is that some of the growth in jobs in texas have been government jobs. so he's go

donna brazil, alex castianos. >>> up next, the battle to control libya.with the help of air power appear to be moving closer to tripoli. we'll speak with two reporters on the ground in tripoli and with the opposition. we'll give you the latest. also our 360 special investigation calling it ungodly discipline. parents who believe the bible tells them to physically discipline their kids. we're talking about hitting with rods, wooden spoons, belts. led to one little girl's death. we'll speak to a woman who was beaten by her parents. we'll talk about how many pastors these days are encouraging parents to do this and how that information is being misinterpreted and abused by some parents. we'll be right back. ♪ [ male announcer ] how could a luminous protein in jellyfish, impact life expectancy in the u.s., real estate in hong kong, and the optics industry in germany? at t. rowe price, we understand the connections of a complex, global economy. it's just one reason over 75% of our mutual funds beat their 10-year lipper average. t. rowe price. invest with confi

donna brazile, the one-time campaign manager for al gore's presidential campaign will make a cameo on series this fall. i'll be watching. >>> and if you live in the new york city area, you probably heard just a few times during the coverage, the important coverage of hurricane irene. [ speaking spanish ] >> obviously the mayor wanting to get important information to the spanish-speaking community, and it was those spanish-speaking updates by mayor bloomberg that inspired the twitter page that's a mix of spanish and english. it turns out elbloombito said the mayor's spanish was easy to poke fun of. just a little levity out there. some things we just thought you should know. for a very long time. ♪ knowing that i could smoke during the first week was really important to me. [ male announcer ] chantix is a non-nicotine pill proven to help people quit smoking. [ jeff ] chantix reduced my urge to smoke, and personally that's what i knew i needed. [ male announcer ] some people had changes in behavior, thinking or mood, hostility, agitation, depressed mood and suicidal thoughts or actions w

donna brazil, alex castianos. >>> up next, the battle to control libya. rebels with the help of air power appear to be moving closer to tripoli. we'll speak with two reporters on the ground in tripoli and with the opposition. we'll give you the latest. also our 360 special investigation calling it ungodly discipline. parents who believe the bible tells them to physically discipline their kids. we're talking about hitting with rods, wooden spoons, belts. led to one little girl's death. we'll speak to a woman who was beaten by her parents. we'll talk about how many pastors these days are encouraging parents to do this and how that information is being misinterpreted and abused by some parents. we'll be right back. the eagle flies at dawn. the monkey eats custard. price-line ne-go-ti-a-tor. so, you've been double crossed by other travel sites and now you want to try the real deal. yes, is it true that name your own price... ...got even easier? affirmative. we'll show you other people's winning hotel bids. so i'll know how much to bid... ...and save up to 60%

the democratic strategist donna brazile and rich gailen. we're hearing from some republicans, rich, that maybe chris christie, paul ryan should reconsider and throw their hats in the ring. anything going on here we need to know? >> it's a little bit like sitting in the stands of the redskins game. the most popular guy in the stadium is the backup quarterback because he hasn't thrown an interception. he hasn't fumbled a snap from center. you're a little concerned about the fact that the guy is in there. i think it's fine for the process. i think letting people have another look. there's a lot of other people. mitch daniels could be back in. >> hrudey giuliani told piers morgan he'll make an end by the end of september. don't forget there's a former vice presidential nominee whose name happens to be sarah pay lynn. she'll still weighing in. >> absolutely. there's a lot of money on the sleens, a lot of accomplishment republicans still looking for a candidate. my guess is we're see a couple more candidates and the field will probably settle dow

joining us the democratic strategist donna brazille and also our cnn political contributor the republicantegist alex casiano. alex i'll start with you. i want you to react. sarah palin was on fox last night. she's a fox news contributor. she had this to say about mitt romney's sort of last-minute decision to oppose the debt ceiling compromise that was approved. listen to how she reacted. >> dog gone it, i want these candidates who are in there. i want them to not be sitting back and, bless his heart, i have respect for mitt romney, but i do not have respect for what he's done through this debt increase debate. he did this, he waited until it was a done deal that we would increase the debt ceiling and more money would be spent, more money borrow and then spent on bigger government and then he came out and made a statement that, oh, he didn't like the deal after all. >> she kept raising her finger and looking which way the wind was blowing. does she have a point? >> well, i want to defend mitt romney here, even though i'm not supporting mitt or any other republican candidate. whoever is goi

. >> joining us is donna brazile and jay mullings.enator john kerry was forcible in speaking out against the tea party. >> what we have is a group of people who are completely unaware or didn't care about the consequences of their actions. they were actually arguing for a default. the media has got to begin to not give equal time or equal balance to an absolutely absurd notion just because somebody asserts it. or simply because somebody says something, which everybody knows is not factual. it doesn't deserve the same credit as a legitimate idea about what you do. >> does he have a point? >> first of all, he's confusing the fairness doctrine with the equal time rule, which has its grounding in broadcast, not cable or press. so a, h edoesn't know what he's talking about. b, i don't think he's correct in the fact that these people don't have any standing. there are 84 republican freshmen. just tok on the safe side, let's say half of them adhere to the tea party. there are 41 members of the congressional black caucus and 31 member os of t

. >> in recent days the democratic national committee has reached out to you, donna brazile, debra leewhat do they want from you? >> well, first of all, look, i hosted the only sunday morning political show on a black cablec they are reaching out to me. >> you're here in<óvq "the situn room." >> i have multiple jobs, tough economy for a black man. but they are reaching out to various people getting the word out, ramping up. they've been meeting with hispanics and women and gays and lc8¿i formed frankly the coalition that put the president in office. they are trying to say this is what we've done and doing and what we're prepared to do but they know this is going to be a lot tougher re-election campaign. it will not be like 2008 so if anybody is trying to use 2008 as a barometer for 2012, they're crazy. you got to look at the turnout for '09 and '10, the african-americans and hispanic numbers were way down. they got to get them back up. >> thank you. >> you're welcome. >>> details of a scathing new report on a pipeline explosion that wiped out an entire neighborhood. [ male announcer ]

joining us now for a strategy session, donna brazile, democratic strategist and cnn contributor and republicanholt. just a snapshot after he gets in, and >> a great start for rick perry. if you could have written a script, you couldn't have written one with a better out come. we picked maximum impact and he took advantage of all that tension on the republican field to his benefit. i give him congratulations. what i found more surprising is remember when he was talking about 8, 10, 12 candidates? a couple are on the screen and the race is shaping up. >> for shows and demonstrates how fluid the republican race is. rick perry came in and more than half the country didn't know him. the intensity on republicans. again, another big factor, this race remains very, very fluid. it looks like a two-person race, romney versus perry and most are looking for the knight in shining armor and give them a more electable candidate who can defeat barack obama >> between romney and perry, you have a good representation of the broughtest part of the party. romney has run a well-financed campaign and they have a pl

right, let's talk about that and more with democratic strategist and cnn political contributor donna brazillest tony blackly. used to serve as the press secretary to one of the guys that was on the podium yesterday, former house speaker, newt gingrich. i was a little surprised. 10-1. let's say hypothetically there's $5 trillion in spending cuts over the next ten years. and $500 billion in increased tax revenues. you eliminate some of the hedge fund guys and ge didn't pay federal income tax. you remove some of that. the republicans wouldn't take that deal? >> you have to understand, if it was a ratio of 1,000-1 candidate taxes for increases. in both parties, you don't violate the core convictions of your primary voters any more than in the last cycle the democrats would be for keeping gitmo open. whatever becomes the policy in the wisdom of the elected candidate, you can't have that policy discussion. this is not a negotiation session. this is communicating fundamental principles to your voters. >> the democrats are having a field day with this one. these republicans are so committed to the no

democratic strategist donna braz brazile and alex casteanos. >> it's classic challenger strategy. the ring with the heavyweight champion. it must mean you're the number one contender. so instead of competing with rick perry, he pulls himself up to compete with obama. very effective. and he's having real people do his work. you know, politics is so distrusted right now. politicians have credibility ratings somewhere below zero on the kelvin scale where nitrogen freezes. so he makes a very effective ad. >> they seem to be competing with each other to say as nasty things as possible against the president of the united states. is that going to potentially backfire, though. >> the conservative members of the republican party haven't come up with an economic plan and disinfected democrats. in the short term that might get the tea party members shouting about one of the candidates. after all, their only goal is to defeat president obama. they're not interested in long-term economic growth or even short-term economic growth. i think the important thing to understand is that governor of ma