erick erickson, how's this play out on the right? >> i'm out in california, interview governor perry tonight, and you can bet i'm going to ask him about this. but everything's jumping on two things, john. the first is that he's known about this since 2003. he's known that this consultant was not going to back him. and the campaign expects something to come out, but is caught flat-footed. yeah, the politico could have mixed up details, but we're now on wednesday, and the campaign still can't get its story straight. the other thing that is sticking out to people now is that he said in his statement, to richard about this, he told kurt anderson there was one complaint. we're now on three women. >> james carville is a veteran of political campaigns. you're a democrat in the conversation, but we went through 1992 and the bill clinton campaign together and there were a lot of whirlwind days about this, that, and the other thing. we don't need to go back in history. as you watch this play out, what is herman cain doing right, if anything, a

erick erickson, by the way, red state, is saying the same thing. got to win, we've got to grow up. but charles krauthammer who is one of the most powerful voices on the right. it's great hearing him say that. >> yeah. >> that eliminates almost all the candidates. basically that leaves you two. that leaves you romney and huntsman. and that's the reality. >> who are grown-ups. >> who are grown-ups, who have a long track record, who can win who don't go around calling people nazis or fascists. again -- >> red state. >> the thing is, this is about what krauthammer understands and what erick erickson at red state understands is that at the end of the game, it's not about feeling good how conservative you are, and by defining yourself as conservative by calling the president of the united states a fascist or a marxist or racist, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. at the end of the day, it's about finding the most electable conservative. so -- so you get it as conservative as you can get it, and you look at all the candidates and you look at that candidate

interim president rodney ericks erickson. >> we will be completely open, transparent, cooperative in any investigation that is launched. >> reporter: under heightened security, more than a hundred thousand fans wore blue in a blue-out in support of all abuse victims. a pregame gathering on the field by both teams leading to a moment of silence that stilled an entire stadium. >> the whole thing was very emotional. the prayer, i thought that the idea of nebraska to get together midfield was a very special moment. >> reporter: gone, but certainly not forgotten, legendary head coach joe paterno. one of five university officials either fired or sidelined over issues relating to their handling of the scandal. after a heartbreaking loss, paterno'sson jay, an assistant coach, broke down. >> dad, i wish you were here. we love you! >> reporter: armen keteyian, cbs news, state college, pennsylvania. >>> three fresh crew members are on their way to the international space station. they blasted off this morning. they are aboard a soyuz. daniel burbank will arrive at the station on wednesday. >>>

we're going to start with erick erickson.e republican race in decades is actually well settled. the washington gop establishment may have fallen for mitt romney, but they are both foolish and naive to think they can beat something with nothing. mitt romney is, in fact, a great big nothing. malleable into any shape you want. that's a problem nationally, but it's also a problem down ballot with coat tails. the race for the gop nomination is well settled this point, it's settled in not romney's favor. the reason the race is so volatile is not romney is not on the ballot making romney nomination not just possible but probable. and that was the point i was making at the end of the -- of the first block of the show. then we had to go to break. but i think this is good news for president obama. no matter what his approval ratings are. >> mike allen, erick erickson nails it here. you have had pro-romney and not romney voters. not romney voters have led to a spike for sarah palin, for donald trump, for michele bachmann, for herman cai

and we'll bring his name up again, erick erickson half way through this debate said this was an absolute disaster for herman cain. >> it was. >> it didn't have to be. but this is -- this at the end of the day may move conservatives away from cain even more than the scandals. >> i think that's true. and i think a lot of people had this expectation that there's just a lot of hype about his inability to perform particularly on this subject. so here you are. you've got the venue, the questions that are straightforward. and even -- right the first question out of the box, it was a very lame answer. and people kind of got the sense, this is not going to go the way it should go. because it didn't really answer the question. >> and major, we'll get to your second one in a second. i want to get katty in here for a moment. voters can read through i'll bring the best advisers on after the third or fourth time you say. i'll surround myself with good people. that's great. what are you going to tell those good people to do? >> you have to have some sort of policy platform. and these are the major issu

we appreciate -- >> as you heard from rodney ericeri ericks erickson, the new president of penn statean up. not going to be a caretaker president. a public meeting now of the board of trustees. they have a ton of decisions to make when it comes to what to do next. we'll have full coverage coming up. "jancing and company" comes up in just a few minutes. i'll see you next week. ♪ [ multiple sounds making melodic tune ] ♪ [ male announcer ] at northrop grumman, every innovation, every solution, comes together for a single purpose -- to make the world a safer place. that's the value of performance. northrop grumman. >>> good morning. i'm richard lui in for chris jansing. we start with the penn state board of trustees di

, i think he is clearly a conservative candidate in the race, and i -- i don't understand why erick ericksonld go out and say romney is not capable of winning a race. no president has gotten re-elected with an unemployment race above 7.4%. >> what is an issue that romney will not bend in order to win? name one, steve. you know he won't change. >> i think -- i think that -- i think that these were issues for mitt romney in the senate race, in the presidential race last time. and at the end of the day, he will have to deal with it. it's a criticism. john kerry had to deal with it. >> you have to deal with it now, you, sir, my colleague, name one issue which mitt romney will not bend on in order to win the presidency? >> i'm not -- i'm not a spokesperson. i'm not a spokesperson for mitt romney. i believe he is enunciated his plans pretty clearly on fiscal issues. gave a serious talk about entitlement reform. i don't think mitt romney would ever compromise the national security of the country. i think he's prepared to be president, and i think he'll have to deal with issues in the congress text

let's get back to erick erickson, alex cost tee and owes, paul begala with us. st, there are plenty of things. if you are a conservative and want to make the case against president obama, there's no shortage of things to run on. why do you need to do this? >> you know because it connects to people. we're coming into christmas season. a tax on christmas trees. the obama administration -- it was true, you said they were going to impose it, now they're not. look, the national tree association can't tax anyone, the government has to do it. they were going to. they should have seen it coming a mile away. >> you're right, they should have seen it coming. the shim p association, the cotton growers. >> so what. the consumer didn't. the consumer didn't ask to get taxed but an industry collaborated with the government to screw the american consumer which you're right they do on all kinds of things. this is the axis of evil when big industries like the big powerful christmas tree lobby collab rates with big government. >> this is the one area of the occupy movement and tea

from, you know, ads from the priority usa which is a pac that is supporting president obama to erick ericksonthey are peeling the skin off of mitt romney, because he is on both sides of the issue or has been on both sides of every issue, and so for mitt romney to know that he is a man of steadiness and constancy flies in the face of ample evidence of that. >> and lawrence, you know, he used a buy a graphical argument to make this steadiness and constancy, his marriage, his church, and career in business and evokes in some ways george h.w. bush in 1988 when he gave that speech at the convention and talked about the life in texas and the life in world war ii and he said i'm a man who defines life by missions defined and missions completed and i'm the man in the oval office and specifically about him this the nature of him as a person, and that is mitt romney's defense. >> and the main thing that happens with rick perry now is the question of the day, and it seems like set over, but he has made some very, very smart choices today that i did not see coming especially the way he is making jokes ab

. >> seven weeks to vote until iowa, erick erickson. here is our nationality poll first., gij rich, cain. it's meaningful. more meaningful frngs how does he look in the key states? iowa votes first. 20% for cain, 19% for paul, 18% for romney, 17% for gingrich. in contention in iowa. a person who needs to do very, very, very, very well in iowa is congresswoman michele bachmann. she today smells a little blood. >> whether former speaker gingrich made $300,000 or whether he made $2 million, the point is that he took money to also influence senior republicans to be favorable toward fannie and freddie. while he was take that money i was fighting against fannie and freddie. i believe they need to be shut down. i wasn't shilling for them. i was fighting them. >> i remember the conversation we had three months ago about michele bachmann taking farm subsidies. what goes around comes around. then and now. exactly. i talked to a very prom meant conservative in washington who said this is the one allegation about newt that bothers him because if you feel there's an an tip think towar

. >> cnn contributor erick erickson, cornell, mary matalin and chief political analyst gloria borgerus. you know herman cain. he said, she said. but he said she said at a very critical time of this campaign. >> it is. you know, listening to this, it makes wonder why anyone would ever want to run for office, the stuff that comes out. make sure your ducks are in a row. and largely, i think a lot of people. not herman himself. he really got into this thinking he could make a difference. that he could win. i think a lot of the people surrounded with herman, they never really thought that he could be president but they could probably get something out of it. and so the campaign team wasn't really in it to win it. and gloria's point earlier, this is coming at a time when he is going down in the polls, not because of these other accusations. if anything they make him more sim that a athleticic to peel who feel like he's attacked. they inoculate newt gingrich to a lot of the attack that the there they go again attitude. he was already going down and now it will be difficult to get back on me

subjects of people you've talked to over the years, but his friends, a few of his mentors like erick erickson and even you encounter many of robert streams. which is a fascinating kind of internal autobiography. i'm going to invite robert zoellick a little about this book, how it came to be, any thoughts on it. then we'll have a conversation and then we'll invite you to join in and see where we go from there. >> robert. robert jay lifton. [applause] >> thanks so much. i appreciate both of those introductions. they were more than kind. and they also, both bruce and to her and i also appreciate the sponsorship by the dart center and the nation. and i am enormously glad that these joints to duchenne six says. still, one has to do some need to extricate oneself from introductions like that. in my case, when people ask me how i study these terrible things extensively stand by while doing it, my answer is eyedropper cartoons. the one that stands i call my existential classic that goes this way that is a small enthusiastic yen per looks up and says, all of a sudden, i had this wonderful feeling. and

. >> and that's what we were going to talk about, john, we talked about an erick erickson post that goting. one of the things he said was he wasn't that true conservative, but jon huntsman may be, and said huntsman had the best economic plan of all of the republicans out there, which is, i think it was a surprise when i read it from "the journal." what is huntsman's plan? >> well, huntsman has a tax reform plan that reduces rates, it's not a flat tax. he's got three rates for personal income. he would dramatically bring down the corporate rate. and he's got a story to tell about what happened in utah. this race, as you know, joe, is so formless. with so many people rising and falling at different points in the process, mitt romney keeping on steady but taking hits like that from erick erickson from rush limbaugh who say he's not a conservative. there's clearly an opening for someone to consolidate support. herman cain has been doing that, how much longer can he do that? huntsman is one who has not yet had his moment in the sun. he's got an opportunity tonight. >> and huntsman brings to

. >> and this past week, erick erickson, i would suggest the most influential conservative blogger guns on mitt romney saying if mitt romney wins, it'll be a disaster for the conservative movement, for the republican party, for all of us. >> and one part of being in preseason here, one thing you're not seeing along those lines, ads. that's where flip-flopping becomes a problem. because what you don't want to see is that visual of you saying i would never take away a woman's right to choose and then right after this, i'm completely pro-life in every way. >> there's some devastating sound bites also. >> exactly. but it doesn't come through that way in a debate. debates can't make you look like a flip-flopper and they're not out in the field yet. >> i think the silence about cain is telling. romney made a point to say the allegations were disturbing but didn't go there last night. you saw the reaction of the crowd and i think maria bartiromo stayed steady, went ahead and asked the question that had to be asked in the debate. a rival campaign told me, here's the deal on cain, we're going to