so gail collins is known as thee sun columnist at "the new yorkh. times." the one you'd actually like to have a with and the one that seems to mean normal. yonegail isn't really normal. the truth is she comes across as normal, but anyone s. project initiatives is not normal in thn indditu nir. she has just written a new book in addition to writing a columne twice a week for "the new york of " times," she was the first female editor of "the new york times" editorial pages. is. not there's a million other things i could tell you about her, but the bottom line is notgail norm. gail, come on up here. [app base.ur fan [applause] >> thank you. i'm worried about these microphones. they're not working.pers microphones not working.be -- t- how that's work. i wonder if i took one of your miervegs. it's here. we have it. whoever it did that, thank you. you saved our day. can i thank all you guys for having me here today. it is so seldom i get to come to chicago. i love chicago so much, and, you know, it's like when you're covering elections, i'm always in florida or i

. >> host: gail collins and mauer ri d--reow h mend es prenot inbl slath e economy or the voters. >> guest: i think it's way too soon to say that about the voters. i think at se lel, , s y btoig a ateronio - t en eners iln more see the crackerjack come painer -- campaigner that we all know barack obama can be. cu--lt m h wnk wio sahaou cig et,ndgo ipr there's no question that the president has been governing in the prose in the part because -- wh t rliacuse, um fhea v v. ihit b usinr e hoped that there would besome level of major change. having said that, what is it joe biden says atundrse? sa hind.a, d gonofohe aic woma i would say that it will wl be. >> host: have you ever voted for a republican? mint fckn ey o rng aur] th tnlme voted for a republican -- >> host: the lite pipe. >> guest: yeah. she was really a pie ofork. vorlaowo h iai ine adns enn year politically has been that a senator as dedicated, as smart, as hard working and as -sng sorwe inhin sano er cnu b m t. >> host: sandrin bedford, oregon, you're on booktv on c-span2 with anna quindlen. >> caller: yes, ank you. osle g

the president is 20% ahead, whether it's the dog on the roof or whether it's that gail collins has written0 times. >> she's kind of gotten off the dog on the roof lately. >> did you read maureen doud yesterd dowd before. why should we elect another automaton when we've already got one. >> joe i think likability is interesting. the president is way down on likability from what he was, but he's down because of the negative ads he's put in and he's really put them in at record levels and i really think that likability is being switched over for competence and if you notice when it comes to competence, romney is far, far in the lead. so it will be very interesting to see what happens. it's going to be close, but many polls have romney ahead right now, so that's interesting. and it's early. >> it is. we've posed this question, i posed it to jim grant earlier. you remember the late '70s, donald, are we in a new normal where we're just going to muddle along for, you know -- i hope i live a long life but i'm starting to wonder whether i'll see the days of the '80s and '90s again. have we just as a

collins has our report. >> reporter: inside howard university hospital 29-year-old michael hall, junior, operated on today. they say he has a broken jaw and a fractured cheek bone. mike and gail hall are from colonial beach, virginia, very proud of their son mike junior, an accomplished yoga instructor. but when he moved to washington nine years ago, they worried for his safety. >> every morning, get up and turn channel 4 news on and see if he was alive or not, who got >> worried about him? >> oh, my god, yes. >> my biggest nightmare was the fact that this would happen eventually. >> sunday morning the halls got that phone call that they always feared. it happened at the eckington section of northeast washington. mike hall and his boy friend had been to a restaurant. they were on their way home. they had just gotten out of one of those town cars. they were whackialking down the sidewalk when they were ambushed by five teenagers. >> four or five kids came out of nowhere without any warning. we didn't think it was a robbery because they didn't immediately ask for anything. they came out swinging and hitting. >> reporter: a woman and her boyfriend got the two men to safety. late