and that's where we find our political analyst john dickerson. john, good evening. >> good evening, russ. >> mitchell: what is the headline so far? >> what you heard from speakers and attendees was the constant theme that they're worried the next generation won't have it as well off as this generation. that's why they want so badly to beat president obama. halley barbour said republicans can't be focused so much on the ideology, the purity of candidates, but jim demint of south carolina said only if they focus on the purity of their candidates can they win. >> mitchell: let's talk about texas governor rick perry who has not said if he is in or out of the presidential race. are republicans excited about him? >> they are excited. there are a lot of republicans who would like a couple more people to join the race. you hear rick perry's name. when i was in iowa talking to people out there, they kept bringing up perry's name. he's got a few days, though. he says he won't announce what his decision is until after the texas legislature is out, and that h

. >> mitchell: john dickerson, in washington, thanks a lot. >> sure thing, russ >> mitchell: whoever is president after election day will have his or her hands full battling the federal budget. right now with the national debt soaring, the fight over the nation's debt limit has taken a nasty turn. the deadline for making a deal is close. more on the debates and the consequences of a stalemate. >> reporter: when democrats proposed cuttings and popular tax breaks for wealthier americans in corporations, republicans left the bargaining table. >> throwing more tax revenue into the mix is not going to produce a desirable results. >> we're not going to let the middle class carry the whole burden. we will sacrifice, they must be in on the deal. >> reporter: the deal is a package to reduce the deficit, worth 2.5 trillion dollars in exchange for an increase in the debt ceiling. without it come august 2 the u.s. government could be unable to pay its bills for the first time ever. for this deeply divided congress, last minute fixes have become the norm. >> all those in favor say aye. >> reporte

covering the week -- john dickerson of "slate magazine" and cbs news, karen tumulty of "the washington post," and james kitfield of "national journal." >> award-winning reporting and analysis, covering history as it happens. live, from our nation's capitol, this is "washington week" with gwen ifill, produced in association with national journal. corporate funding for "washington week" is provided by >> this rock has never stood still. since 1875, we've been from for our clients through good times and bad. when their needs changed, we were there to meet them. through the years, from insurance to investment management, from real estate to retirement solutions, we've developed new ideas for the financial challenges ahead. this rock has never stood still, and that's one thing that will never change. prudential. corporate funding is also provided by boeing, additional funding is provided by the annenberg foundation, the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to pbs stations from viewers like you. thank you. once again, live from washington, moderator gwen ifill. gwen: good

. >>> john dickerson, good morning. >> good morning, chris. >> how do you recover from something like this? >> well, the congressman has two important groups he has to recover are. the first are the democratic colleagues. the best way too do that is to go away, to have the story stop being a distraction and stop being a punchline. that requires, of course, that there be no new disclosures. the second group that he has to deal with are his constituents and in some ways, they have to deal with ha they care about. stay out of the public spotlight and hope that they forgive him. >> like nancy mentioned a second ago, the minority leader is calling for an investigation right now. if the congressman from new york was looking for any support from his colleagues yesterday, he sure didn't get it. >> he got no support. but that's to be expected. and his hope has to be that they don't continue talking about him to reporters, and that he gives them no cause to. that there's no other shoes to drop. that everything he said in public checks out. and that the ethics investigation finds out that he bro

we want to bring in political analyst john dickerson in washington, good morning, john. with us. what is a big surprise is how close bachmann and mitt romney are in this poll. what does it say about mitt romney's standing within the gop? >> well, iowa is a particular case, there are a lot of social conservatives in iowa and this tells us how it's shaking out at this moment in iowa. romney hasn't campaigned particularly hard in iowa. this shows he's run before, got some people there who still like him. the question is if this is a high water mark. if his numbers start slipping his opponents can say this could be part of a larger weaker about romney. >> he's basically written off iowa at this point. jan, how does that play with voters there? >> reporter: well, they're obviously the ones i talked to last night would put mitt romney in the camp of candidates who say what they think the voters want to hear so you're seeing already in iowa i think a real shift to someone like a michele bachmann as john said and if the presumptive front-runner, the national front-runner, he rea

for more we go to cbs news political analyst john dickerson in new orleans. great to have you with us. >> reporter: good morning. >> one of the people there is michele ba michele bachmann, made a big impression earlier this week at the gop debate. how is she doing there? >> reporter: doing well, well-received, spoke yesterday a little bit longer than planned. it used to be a liability to be in congress, to be in washington. a lot of the people running are governors or ex-governors, and for michele bachmann, though, she's able to say i'm in washington but i'm fighting against the establishment and that allows her to get big applause. a couple of standing owe vagus, none more popular when she said she was the author of the light bulb freedom of choice act, allowing people to pick whatever they want, not having it mandated by the federal government. >> in terms of the other republicans, who is getting the most enthusiastic response from the big powers in the rank and file republicans? >> reporter: the folks who are here, the ones getting the big applause lines,