i think it would have extended like leon cooperman was talking about. i think you have to look for opportunities. i don't necessarily think that you have to jump today. but there are opportunities where things are being sold off far too much. >> you see opportunities here or were you surprised? >> no, we weren't surprised. we took exposure off expecting a little bit more of a rally going into the presidential election than we thought. but we didn't think it would be able to stick and all of the points are playing into this. keep in mind, the euro u.s. dollar crosses hugely influential on u.s. stock prices. it has been for a long time and the news we heard out of germany was pretty bad and now you combine that with the fact that we're through this last earning season. and now we're going to plunge into this fiscal cliff stuff and i don't think that anyone believes it's going to be an easy compromise, even the people who think we're going to see a compromise are expecting a run of negative headlines that hits the tape day after day. that's kind of what is

it is great that also mario can join us to honor his friend, leon cooperman. we go back a long ways. our speaker last year is here to help us welcome leon cooperman campus. he and mario are legends. i heard it on cnbc, so i know it can be true. mr. cooperman has been in the investment and financial industry for a long time. he is the president of the new york society security analysts. he said earlier today that people talk about him, but he doesn't care for, but he needs to. not only is he a leader in the world of finance, he is also a leader in the world of philanthropy. i was reading an article from "the wall street journal" about him. and it was entitled, giving others a chance of the american dream. he talked in that article about he feels that he lived the american dream and he has devoted a good part of his life to giving others the opportunity to pursue the american dream. he and his wife are from the giving pledge, a commitment started by warren buffett and bill gates. they give away a majority of the wealth to charity. he is a longtime donor to the c

leon cooperman, all these people, this is the genius of america to allow guys like me, guys like youa, to -- bernie marcus, arthur blank, ross perot, i go down the list of all these things, these jobs that have been created, home dep depot, three people, us, 330,000 people working and by the way, thank god for a company the size of home depot because if it was a mom and pop hardware store in staten island today, they wouldn't be able to help. >> i agree with you. >> so what i'm saying, don, and i'm asking you, and you are a capitalist, and that's not a bad thing to be. >> no, it's a good thing to be. >> if this president wins, i am pleading with you to let him understand etiology is not in order for the next four years. we can't afford it. >> look, i agree with you. i think there's been this misperception that the president somehow is against excess or entrepreneurship. he's not. he's an activist for the average american and the middle class. the president i believe is clear that in order for us to move the economy forward and continue to expand it, there's going to of to be a renewe