joining us are maria cardona and benferri ferguson.dent's job approval number at 41%. pretty low. in january, almost a year ago, at 55%. why do you believe it's collapsed like that? >> well, certainly, it's been a very tough year for the president, wolf, and i think he'll be the first to admit that with the nsa issue and the obamacare rollout, which he also admits there was a huge downfall, but i think the president has a terrific opportunity in front of him. we now see even the website, even though they're saying it was down today, i was on it, it's now up again. it's signing up people by the tens of thousands. i think by the time you get into next year, the focus on obamacare is going to be how this president is going to add to americans' not just health security but economic security knowing if they get sick or a family member gets sick, their economic security is not going to be in jeopardy. he also has a big opportunity to focus on immigration, on income inequality, all those issues where he's best in terms of focusing on middle c

. >> maria cardona, cnn plolitica commentator, amy holmes, great to you have. >> that'll wake you upa lively debate. thank you, ladies. appreciate it. >>> still to come up on the "newsroom," the graphic and violent beating of a teen. this is a very disturbing video that goes viral online. >> maybe you've heard the name, sharkeisha, but should the girl holding the camera get charges? and what about the sites getting millions of hits? we'll have more after this. >>> a blindsided blow to the face. a violent kick to the head. and a smartphone. apparently, that's the recipe for a viral video. we want you to watch this disturbing attack known as the "sharkeisha fight tape." listen, i want to tell you, if you have kids in the room, you want to make a decision right now if you want them to see this. but millions and millions of people have watched it since it's been uploaded. here it is. >> you know what you did. >> ooh. oh, my god. sharkeisha! hold on. sharkeisha, no j, don't -- don't kick her, sharkeisha! don't kick her! no, don't kick her! no. >> sharkeisha. >> oh, my god. >> unbelievable

cnn political commentator and democratic strategist, maria cardona, cnn political commentator and republicanegist, kevin madden and cnn political commentator and washington correspondent for "the new yorker" ryan lizza. i just have to share, i checked with her, an e-mail that candy crowley sent which said it all. i'm confused, talking about the president. he signs up for the health insurance he doesn't need but he can't do it because he has to do it in person, and he's not in person, and then they send an unknown staffer there to verify it because it's not really him. the white house thought this was a good idea? maria, sorry. you're on the hot seat since you're the democrat here. >> i figured. >> they didn't need to do that. obviously it was symbolic. but the fact that you just read that e-mail i think signifies that the story's not what they would have wanted. >> you think? >> they just shouldn't have done that. they should have focused on there is some good news today about obamacare. they had over a million visits to the website just over the weekend. and they had more than 200,000 calls

maria cardona joins me now. there's a difference between admiration and approval. maria?s to one of the reasons why this president will still have some political leverage he can use going into 2014, which i think he will, to try to get some of the bigger things done that he has wanted to throughout his presidency. and, frankly, these are thing that is majorities of the american people approve of. for example, immigration reform, climate change, raising the minimum wage. these are all things that majorities of americans approve of. and i think that this president can use that kind of admiration, which is a long-term thing, as opposed to approval rating, which focuses on what just happened. we'll see people getting their obamacare health care coverage working, up and working and being covered and i think that will point to a much more productive 2014, but it will also depend on whether republicans can actually now focus on governing as opposed to just saying no. >> i know deep down that conservative heart of yours, you admire president barack obama. >> yeah. you know, it's

will cain is a columnist for "the blaze" and maria cardona is cnn political commentator. oth of you. >> good morning. >> good morning. maria, seriously? why not sit the president down and have him sign up himself? with the white house photographer? >> because of all the security concerns, carol. his information is not actually in all of the databases that are required to have the information for somebody to actually sign up for real in person. so that's why they actually went to the trouble of sending somebody to have him sign up for real so that he could have the plan. >> but why did they do this? or at least have him gathering papers in hawaii and send out a picture? wouldn't that have been better? >> well, i guess it's symbolic in the respect that maria just described, because of security concerns. of course, you know, there's been stories that many americans should share the same concerns, your information is not necessarily protected when you submit it to healthcare.gov. if this were truly symbolic, we would need to know some things, like was the president's informati

. >> as we await the president at the news conference, let's bring back maria cardona and ben ferguson. ben, how much credit does the president deserve for the emorms rise in the markets, from 7,000 five years ago to 16,000 right now. the growth in the third quarter above 4%. pretty impressive. unemployment numbers going down. housing markets going up. how much credit do you give the president? >> i don't give him a lot, mainly because i haven't seen policies this white house has pushed forward that have helped those issues grow. you have to give credit to the private sector for getting off the sidelines and being willing to take chances and risks. as you her the economist talk about there. one of the things i think the president did do a better job of at the end is starting to realize that all the mandates of obama care that were stalling many companies from hiring people at full-time work because they were afraid of all the mandates and switching to part-time work, that's part of the reason why you have so many people on food stamps now. they didn't realize the repercussions for the