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still with us, mary matalin, and peter hart and cnn's gloria borger. run republican campaigns for a living, mary, heading into the next stretch, what is the biggest question for governor perry to prove, that after the initial boomlet, he has staying power? >> he's a very solid front-runner. peter's polls show he's got the highest front-runner number of any previous front-runner and i think also peter's poll shows among the most intense activists, the so-called self-identified tea party activists, he's 2-1, holds a 2-1 lead and all this happened in three weeks. but he has to show that he can withstand the front-runner assault, the comparable period in the last cycle hillary clinton and rudy giuliani and fred thompson were the front-runners, so you have to stand up to having the target on your back, which i think he -- his political skills as are evidenced in his longest-serving governor in texas are considerable and misunderestimated as we adopted texans say, so we'll get through the debates. and i think it's got down to the two-man races as ed rollins w

top political strategists republican mary matalin and democrat donna brazile, amy walter and george will debate the week's politics in our roundtable. >>> a "this week" exclusive -- british prime minister david cameron on the palestinian bid for statehood. and his own government's close relationship with rupert murdoch. >> i think it has to be close to cozy. >>> we have a packed show for you today. but first, some news since your morning papers. two american hikers imprisoned in iran, will land in the united states this morning, ending a two-year ordeal. josh fattal and shane bauer are schedule to arrive in new york after a stop-over in oman. they'll address reporters this afternoon. >>> in a fiery speech, to the congressional black caucus last night, president obama said that he's not giving up and implored the crowd to stick with him. polls show his support amongst black voters softening. >> take off your bedroom slippers, put on your marching shoes, shake it off, stop complaining, stop grumbling, stop crying. we're going to press on. we got work to do. cbc, god bless you and god bless

joining us, republican strategist mary matalin and rolland martin. ubstance, economic substance for a moment. let's talk about the politics of it. is there a strategy saying there should be a buffet rule that millionaires don't pay a lower tax rate than their secretaries. >> well, it's a class warfare message. and i believe the white house has not only signals, they said they need to reactivate, reenergize their base. is it a winning strategy? they have to add on to so it probably does activate their base. but as mark cline said, that warfare reelection strategy has not worked, did not work for kerry or gore before him or mondale way back when. the only strategy working for democrats in the 207b8g century since fdr is the one that president clinton did for his reelection which is to pull away from class warfare language. so if they are to be believed it might be good short term base politics but not good long-term reelection strategy. >> rolland, you agree? >> first of all, quoting mark kan, that's the last person anybody should quote with a winning s

i want to ask this highly opinionated panel, mary matalin is a republican strategist, and former aideent george w. bush and vice president cheney. also with us, roland martin, a cnn political analyst and author, columnist and host of his own show on tv one cable. and john avlon is a cnn contributor, senior political columnist for "newsweek" and the daily beast. we got all that out of the way. mary, to you first. are african-americans brainwashed to lean left, do you think? >> well, there are certainly -- if you're a conservative black american, as herman cain was saying -- and i've -- we've all seen said about other conservative blacks -- you are, to use clarence thomas' unforgettable phrase -- subjected to high-tech lynchings. you're k5u8d called an uncle to. you're called an oriole. the democrats practice a kind of identity politics. you're a black american, you're a female, it is your sexual orientation. so rather than debate the policies for ascribe to failure policies, they say it is not that our policies aren't working -- you need to be continually aggrieved because if you're no

and mary matalin was saying yesterday, on one of the sunday shows, i think it was on abc, saying debateserything. do you think that rick perry as a retail campaigner can get past these debate performances and prove to the party leaders that he could be a credible opponent of barack obama? >> i really think he needs a good debate performance to end this narrative, andrea. i think the next one is october 10th, a bloomberg/"washington post" debate up in new hampshire. he's really got to be ready to play that. but i would say debate performances aren't everything. neither, andrea, are national polls. the presidency is won in individual locales and individual races, individual events, not national polls. at the equivalent time four years ago the polls would have shown rudy giuliani leading the republican pack. that proved perishable once we went to a national context to a state-by-state context. and by the time we reached florida, which is what giuliani was hoping would be a boost for his campaign, it was effectively dead because he nothing in iowa, nothing in new hampshire and meanwhile thos

. >> let's assess the state of the gop race with cnn contributors mary matalin.right to the top. you have been through a bunch of these. do you worry at all that all this debate and the increasingly sharp rhetoric will scar your nominee and maybe expose some chink that makes them unelectable or does it make them stronger and tougher? >> i don't worry and by far, it makes them stronger and tougher, as is evidenced by mitt romney's exceeding expectations. i remember the first time he was at cpac and there was so much expectation for him and the speech fell flat so the longer you're out there, the more times you run around the track, the stronger you get. the notion that our having an internecine debate is going to be worse than what the obama people are going to throw at us, it's not even close. i think it sounds counterintuitive and everybody gets really excited when the other guys are fighting each other but it's good and the larger good is that if you listen to this group collectively, starting with newt and herman cain who have been consistently the best in all

joining us the republican strategist mary matalin, and the democratic strategist donna brazile.hanks very much for coming in. i'll start with you, donna, on congressman andre carson of indiana very, very controversial explosive words he said the other day. >> if someone would love to see you -- i'm sorry, chairman, hanging -- >> in case our viewers didn't hear that properly. some of them in congress in this tea party movement right now would love to see you and me, i'm sorry, chairman, hanging on a tree. donna, did he go way too far? >> he remarks tell us what's wrong with our political discourse today. there's no question, wolf, that for african-americans who understand this history, especially the history of lynching, to use such language is something that inflames and not informs people. so, yes, i clearly would not have advised him to say that about the tea party or any other party or caucus, but it tells us a lot about the level of incivility, the level of extreme language that's being used, and it's not just being used in the context of the tea party. it's being used in th

contributors roland martin and mary matalin.lp himself in a republican contest or hurt himself? >> he continues to be the front-runner, that's a good thing and a bad thing. the front-runner, you're in the bull's-eye. this is not rick perry's first rodeo. he's going to stand up and be a punching bag, pinata, because that's the nature of being a front-runner. he certainly didn't hurt himself. these things get analyzed instantly and they sink in, and what sunk in is that he's still the front-runner by substantial and solid margin, and there's a reason for that and it's his record in texas and it's he walks, he talks, and he looks and sounds like what conservative is and what should be and what the republicans are looking for. but this things far from over. we have many more debates and many more contests in front of us. >> he refused to walk way from some of the controversial positions that he had, positions that some of those tea party supporters aren't very happy about, for example, allowing that in-state tuition for children of