john mccain, look, i think john mccain is a hero.n, the one thing john mccain would be doing right now is kicking their butt in afghanistan. and i have tremendous amount of respect for him on. bill: but you don't like anything obama does so if mccain would kick their butt, he is ahead. >> may i just make this analogy here. he is the frog in the cold water. bill: who is the frog? >> john mccain. barack obama is boiling water when you throw the frog in. bill: you kill the frog on your show, didn't you? >> i did not kill the frog. see, he always tries to get me in trouble. i'm a good guy. he is trying to take the heat off him. bill: you threw the frog in a pot of boiling water but it was a plastic frog. a lot of people thought it was real. >> peta wrote a letter and said. bill: you made children cry who thought it was a real frog. >> i make children cry every day. if you have your children watching my show they cry every night. bill: john mccain would have been a worse president than barack obama? >> if i'm wrong with barack obama and w

even john mccain knew about it.n has spoken publicly many times but specifically about sleep deprivation being torture and his obvious objections to torture. now he is objecting to his name being used by the cia to justify them doing it. he still doesn't want any of this investigated? joining us now, someone that spent a lot of time trying to understand senator john mccain, ana marie cox. good to see you. after a campaign event in iowa in 2007, john mccain said this. he said after we passed the detainee treatment acts, 2006, then obviously anybody who violated any law of the u.s. would have to be held responsible. that was -- iowa 2007. now it seems like he no longer thinks that. do you have any insight into the change? >> i actually spent a long time on the phone with people in senator mccain's office trying to get to the bottom of this. one thing i should say they are fighting hard about the sleep deprivation. i remember him talking a lot about that and it being torture. for some reason i'm not trusting the cia on

maybe john mccain and i'm sure he has. he should go back and read "new nationalism" a speech given by teddy roosevelt. this is the beginning of the problem in america. the republicans revered teddy roosevelt. he was a progressive. read what teddy roosevelt as a president he believed in, the collective, and he had, quote, the greatest contempt for the wealthy. i mean, how did i not fall in love with john mccain? let me show you this. in "new nationalism," real quick, a quick vote from tread i did roosevelt. "the general right of the community to regulate the earning of income." he wanted to decide how much income you should have. that's the problem that we have. you know, look at the choice that we were presented with. you can support democrats who are basically socialists, or you can support republicans who are basically old democrats. i'm not talking about the people in the country. i'm talking about what they turned into as a party. you can support some third-party candidate who up until recently would never win anything

he included one provision from senator mccain.ut to republicans? >> well, he made the point that about 80% of what they're talking about we probably could agree on, but it's the 20% where all the money is, where we have a lot of disagreements. for instance, he was saying, basically, that they're going to have a public plan in one form or another, that they're going to have an employer mandate. and see, i have a lot of problems with that, mandate, the employers are penalized if they don't provide health insurance and guess who will get hurt the worst? the low-income employees that are either going to be cut back on their salaries, lose their jobs or the company will go overseas. then he says they will have an individual mandate and there will be no tax increases and give me a break. families earns $66,000 a year, if they don't have health care they are going to get assessed $3800. that's a tax whether you like it or not. you can go on and on. he is not going to move -- you know, they are going to move people into medicaid. one of t

we're back, everybody, with senator john mccain.e. >> thank you, jimmy fallon. [ laughter ] inside joke. >> jimmy: inside joke there, yeah. now, you were recently in iraq and afghanistan. and are you -- what are your thoughts about that? are you seeing any progress there at all? what are we -- >> well, it's hard and it's tough. before i get into it, could i say thanks for putting the whole health care debate in the right perspective here. you guys did a great job. [ light laughter ] opened up new avenues of bi-partisanship and i'm grateful for that. >> jimmy: we do what we can on "late night with jimmy fallon." >> it's great. [ laughter ] [ cheers and applause ] another inside joke. well, in iraq and afghanistan -- >> jimmy: yeah. >> things are tough in afghanistan. and it is going to take a bigger effort on our part. >> jimmy: really? >> it's very, very tough, and it is a bad place. that is where 9/11 began, as you know. al qaeda was trained and equipped there. and they're the people that did such a horrible thing to this great cit

yesterday he says mccain would have been worse than obama? this summer he was calling president obama a racist. >> this president, think, has exposed himself as a guy over and over and over again who has a deep-seeded hatred for white people or the white culture. i don't know what it is. >> john mccain's got to feel really good right now, huh? back in april, drama queen glen got in touch with his pyromania side to protest what the president was doing. he continued to pour gasoline over a guest and compared obama's policies to setting an average american on fire. what do you think of mccain? what would he have done? beck is nothing but a high-rent entertainer. maybe he ought to join twinkle toes tom delay on "dancing with the stars" because this stuff is ridiculous, despicable, and "psycho talk." >>> coming up, former new york giant wide receiver plaxico burress is going to spend two years in the slammer for shoots himself. new york mayor mike bloomberg want the to throw the book at him. i think he went too far. steven a. smith in the thousand

i think john mccain would have been -- how about this. i think john mccain would have been worse for the country man barack obama. how is that? >> see the entire interview tomorrow night right after 9news now at 6:00. >>> well, tonight exclusive details about secret interviews conducted with the former president bill clinton. civil rights historian taylor branch recorded these videos and now he's published the information in a new book called the clinton tapes. he has talked about those recording exclusively to usa today and here is what the president had to say about the monica lewinski scandal. >> he said i cracked, i cracked, and i said what do you mean. i felt sorry for myself. it occurred twice when i thought i had given my best and i thought things were going to -- i thought we were going to get over the personal diversions and into the real presidency that i had earned a fresh breath. >> and by the way, on this specific day back in 1998, president clinton's testimony about his relationship with monica lewinski was released to the p

john mccain and russ feingold are absolutely right. we will go back to a time before teddy roosevelt where we had united states senators -- not called senators from pennsylvania, massachusetts, but from u.s. steel, sinclair oil. this is a terrifying prospect. >> what do we have now? >> exactly. >> individual contributions. >> $1 billion was spent in the last campaign -- look, we have a first amendment. once you have congress regulating political speech you are curtailing the most precious asset in america. if you have disclosure, as kolbe said, that is what you need, disclosure, open honesty, and an open playing field. ground zero in new york. police, firefighters, and police officers on the eighth anniversary of the attack of 9/11, september 11, 2001, world trade center attack. the weather that day was clear, crisp. the skies were blue. then at 8:46 a.m., the nation changed, and we have not recovered yet. >> and we are not going to recover. we changed fundamentally because we were attacked in a way we never anticipated. now where we a

in a couple of moments, we'll talk with senator john mccain.he got a nice referral tonight from the president. let's have a question, though, i have a question for john king, who's erstwhile looking at maps and things. when will we get our first polls and what will the effect of the polls be on the people in that house tonight? >> we'll get our first polls within the hour. and there are advocacy groups both on the democratic sid, the republican side, all the interest groups are all polling and will put them out there. we'll know in an hour or so what the american people, at least those watching the speech thing, and that's your first target audience, those watching the speech. and then we'll see over the next few weeks as the president travels the country, as the republicans try to argue to take issue with some of his proposals, the key constituencies moving. because in the month of august, if the white house asked, do you support the president's plan, that number held pretty steady. but if you asked the american people, do you approve of his h

that was what was shown in the long record in the mccain- feingold litigation. members of congress said corporate money is affecting directly amendments, what is voted on, the final language of legislation that has a disproportionate, corrupting influence on what is happening in congress. >> i asked senator mccain... >> that's the worry. >> ...when i took his deposition in that case, to give me an example of a vote that was changed because of contributions or independent expenditures, and he did not and could not do that. >> senator mccain is a very polite man who respects his colleagues, and if you go back and look at the record, there were a number of affidavits from former members. interestingly, it's the former members in this who are the truth tellers. they're always the ones who say, "let me tell you what happened when i was there." and why is that? because they don't have to deal with their colleagues. they're not up before the voters and admitting something terrible. so, they can say, "this is what i really saw." and i think that's the other piece of thi

mccain's advisor later got mccain to say we are all georgians.or the low, low price of mccain's lobbying fee. georgia almost bought the u.s. military as an ally in a war against russia. that's cheap. and that is who sarah palin brought on board to help her navigate foreign policy in her first speech abroad. in this speech, which went on for a solid hour and a half before the question period. sarah palin argued that the economic crisis that we're in right now was caused by too much regulation of the financial world. not a typo, too much regulation. we got into this mess because of government interference in the first place. lack of government wasn't the problem. government policies were the problem. the marketplace didn't fail, it became exactly as common sense would expect it to. the government ordered the loosening of lending standards, the federal reserve kept interest rates low, the government forced lending institutions to give loans to people who couldn't afford them. that's how we got into this mess. really? so the solution presumably is le

the republican national committee is looking to mccain- feingold-of of political parties. to permit political parties to collapse soft money. if you look at the rnc as a whole, it is positioning itself, and i think its position each year is quite clear. >> would you respond to that? >> i would respond not by agreeing. the rnc has adopted a resolution i sponsored, i am a member, putting them in favor of deregulation, and in particular, got them off their two-year detour where they were supporting the adoption of further restrictions on 527. so there are definitely in favor, as a matter of policy, in favor of the first amendment, and that has to be juxtaposed with the dnc which is in favor of the status quo. >> i just have one more question before i open it up. we're planning to open it up first to reporters, anybody who wants to oust the question of the panelists. but just in the context of the supreme court broadening these cases so dramatically with the june order, we saw in another case of last term, the voting rights act case, were justices at one point seemed to be loo

well, accompanying her to hong kong was a former foreign policy adviser to john mccain. joining us now is "washington post" editorial writer and msnbc contributor, jonathan kapart. good to see you. >> good to see you. >> let's clear this up. looks like she may be broadening her foreign policy experience, first trip to asia, this was a paid speech, right, she got a lot of money? >> right, i haven't seen what the figure is but last i heard, it was probably in the low six figures, but, hey, that's a lot of money, especially former governor who is, you know, out of work technically. >> absolutely. she got paid a a lot of money. here she is criticizing president barack obama overseas. i guess we could expect that do you think, however, this is an attempt by her and sort of crafting this message that she could run in 2012? >> well, look, anything is possible, especially when talking about sarah page, but let's look at something here, which is interesting. this was, as you said at the top, closed to the press, closed completely, the only way we know what's happened is by people

i just mentioned this is september 24th, mccain day. let's flash back to the exact moment his campaign jumped a shark on letterman and yours truly. we're sick to death of this guy, but when he starts embracing that clause in the constitution that made it illegal to ban slavery, i've got to call him out again. worst persons ahead on countdown. than wages. pay your ceo twenty four million dollars a year. deny payment for 1 out of every 5 treatments doctors prescribe. if the insurance companies win, you lose. tell congress to rewrite the story. we want good health care we can afford with the choice of a public health insurance option. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 when my broker said, "i make money when you make money," tdd# 1-800-345-2550 he neglected to mention tdd# 1-800-345-2550 he also makes money when i lose money, tdd# 1-800-345-2550 withdraw money or do nothing with my money. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 tdd# 1-800-345-2550 well, get on out of that department store. and into covergirl outlast. no department store longwear gives you so many different

. >> we're going to senator mccain talking about campaign finance reform.ten in. >> talk about the influence of money, corporate and union, and soft money on the legislative process. it was theodore roosevelt that first talked about the corrupting influence of big money in politics and the issue of corporate funding and union funding has not been an issue since 1917. whatever. early in the last century. now, there's certain judges who are alleging that somehow corporations have the same rights as citizens. i don't accept that premise. >> of course, we're concerned when the court sets a special argument and not an issue relating specifically to mccain/feingold but whether this long-standing law should be overturned. the idea that an era of aig and exxon that their corporate treasuries would be opened up to destroy the political process this is a very bizarre time for these justices to be considered to destroy this long-standing law that has protected our democracy. >> senator mccain, is the court overturned, does congress have the will and will you have cong

and then even further have we revisited this in the mccain- feingold passage as far as what can be said at a certain time prior to what the federal election. so i guess my very specific question is ths: where what the judge's stand on this? would they ignore the political situation and go to the constitution and really dig out wherthe freedom of speech stands? what individuals, and then what relationship does this -- goes beyond the individual freedom of speech? >> guest: while, the supreme court justices are very divided. they don't even agree with their own history is on this point. scalia and stevens are sort of going back and forth on what we've said in the past. it is true in the 1890's the court said railrds and whatever can challenge things because they had right under the 14th amendment, so they were persons. justice stevens said that we've never said that in the campaign eckert. we've never said corporations have the se rights. justice scalia says is we have, cause there are cases -- famous cases involving "the new york times" for example. well, they are a corporation. scalia s

mccain, proposes amendment 2371. burp burn i ask unanimous consent that further proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. coburn: i ask that the pending ability set aside and that amendment 2370 be called up. the presiding officer: is there an objection? without objection, so ordered. the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from oklahoma, mr. coburn, for himself and mr. mccain, proposes an eamentd numbered 2370. mr. coburn: i ask unanimous consent that the amendment be considered as read. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. coburn: madam president, i ask that the pending anal eight synds that amendment number 2372 be called up. the presiding officer: is there an objection? without objection, so ordered. the clerk will report. the clerk: mr. coburn for himself and mr. mccain proposes amendment numbered 2372. burn brn i ask that the amendment be considered as read. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. coburn: i ask unanimous consent that

late news on senator mccain's reaction to mr. wilson's actions shouting "lie" at the president and a full page ad in "the new york times" signed by volunteers and contributors to the obama presidential campaign critical of his leadership on the subject of health care. the senior campaign staffer whose name is on that ad. has his mind been changed tonight? he'll join us. you're watching "countdown." for your family. it's the fabric of a sound economy. it built the middle class. and it's what the employee free choice act is all about... letting workers choose to join a union to earn better pay and benefits. the employee free choice act. it's time the economy worked for everyone again. if you're using other moisturizing body washes, you might as well be. you see, their moisturizer sits on top of skin, almost as if you're wearing it. only new dove deep moisture has nutriummoisture, a breakthrough formula with natural moisturizers... that can nourish deep down. it's the most effective natural nourishment ever. new dove deep moisture w

the mccain people rlize what they were doing.is he had come back from the trip which was a extraordinary 10 day trip. he was soaring and they looked at him and steve schmidt said a good candidate may get 25 for 30,000 feet in terms of how well they are doing and being treated in t press but bill clinton at his best was 25,000, and john mccain 2000 was their barack obama and it is at 50,000 and we had to do something, we could not bring m down. so e had e

not just mccain has done this. boehner has done this. comparison to afghanistan and not prioritizing it. am i hallucinating this. are these not the same men who enabled george bush to take his eye off the ball and go away from afghanistan and focus on nothing in iraq for seven years. >> great point. the reason we're in this soup right now in afghanistan is because they did not pay enough attention to it. and barack obama ran partly on that. and that complicates his situation right now, because he did make such a big deal during the campaign of us getting distracted from the real fight in afghanistan, that it's going to be a little bit hard for him to walk away from this war. >> but those two issues could be dealt with simultaneously. it's not either-or. jonathan alter of "newsweek" and msnbc. thanks for coming in. >>> i just mention, this is september 24. mccain day. let's look back at the exact moment his campaign jumped the shark. with david letterman and a cameo by yours truly. we're all sick to death of this guy. when he starts embra

i think john mccain would have been worse. how about this?nk john mccain would have been worse for the country than barack obama. how's that? >> couric: his loudest rallying cry-- get big government out of our lives and give a voice to the little guy. >> the average person is tired. they're tired. and they've also come to a point where they no longer see our children or our children's children having the kind of opportunity in life that we have because we've spent ourself into oblivion. both sides have done it! it's got to stop! >> couric: beck has loved the spotlight since he was a boy growing up in washington state. he's open and often emotive about his hardships. his mother committed suicide when he was 13, which he said made him turn to drugs and alcohol. in the 1990s, he converted to mormonism. >> it helps me live my life in a sober way. >> couric:? why. >> it teaches know serve others. >> couric: and, according to beck, take republicans to task as often as democrats. after 20 years as a top 40 d.j., beck has brought his shock jock sensi

on this date in 2008, john mccain lost the election. he was scheduled to be david letterman's only guest a year ago tonight, mccain bailed out, forcing dave to bring in as a guest guest, me. and the final mail, mccain then lied to letterman about where he was going instead of on his own show, and i got to watch. >> our people here were told it's so serious he's getting on a plane immediately and racing back to washington. and now we've just been told -- take a look. do we have it on the thing? this is going live. there he is right there. >> he doesn't seem to be racing to the airport, does he? this is just getting uglier and uglier. let's just see what he has to say. hey, john, i have a question. do you need a ride to the airport? >> it will be in all the history books like this. look. the caption will read letterman shown on the right. man on the left, unidentified. let's play "oddball." got to hear him twice tonight. to nottingham, england where bachelor parties can be expensive, so the brits turn to zorbing, which is defind as climbi

bush. 48 of those seats were won by bush and mccain. one seat was won by mccain only.he balance of those seats, 21 of them were won by george w. bush either in 2000 or 2004. sean: you have two very pivotal gubernatorial elections this year one in new jersey. both are winning in these races by pretty significant margins. democrats have reverted back to the strategy that they have got to attack george w. bush. do you think that's going to be an effective strategy? >> no. i don't think so. also that's not -- they have got a little bit of the attacking bush in there but the biggest part of it is big personal smears and attacks on the two republican candidates. neither democrat is articulating the positive image for the future republican chris christie has talked about fighting corruption. in virginia bob mcdonnell has outlined common sense program on jobs. each instance democratic opponents seem to be dragging all -- candidates. tilted against the democrats in the fall. neither one of the democrat candidates has a particularly compelling vision to lay it out. sean: that co

republicanideas that he wted to includ in his an, as yet unwrien, cluding one proposed b senator mccain and a prop opponent from ast year and anothepilot poject for reform, which is something that threpublicans have been supportive o in the past. the tails are left to be wrked t. that what he wanted. he wted to say here are thing that are most imprtant, but i'm not gointo say that we close off all options,ncluding the public option. he is for it, but wth other idea speaking of republicans,gwen mentioned and he mentioned, senat olimpia snowe an if she could tun out being th only republican on a ipartisan bill. >> sh's one f the most moderate repubcans. she's one of six from the finae committee that has been working on. >> only rpublican participating. >> exactly right. so she's more ingled ou. and now with ted kennedy's death, the democrats have 59of the 0 seats and you need votes to cut of a fil buste they're thinkg if they cou get all democrats tovote with t party on that question, they wld need oe more republican. snowe ses most likely, but she wold be in the spotlight e would be the

mccain, condi, and our old friend joe lieberman.he same old line, the war is the only way to keep us safe. they didn't even change the script. take a listen. >> we need additional troops and the longer we wait and delay, the more americans will be put at risk unnecessarily. >> our national security interests are very much tied up in not letting afghanistan fail again and become a safe haven for terrorists. it's that simple. if you want another terrorist attack in the united states, abandon afghanistan. >> when we sent more troops in we turned it around. iraq is rising up on its own. now people support the war in iraq and it's a lesser concern. we're capable of doing that in afghanistan. if we don't the taliban and al qaeda will be back there from which they struck us on 9/11. >> joining me now, robert greenwald, director of "rethink afghanistan." good to have you back with us tonight. >> thank you. >> before we start our discussion, i want to play this exclusive excerpt you made available to us in exchange here. here it is. >> focus

"senator mccain was short on details. the only new idea mentioned was a blockade and that came from you." well, i am the idea man. "roman polanski must serve tile. what signal does it send to others? jump bail, wait it out and your sentence will be forgiven? quovert wendy from miami, florida. "how would defense attorney feel if polanski had raped her 13-year-old daughter?" george from florida. "bill, i enjoy the factor, but i wish you'd be a bit more aggressive." if i were any more aggressive, sir, i'd be in prison. john, from illinois. "best segment of the night was brit hume and o'reilly. high value listening." i like it, john, thank you. bill from port st. lucie, florida. bill, i teach history and geography and we use your word of the day to stimulate discussion. could you post them on bill o'reilly.com? absolutely, joe, i will. and thanks for looking out for the kids. monica, from bethany, oklahoma. "law and order" used to be one of my favorite shows, but i stopped watching because of all the cheap shots against conse

robert gates and senator john mccain. gates and mccain, only on this "this week." >>> and bob woodward strikes again. he broke the mcchrystal story. >>> and as always, the sunday funnies. captions paid for by abc, inc. >>> and >>> and we begin with the secretary of defense robert gates. welcome back to "this week." >> thank you. >> national security was front and center all week long. let's begin with afghanistan. we saw the leak of general mcchrystal review. he concluded that the u.s. has 12 months to reverse taliban momentum. i want to show what the president said back in march when he laid out that strategy. he called it new and comprehensive. >> this marks the conclusion of a careful policy review. my administration has heard from our military commanders as well as diplomats. we consulted with the pakistani and afghanistan governments. and with other donors and international organizations. we worked closely with members of congress here at home. >> this was clearly carefully considered strategy. now, the president is

ideas that he wanted to include in his plan, as yet unwritten, including one proposed by senator mccain and a prop opponent from last year and another pilot project for reform, which is something that the republicans have been supportive of in the past. the tails are left to be worked out. that's what he wanted. he wanted to say here are things that are most important, but i'm not going to say that we close off all options, including the public option. he is for it, but with other ideas. >> speaking of republicans, gwen mentioned and he mentioned, senator olimpia snowe and if she could turn out being the only republican on a bipartisan bill. >> she's one of the most moderate republicans. she's one of six from the finance committee that has been working on. >> only republican participating. >> exactly right. so she's more singled out. and now with ted kennedy's death, the democrats have 59 of the 100 seats and you need 60 votes to cut off a fill buster. they're thinking if they could get all 59 democrats to vote with the party on that question, they would need one more republican. snowe

late news on senator mccain's reaction to mr. wilson's actions shouting "lie" at the president saying that wilson should apologize and do so immediately. and a full page ad in "the new york times" signed by volunteers and contributors to the obama presidential campaign critical of his leadership on the subject of health care. the senior campaign staffer whose name is on that ad. has his mind been changed tonight? he'll join us. you're watching "countdown." i crush you like tiny clown car. because you are... ...clown, yes? female valve: come, you hit me again and i break you. male valve: oh, you messed with wrong pipe now, car. ha, ha trust me...i have to live with her. announcer:accidents are bad. but geico's good with guaranteed repairs through auto repair express. when she started forgetting things, i was hoping it was nothing. grandma! what a nice surprise! mom, it's sunday. that's when i knew i couldn't wait. mom's doctor said these were signs of alzheimer's, a type of dementia, and that prescription aricept could help. he sa

john mccain and ru feingd are absotely right. before teddy roosevelt ere we had united statesenators -- from penylvania, masshusetts, senators from the u.s. steel, from sinclr oil. this is a terrying prospect. what do we have now? >> exact. >> individual contritions. >> $1 billion waspent in the last cpaign. lookwe have a first amendment. once we have congrs relating political speech, you are curtailing theost ecious assets in arica. if y have disclosure, as lby saidthat is what you need. open honesty and an open playing field. >> 9/11 risited. ground zero in nework. poli, firefighters, and licefficers on the eighth anniversary of the aackson 9/11. ptember 11, 2001, the world trade centerttack, pentagon attack. the weher was clear, crisp, d then at 8:46 a.m., the tion changed, colby, a we haven't recovered. >> we will not rover. we changed fundamentally because we were attaed in a way we never anticipated. now where we are ithe post- 9/11 age, and it has aected us from the standpoint of r civil liberties, from the stapoint of nat

the exxon's prof of next year, that is morehan barack obama raised and spent and all campaign john mccain anruss fngold are solutely right. before teddy roosevt where we had united stes senators -- fromennsylvania, ssachusetts, senators from the u.s. steel, from sclair oil. this is a rrifying prospect. >>hat do we have now? >> exactly >> individual contribuons. >> $1 billionas spent inhe la campaign. ok, we have a first amendme. once we he a cgress regulating political speech, yo are curtailinghe most precious assets america. you have disclosure, as colby id, that is what you need. open honesty and an en playing field. >> 9/ revisited. ground zero inew york. lice, firefighters, and police officers on the eighth anniversary of t attacks on 9/. september 11, 2001, the world trade ceer attack, pentagon attack. thweather was clear, crisp, and then at 8:46 a.m., the nation changed, colby, and we haven't recovered. >> we will not recer. we changed fundamentally because we were attack in a waywe never anticipated. now where we are is e post- 9/11 age, and it has affted from the standpoint of ou

this issue goes back to the presidential campaign when john mccain proposed taxing individuals for highalue plans to which he was sharply criticized by then senator obama. some democrats like the mccain approach but president obama promised not to raise taxes on anyone making less than $250,000 a year, so democrats had to find another way, but a former mccain aide says the bottom line is the same, to discourage cadillac health plans ax you this is a disincentive for a large gold plated package, the same fee is whether you put it on the insurance company or the individual. >> so the baucus man had to do a little political dance by taxing the insurance companies who offer the plans instead of the workers who receive them. >> so it is the evil insurers with all that money, we will get it out of them and it won't affect your benefits in any way. >> many democrats see it for what it is, but doing healthcare reform without adding to the deficit or violating mr. obama's political promises requires a little creative thinking. bret. bret: all right, jim, thank you. one day after the f.d.a. appro

defense secretary robert gates and senator john mccain. gates and mccain, only on this "this week." >>> and bob woodward strikes again. he broke the mcchrystal story. and joins us our powerhouse roundtable. >>> and as always, the sunday funnies. >> president obama made a big speech, he welcomed the members of the u.n. general assembly to new york and he said, i would like to encourage you to do some shopping. china immediately bought eight banks and the state of wyoming. china immediately bought eight banks and the state of wyoming. they bought it all. captions paid for by abc, inc. >>> and we begin with the secretary of defense robert gates. welcome back to "this week." >> thank you. >> national security was front and center all week long. let's begin with afghanistan. we saw the leak of general mcchrystal's review. and he concluded that the u.s. has about 12 months to reverse taliban momentum. and without new troops, the strategy laid out by the president would fail. i want to show what the president said back in march when he laid out t

let's just say that. >> you won't give him anything. >> this is the one about a mccain event where mccains having a hard time scratching up enough people. here is bush when mccain can't get people. he can't get 500 people to show up for an event in his hometown. no one said anything. and we went to another topic. the president couldn't let it drop. he couldn't get 500 people? i could get that many people to turn up in crawford. he shook his head. this is a five spiritual. >> the plane is going around. >> that is where the campaign is going to be because this guy can't get squat to show up. i thought it was a terrific line. >> an astute political observation. >> who brought this guy, chris. >> let's go to the next one. here is an excerpt about president bush on president obama. this is a dangerous world, he said, for no apparent reason. and this cat isn't remotely qualified to handle it. this guy has no clue. i promise you. this is the promise winding himself up more. you think i wasn't qualified. i was qualified. >> the guy stone who made the movie "w." that is the george bush. >> you thi

not john mccain, personally, but some of the people around him. >> some of the people in the mccain campaignout that. very angry about her treatment in the campaign and also, she's become sort of a celebrity phenomenon. so, i think the book will probably be quite reckless and geared to try to just be sensational and produce a large sale. that seems to be much of what she's doing seems to be financially. >> and they've printed a million and a half already. let me show you -- >> that's a lot of books. >> that's a lot of books. >> sure is. >> let me show you a little clip from our last interview with her in alaska when we went fishing. >> okay. >> you haven't finished the job, some would say. >> you're not listening to me as to why i wouldn't be able to finish that final year in office without it costing the state millions of dollars and countless hours of wasted time, wasted -- we have true, worthy, public causes. my son over there fighting in iraq right now with the troops that are fighting for the freedom of the press and free speech and fair elections, all those things that near and dear to

mccain said we needed more boots on the ground.as anyone called john mccain and said, "what do you think?" >> we are about to do what we did in iraq, not have enough power. i think we have forgotten the lessons of iraq very quickly. i hope the president will listen to the commander. these are the commanders that turned iraq around, and if we do not act quickly, we will lose more ground. actress are more at risk. -- our troops are more at risk. the general says if we do not reinforce afghanistan, we will lose the insurgency within one year. greta: what is taking him so long? >> i am sure he is worried what will happen with the governing party. if we send a bunch of troops in, will that affect the government's problem? there is the situation that the karzai government has failed. i have got doubts about the karzai government, but without better security, no government can function, so i would say to get a better security in our image, and then we will push karzai, and others will hold his feet to the fire -- get a better security env

that was john mccain. can the republicans say yes to mccain/romney ideas? it is not clear that they are not out to pull the plug on obama much more than anything else. >> mayor? >> i think the senate has a proposal that i don't hear that talks about a real reduction in costs and a realistic way to cover more people through tax breaks tax exemptions subsidies, things like that. i think the republicans could support it. the republicans have -- i supported, along with john mccain, a major reform of health care, if he incorporated a lot of those things in it i would support it. >> let me get to a couple interesting issues. the speech the president planned to give on tuesday was an education speech to students coming back from their summer break and he wanted to talk about studying hard. we brought it up with david axelrod. it created a firestorm. here's the new campaign in public schools, writing a parent level, and in it saying, in developing their plans our principals have considered issues such as developmental issues, the speech is being broadcast and the i

this is one about mccain event where mccain's having a hard time scratching together enough people. bush when mccain can't get people. quote, he can't get 500 people to show up for an event in his hometown? no one said anything. and we went to another topic. the president couldn't let it drop. quote, he couldn't get 500 people? i could get that many people to turn up in crawford. he shook his head. >> that, to me, is a great med for. here's a guy, was a fighter pilot, f-102 national guard. plane is going down, spiraling around -- >> that's what the campaign is going to be. this guy can't get squat to show up in his hometown. >> i thought it was a terrific line. >> an astute political observation. >> wrote brought this guy, chris? >> let's go to the next one. here is an excerpt about president bush on president obama. this is a dangerous world, he said, for no apparent reason. and this cat isn't remotely qualified to handle it. this guy has no clue. i promise you. he wound himself -- here's the president winding himself up more. you think i wasn't qualified. he said to no one in part

he is usually the swing vote but he is at the center and both dealing with mccain-feingold. so the question is alito and roberts will probably come out in favor free speech but just haven't gone that far yet to want what do we learn about justice sotomayor during the oral argument if you. >> i think we learned that she is going to be about what people expected. she has always been one who has wanted to stick closely to precedent which is what people talk about, and here the precedent is for restricting speech. so she seem to be willing to hold onto that doing the campaign-finance laws are one of the great offenses against the constitution and with any luck we will get them to throw these precedents. >> we come back, a new hampshire judge orders a homeschooled girl to attend the local public school setting the rigidity of her christian faith. the details are next. natural gas is a cleaner burning fuel, yet a lot of natural gas has impurities like co2 in it. controlled freeze zone is a new technology... being developed by exxonmobil... to remove the co2 from the natural gas...

his district went for mccain but with 54% of the vote. his last election he won at about 64% versus 33% for the democrats. so, he's got to lose 30 points in this exchange, and i don't think that's very likely for just walking out. and if he does risk the wrath of his voters for that, i think he probably has time to make up a good excuse about how urgently he needed to get to that men's room before anybody else. >> he forgot his sign. last question about congressman wilson. did we reach a low-water mark -- or high-water mark in terms of the stupid out here? i'm just wondering if there is such a place, and if that wasn't it, i'm advised that bill o'reilly just referred to the lewin group study that the conservatives are so fond of talking about in regards to health care, referred to it as an independent research group owned by unitedhealth, which might actually be stupider than what wilson said last night. >> i'm going to stick with wilson for this news cycle, keith. >> okay. >> i spoke to a lawyer in south carolina today who went to law sc

mccain didn't want to do the insurance reforms you would need to make sure people got group coverage at the same time. but if we start with what obama's talking about, people will get coverage outside the employer setting, that can set in motion a move beyond the employer based system which is good for all of us. >> your party, what type of political fallout might we see from this and especially with the midterm elections? >> the 2010 elections are going to have a lot of angry seniors coming out to vote and not a lot of the younger people that came out for obama last time around. i think it's a long term loser for the republican party if they don't come up with a workable solution. >> and the down side risks for the democrats? >> the risk is in not doing anything, and all the republicans know that. there's some question on the details, i think the odds are we're going to get a major health reform that's very good for the country, very good for people who are insured, it will give them more security, it will give people access to more coverage who don't have it today. they'll all have