mccain couldn't risk that, so they needed a last minute replacement.nly you're in a jam. >> schmidt: we were. >> john heilemann: that's the state of desperation they're in as they sit down with mccain that sunday night over a dinner of deep-fried burritos and say to him, "what about sarah palin?" >> cooper: john heilemann of "new york" magazine and mark halperin of "time" covered the campaign, and spent the last two years interviewing some 200 political insiders for their book, "game change." among their revelations is how mccain's campaign manager, rick davis, spotted sarah palin while searching the google and youtube for possible vice presidential candidates. >> mark halperin: rick davis saw one interview she did with charlie rose where she was very much the sarah palin that people find appealing. she was lively, she was engaging, she popped off the screen. mccain boxed himself in. he needed a game-changing pick for vice president. and that left them with a last minute pick of someone who was, to mccain, a virtual stranger, and was, to his senior sta

i want to thank my new colleague, senator john mccain.ause] on a night like this when some many put their name on a statewide ballot, you think back to the first people who gave you a chance and believed. for the trust they put in me, i want to thank my neighbors and friends and my home town. this started right here with all of you. that to me tell you, when i first got to feeling something big was happening was when i was driving along the road out in central massachusetts. i knew things were starting to click when i saw a hand made scott brown yard sign that i put there myself. this little campaign of hours was destined for great things. the message went far beyond. it all started with me, my truck, and a few amount of dedicated volunteers. however, it ended with an air force one making an emergency run to logan -- [laughter] he talked about some the things he disagreed with me on. when he started to criticize my truck, that is where i draw the line. throughout this race, we had the machine scared unscrambling. for them, it is the begin

it doesn't work. >> larry: we'll have more with senator john mccain after this. sfx: coin drop want to hear how more families are saving money, saving time and saving for the future? it's regions lifegreen checking and savings. these accounts come with a personal savings review, up to a $250 annual savings account bonus, and free online and mobile banking for simple and safe banking anytime, anywhere. just drop by or visit regions.com/open to open your accounts, and get into the rhythm of saving. reons it's time to expect more. >> larry: we're back from the rotunda in capitol hill with senator john mccain. you mentioned that he keeps criticizing the bush administration. you have to admit in all fairness that obama inherited quite a set of problems. >> absolutely. and that's one of the reasons why we lost the election. maybe also because not so great a candidate. but the point is that we let spending get out of control under the bush administration. we republicans. and we paid a heavy price for it. but the president also promised that he would go line by line, tha

that was one of many causes of tension between the palins and the mccain staff.st: david, next caller. caller: on my part i am identified as no party affiliation. i always -- when the politician preaches the corrupt year, -- when the politicians it reaches the crop year, i will not vote for them. with clinton into york -- if i was a resident of new york, i would not have voted for her, because she moved in. and many voters in southwest florida thought they were voting for his father and they were very upset that they had voted for his son. i was extremely upset, being a disabled veteran, 1 george w. bush -- host: let me jump in here, because we're running out of time. what is your question or comment? guest: this is a question i have recently started asking my friends about voter fraud. which of the three largest cities in the u.s. have a reputation, whether it is deserved or not, for having corrupt elections? host: i am not sureç of this cn answer that we want to take a stab at it? guest: never be wrong picking cities in louisiana and new jersey. host: let me g

the person who knew him best in the old, was john mccain.when mccain was starting to fall, he was never worried about rudy giuliani. he said rudy is rudy. >> each year, the washington center brings thousands of students to washington, d.c. to experience the workings of our glovet first hand. this weekend, they will discuss politics and their government. >> friday, the chinese foreign ministry rejected a call by secretary of state hillary clinton to lift restrictions on the internet. now here's her speech that led to that response. this is just over an hour. good morning. i welcome you to an event that i think we will all long remember. we are privileged this morning to witness a major foreign policy speech by our secretary of state immediately following i encourage you to stay for a panel discussion led by ann marie slaughter the director of the policy plabbing staff. this is the perfect setting for a discussion about freedom. the news yum is not a classic museum. it has of course lots of history but its purpose is to promote the freedoms th

that was her attempt to break away from what she felt was the mccain shell, the mccain bill and there since she had gone off completely off the reservation that she had all but picking her and she didn't understand what it take to run for the viceas ik i look very specifically at some of the gender aspects of that and she, too, field to understand why not preparing for these interviews in zenas that she might make to this winter have an added layer of criticism of questioning. she just was. she was young and a woman and these are new things and she was going to have to what she wanted to or not the answer would books and magazines she read and prove she was qualified even though she'd been a governor. that is self wasn't going to speak for itself and that wasn't something she or the name to become a kaine's appreciated until it hit them. >> host: we would get to calls, e-mail and twitter comments. it is twitter.com/c-spanwj. she was spooked the position she was in a and conscious of the gaps in knowledge she had not known since innocence she began to start losing her bearings. >> gues

>> we talk to both senators mccain and feingold and we will be working with them. we have not gone into specific details because we have to wait for the decision to see where to go but senator mccain and senator feingold have expressed interest in getting involved. >> what other options to you have to constitutional link to go there are many options and that is what we are going to explore. we have been looking at this for days and months prior to today. there are various options which i am not going to go into now. i will throw out a couple. there is the corruption issue. there is the shareholder rights issue. shouldn't shareholders have to say something before corporate treasurers are used for this? there are others, as well. i think on this type of issue, you might find some bipartisan support. >> what is the danger given that democrats on the hill has pushed health care reform and that regulatory reform which insurance companies and banks do not want, what this this mean for democratic candidates in 2010? >> but is it that the democratic congressional campaign

it was never likely that the mccain campaign would pullover these.: our conversation is with anne kornblut who writes for "the washington post" and before that worked for "the new york times" and "boston globe," her book called "notes from the cracked ceiling." we have robert joining us. caller: good morning, i agree with the gentleman that called about hillary clinton who voted for the war in iraq and also her husband. and senator palin, i think she's honest and would be a good candidate for the republican party, and i think she would be a good candidate for them. for barack obama, i think that many americans are fighting not al-qaeda or the economy or the jobless situation, they are fighting barack obama because who he is. and they probably need someone who looks like them and i think they would be happier who is a republican. thank you. host: going back to robert's earlier point, do you think that sarah palin will run in 2012? guest: i am not going to try to get inside of her head, but i think it's possible and i think she's got a base, it wouldn'

they met with sarah palin, two of mccain's advisers, mark salter and steve schmidt. did not know her bridge was a stranger to them. one of things they discussed with her late in the meeting was the importance of her understanding that even though she would remain the sitting governor of alaska, she needed to understand her focus needed to be on the the national campaign. she was basically an appendage of the campaign and would not get back to alaska until there -- unless there was some sort of natural disaster, and she did not to be focused on her home state needs but on the national ticket. on the point of view of the kaine staff, she did not of a -- up to that from the point -- from the point of view of the mccain is that, she did not live up to that. there were concerned that there was an absence of mccain-palin and yard signs in alaska. it is spent the time complaining to a -- the campaign they spent -- they spent atime complaining that there was not enough of an effort in alaska. she w@@@ can she was not being allowed to talk to local reporters, like a lot of go

who's going to be mccain's running mate?n is absolutely fascinating. they sort of shred her credibility, her inability to get up to speed on the issues fast enough. this is going to impact what she does in the future as a candidate, do you think? >> the "they" is the mccain consultants talking to these two authors and mark and john are the messengers. this sanctimonious splangs of -- there were a couple of things in there of frankly he we thought she suffered from postpartum depression so he had a doctor on-call. she complained about her makeup and smeared it all over her face and said i look fat in this. come on. that's the oldest book trick -- trick in the book. for me, to actually believe that a sitting governor had, quote, mentally unstable, a mother of five, it's something -- it's a bridge too far. i think these guys want to work again. >> there's so much more to talk about. that's just of tip of the iceberg in this. it's a page turner. we got to take a short break. we're back just in a minute to talk more about in book

i know meghan mccain and know she's a very, you know, great advocate for gay rights.s convinced her mom to go public along with her and, you know, that's cindy mccain's decisions. she's a great advocate for any cause she wants to put her muscle behind. >> larry: is that an embarrassment to the senator, mark? >> oh, look, i don't think so. i think people are really used to couples taking, as i think she said, all sorts of different positions now. i just think that goes with the territory these days. >> larry: ben? >> well, what we have in california that's a real embarrassment is a full scale nut job whack case running a trial about whether or not proposition 8 will be overturned. i agree there should be a trial about it. this guy is a full-scale lunatic -- >> larry: who? >> the judge in this case. he's turning this case into a circus. travesty of trial law. it's an embarrassment. you would say probably nothing could embarrass california, but it's an embarrassment to california. >> larry: stephanie? >> oh, i think it's an embarrassment to california that they voted to

among guests are senator john mccain. "larry king live he" is at midnt and 6:00 p.m. pacific. we're going to haiti, and we begin with christian amanpour, our chief international correspondent. saturdays and sundays on cnn. chr chrisiane, you just got there this week. what's your overview on this? what's your read? >> well, the thing is it's getting better in certain instances. obviously, we've heard since the earthquake struck of all the difficulties getting the food, supplies and medicines out to the people. that is getting better whether it's here in port-au-prince or out in the southern caribbean coast or lagone. the military operation to provide security and get the supplies out is expanding. but it's still not enough to meet the needs of every single person. right now the big issue for many people is still getting enough food and clean water, although many individuals, many people here in haiti, many businesses are doing their best also to give free food and water. the big issue is shelter, because so many of the buildings, certainly in port-au-prince, have been either de

this is sarah simmons who served the john mccain presidency campaign.rnold schwarzenegger campaign which i know you will talk about, she is a graduate of american university and a personal friend of mine which shows that bipartisanship can exist in washington d.c.. let them have it. >> thanks for having me this morning. i want to say that if you are serious about working on campaigns, this is the best piece of education you can take with you. i occasionally -- you have better bound books than we had in and 90s. i occasionally go back of i am stuck with a task i am not familiar with to review the course materials i had. there are a lot of great speakers that come through here, people you will remember for a long time. i will talk about making voting work for your campaign. part of what i am going to talk about is from the arnold schwarzenegger example. the john mccain campaign may have the worst reputation compared to the obama votes. some of that was funding, some just the regular challenges our campaign had that was more global. it was not specific tac

nothing inÑi mccain-find gold attempted to restrict what media could do.ight to engage in the political propaganda on the air? fine, we agree. canada also take money out of profit and put it into particular campaigns? with corporations, blackwater, and ron, goldman sachs, bank of america? one thing congress has to do is say that if you get federal bailout money, federal contract money for corporations, you are not permitted to engage in expenditures. essentially what that is doing is taking the money from taxpayers, giving it to corporations, and letting them turn around and tell us how to vote. >> so you have moved to a ban on federal contractors. of course there is a right of the press to engage on the first amendment. in politics, in speech of any kind. but the press is an activity. it is not a class of individuals or actors or participants in society. it is an activity. if the first amendment was written today, it would have freedom of the internet. but there are no people saying that. the press is an activity, and it applies to all people. these days,

i worked at the polls for john mccain's campaign.n article today in "the washington post." one of the things we should remember, the president did not take public finance. they literally had a half a million dollar general election campaign. everytime we got close the would drop another $50 million. like in healthcare the president said we would save $2,500 per person. but we would not have mandates. that is an easy message to sell. in the environment where we were being outspent by 5-1 in the general elections, yeah, it is very difficult to litigate those claims. look, that is the campaign. they ran a brilliant campaign. the other thing, once these have gone into this titian's collapsed in mid-september when it up on election day with seven out of tin in the country saying that the country was on the wrong track. 70% of those of but for the party out of power. out of 53 the first 49 is just the first 7% of wrong track voters. that is hard to stop. frankly, lastly, to give the president his due, these men and women who survived this

. >> greg: john mccain the next day stood up for his colleague. >> i have been around here twenty some years and first time i have seen a member denied an extra minute or two to finish his remarks and i must say that i don't know what is happening here in this body but i think it's wrong. >> greg: anyway, the story ends happily. all three later made up at friendly's and shared a forbidden fudge brownie. bill, she shared one once. i go to you. was franken drunk with power the way you are often drunk with [ bleep ] drunkenness? >> powerful maddog? >> yes. >> this was awesome. this needs to happen a lot more than it does. there is so many long winded bozos that fill the halls. frankie did something that more people should be doing. i have always want during the halftime to use any capacity as the fox news contribute fresh, illinois to shut him down, greg. >> do you agree with him or disagree? >> i agree with him because it is in the rules. there are too many damn rules on capitol hill, just like in the nfl with the helmets. >> if they all wore helmets, i would watch c-span. >> i know a ba

mccain would be nothing but a sounding board for them. >> you are not there, though. you are in some other world. >> i describe myself as a recovering congressman. part of that is knowing how the process works and knowing that i was part of the process and apologizing for it. i also try to explain it. even a conservative rush limbaugh, the real policy is -- he voted for mccain because he thought he would marginally better. the real policy decisions are between the right and left. that is a decision that does not sit well with people that are on the right and left. andy is one of those guys on the right. he would have loved to have had fred thompson be elected president of the united states. unfortunately, fred thompson did not run a campaign that got him out of the starting gate. consequently, when you get down to the choices that you have got, it has got to be the universe you live in, not the one you would pray for. >> when i asked you at the top of the show about the grade you would give, you gave goodwill industries an a-. i hear you trash congress. >> i do. >> wh

pacific time, and among our guests will be senator john mccain. so "larry king live" will be at midnight eastern, 9:00 pacific tomorrow night following the state of the union and cnn's political team discussing the state of the union. we're going to go to haiti and we begin with christiane amanpour, our chief international correspondent and the host of "amanpour" seen on saturdays and sundays on cnn. christiane, you just got there this week. what's your overview of this after a two-week occurrence that has developed into a nightmare? what's your read? >> well, the thing is, it's getting better, if you can say that, in certain instances. obviously, we've heard since the earthquake struck of all the difficulties getting the food, supplies and meds out to the people. that is getting better, whether it's here in port-au-prince or out in jacmal or in the southern caribbean coast. trying to facilitate the airlifts, provide security and get the supplies out is certainly expanding, but it's not enough to meet the needs of every single person. right now th

mccain of course was a pow. iraq is out of charmed life.ad. >> host: what is your next project? >> guest: top secret. i opie a while because more than half of what i earn will be going to pay for people who don't work for a living. i think i'm going to stop writing for a while. >> host: what a pleasure it's been to talk with you about your new book "guilty: liberal victims and their assault on america." thank you so much, and. >> guest: thank you. university of colorado graduate and award-winning journalist dave: prevents a account at columbine. this program taped at "the los angeles times" festival of books is 45 minutes. >> who are eric and dylan? >> eric and dylan were the two killers at columbine. >> and eric was a psychopath and dylan was not. they were completely different people. and i spent ten years on this book and if question i get asked most often is why did they do it. and it took me about a year to figure out that that's really the wrong question and we does in the wrong direction because there's eric and why he did it and the

. >> you're talking about hyman rickover and john mccain? >> john mccain is a friend of mine. i cannot say about him. i met rickover one time. i think it would fit with him, yes. >> the perceive any kind of role for congress to play? do you think it would be too late by the defense authorization bill to deal with it? do you have any plans to write any legislation on that? >> we will have our hearing wednesday and i hope you come at 10:00 a.m. i am sure all the members of the committee will probe this issue. there may be our requirement at the end of the day to have legislation. we can actually do it by a stand-alone bill. if that is the case, we can include in the defense authorization bill -- which will come out in may or later in the spring -- i do not think we should rush to judgment, because, honestly, i think it is not just the third is -- jurisdiction of those in power in the military, or standards of rules and regulations regarding fitness reports, oer's, and medical-academic records, to do this themselves. if necessary, we will not hesitate to do it. >> let us turn our

i remember that july when john mccain was up against the wall. i remember the july seeing john mccain at the airport in 2007 by himself catching a flight and no one paying attention to him and his determination and perseverance through that campaign to come out as the nominee is something i think a lot of people at buyer and should admire. he represents so much that this party has to offer along with, you know, mitt romney and sarah palin and governor pawlenty, governor general, my good friend, haley barbour. so we have the leadership that's out there and guess what's going to happen? over the course of this year and early next year and officials are going to begin to emerge who will contend for the presidency. who want to represent the principles of this party nationally for the presidency. and that is going to be an exciting to watch. we don't know who is goi be surprised that that leadership is there and that they are ready to get the job done. >> host: "washington post" this morning. phillips story steele's story is but congressional republic

he worked on the mccain campaign. they have worked not only at the presidential level, but senate, congressional, gubernatorial, at every level. as i said, it is one of the really outstanding survey research firms. we are thrilled that neil is willing to come in first thing and speak to us. so i am going to turn it over to neil. thank you. >> i would appreciate if you hold your applause until later. >> one other thing. if you have questions, wait for the boom so people can hear them. >> chris, i have a remote system. >> let me give you a bit of background about where i came from, because it is very similar to you guys. i heard a couple of people here taking a voting behavior course in college. that is what got me started. i went to duke university and graduated a long time ago. what really got me -- i was from cast. i was never interested in pliment. i took a sociology course and then a voter behavior course in 1972, and that really whetted my appetite. then in 1972 in the fall, we had two pollsters come to duke to sp

john mccain said it would be his first act as president of closing guantanemo. jim burnett, the senator from south carolina has held up the appointment and the nomination of a permanent head of the transportation security agency because of his concern about labor unions. i would point out to senator dimint on september 11th, when 23new york firefighters walked into the jaws of death and the fires of hell to serve the abandoned, the scared, and the search for life, every one of them was a dues-paying union member. >> in addition to chaney's misstatements about obama on terrorism, i thi the worst is from peter holstrom the republican campaign committee both using this tragedy to ask for campaign contributions. that was disgusting. >> all right. let's change gears now and talk about the american economy one year after the collapse next. don't seat same desperation has we had last year. i see -- mostly what i see today are recently unemployed folks. >> that's a job fair at ashville, north carolina, four days after christmas hundreds of people lined up for jobs, that

guest: john mccain is a friend of mine. i cannot say about him. i met rick one time and receive one of his lectures in my office. guest: do you foresee any kind of role for congress in changing policy in for good? do you think it would be too late for the 2011 defense authorization bill to deal with this? do you have any plans to write any legislation on the defense authorization bill. guest: we will have our hearing at 10:00 wednesday morning. i hope you will see one. -- you will come. they will prove this issue. there may be a requirement to have legislation. we can do it by a stand-alone bill, if that is the case or weekend included in the defense authorization bill which will come out of our committee -- or weekend included in the defense authorization bill. quite honestly, i think it is with iin the jurisdiction but which in the power of the military by establishing rules and regulations regarding fitness reports, oer's, and the medical-academic records to tight knit themselves. if necessary, i will not hesitate to do it. host: do you have tr

and it was interesting in the obama-mccain election. i'm prejudice i have a daughter that writes for obama in the white house. however, this is not the kind of thing that barack obama would do. he wants all the information. he wants to think it out, and john mccain, a very instinctive and sometimes disruptive politician, is the kind of person who might have done something like this against all advice, against all council. >> [inaudible] >> yes, they are a breed apart and heated the airlifters with a cold grocery deliver some. >> on that note, you mentioned tom bradley and marshall were so against the airlift to begin with. but it was the response after they saw how successful the airlift was? >> well, marshall was very sick so he really didn't have -- bradley was truly mystified by this. he thought it was locked and of course some of it was. but the great make their own what. i want to say one more thing about truman's role in all of this and when i was looking for something to write what actually got me to write this was that in readin

congressman hamilton and senator mccain of voted for that. we have before us this week the idea of a statutory commission that sort of gives us recommendations that are binding. there must be some kind of override that exists. most commissioners would be sitting members of congress. others say could be people like you who have a world of experience to bring to it. given the success of this commission, give us a little bit of advice is to go forward this week. >> well, pick a german like tom kane -- pick eight chairmen like tom kean. he was chairman. i was vice chairman. we knew each other by reputation bed did not know each other well. tom walks into the room. we're going to make these joint decisions. we will not hire anybody and will not fire anybody. we will not make any decision unless we do it together. >> it was said that one of the unfortunate things we have going for us was -- a think he's to put it, reform politicians. >> i describe myself as a recovering governor. >> there's nobody in the commission, i do not think, with any interes

in many ways the mccain campaign was caught off guard by the issues and attacks she had to deal with as a woman. explain what was going on there. >> it was a very small circle of mccain aides who made the decision. they were all men. some of the things they later experienced such as the focus on her looks or the obsession with her young baby and whether it was hers which turned time-out be a ridiculous question. if there was a woman in the room she might have raised her hand and said, we know from past experience female candidates who look too perfect, who are too attractive can count against them. the men didn't realize that female voters want someone who is older and seems serious and doesn't look so perfect or so beautiful. maybe if there had been a woman in the room she could have alerted them to that. >> you talked to a lot of political strategists in the research and they explain how women need to campaign differently to address some of this stuff. >> look, it may not be fair and a lot of it i don't think is, but what they have found is -- voters don't necessarily want to see a

mccain: reserve the right to object. i will not object, but i just want to point out the importance of this legislation. i think it deserves a roll call vote. we've had discussions with the majority leader and the republican leader. we will hopefully get a roll call vote in the conference report. this situation in iran in terrible and it's worsening. people are dying in the streets of iran as we speak. the amendment that i had proposed, that i had hoped and maybe we can have the conferees included, would have required the president to draw up a list of persons in iran who have committed human rights abusebusr acts of violence against iranian civilians engaging in peaceful political activity, and we would require in the amendment that i would have proposed that the list be made public so the enemies and oppressors of the iranian people can't hide from their crimes. the world would know their names. and then we could impose visa bans, asset freezes, financial and banking sanctions, et cetera. in the streets of iran today,

explain sort of what was going on there. >> well, it was a very small circle of mccain aides who made the decision, and they were all men. but some of the things that they later experienced such as the focus on her looks, for example, or the obsession with her young baby and whether it was hers, which turned out to be a ridiculous question. but some of that stuff, if there had been a woman in the room she might have been able to raise her hand and say hey, wait a second, guys, we know from past experience that female candidates who look too perfect, who are too attractive, that can sometimes count against them with female voters. the men didn't realize that sometimes female voters, they want somebody who's older, who seems a little more serious. maybe doesn't look so perfect or so beautiful. and that's something that female candidates in other races have experienced. so maybe if there had been a woman in the room she could have raised her hand and alerted them to that. >> and you also talked to a lot of political strategists in the research, and they explain how women actually need to

john, were you surprised to learn about the difficulty in the marriage of the mccains?> it's one of things we heard about while we were covering the campaign. when we started to talk to people for the book, it was sort of stunning how many people who work for us the fact there was no such frikt between them and it was so public. that was the thing that stunned their advisers that they would often fight with each other in front of people. it caused a lot of disruption, and it was a problem they felt they had to manage. they spent a lot of time anying about that problem and how to make sure they kept up a public image that didn't let this private reality show through. we reported when video people would go to shoot ads they would have to keep the cameras rolling for hours to catch a couple moments of warmth between them. one of the things we do in the book is tell about the high human drama of the campaign. just as much was to try to show people that what the gap is between the private realities of these candidates and their public images, that's important historically to

>> mccain cannot -- is literally going back to glass-spiegel.he president can forbid underwriting securities or investing in securities by any commercial bank. this is not that. this says a bank cannot own a hedge fund, cannot own a private equity fund, but can do trading with its own account that is not related to the client's business. we want to get back to the fundamental nature of the bank, which is serving its clients, rather than investing for its own profit. it is substantially different and grows out of what is in the house bill and what is in the regulatory white paper on page 32, were central to it is the notion of limiting risky activities and trying to protect the system. >> is proprietary trading with customer benefits still allowed under this proposal? >> yes, and if it is quiet-base, they would be able to do training or a bunch of other functions as a bank as long as it was for a client. >> the president mentioned the volcker rule. he did not mention anyone else. mr. volcker has been an advocate of this for a long time. why did y

you have people like john mccain and lindsey graham saying we should not release people from gitmo to any country that has a al qaeda presence. >> i think that's exactly right. up shouldn't be putting them to yemen. you shouldn't be putting them into saudi arabia. there's talk about this rehab program that they go through in saudi arabia. the results have been very, very mixed. you shouldn't be sending them back to somalia, afghanistan, pakistan. because the evidence is clear, these people are released and the number of them go back on the to the battlefield. the clear signal is when these gitmo detainees find their way back to the battlefield, they're no longer focused on the conflict in pakistan, afghanistan or iraq. just like others, they form the core of people who want to attack the united states. it's a national security homeland security issue. >> schieffer: diane fine steen, what about that, that we shouldn't release anybody to a country where there's an al qaeda presence. do you go along with that. >> i tend to agree with that actually. if you look at yemen-- and we're taking

one of his chief supporters is senator john mccain. lot of democrats were hoping he would start ramping down in afghanistan not ramping up. the speaker of the house nancy pelosi was one of them. she has essentially said the president needs to carry his own water on this issue and convince his fellow democrats if he wants to get the funding for this troop increase. >> schieffer: i would add that the chairman of the foreign relations committee john kerry and the chairman of the senate armed services committee carl levin are both fairly luke warm about this too. the president will be on his own on this one. i agree with you. i think in the end he'll probably get the approval. >> it will be a lot of republicans and a small number of democrats most likely that give him the majority he needs. >> schieffer: let's round this out and get the thoughts of all of you on what is going to happen. what is your prediction for this year, chip reid? >> well, bob, health care reform. i think it probably will be passed. and signed into law. once that happ

but charlie crist is basically a mccain guy and because charlie crist back the stimulus, which mccaind not, that is something that really hampered him. rubio, who is just viewed as an up-and-coming star, newt gingrich had said a lot of good things about him over the years. really closing in but that image of charlie crist hugging obama and then charlie crist recently saying he really didn't back the stimulus has hurt his political standing. but charlie crist is still a very shrewd politician. anyone who counts and out could be foolish. host: washington, pennsylvania. paul on the republican line. caller: i would like to make a comment on the 2010 elections. i don't think there are going to be any presidential coattails. i certainly hope we can include arlen specter in that retirement party. i'm always amazed, mr. cusack, people like you, will have such a wealth of information -- i guess it is your job -- but it is good to hear people like you because we get to know a little bit more about what is going on besides watching c-span. lastly, i would like to say, i will harkened back to ger

no, i mean i will say one thing that sort of surprise me since the election that john mccain of the naveems two of actually ben wendover and tax cutting because he voted against both bush tax cuts. he was a big proponent of manatee. he wanted to shut down gitmo. i would rather have them get the blame rather than us, and it is just something about republicans. they go for the next guy in line. it has been a disaster. they will not learn. i think michael still needs to punish their early primary states are any states that allow democrats and-- to vote in the primaries but when john mccain was nominated and when before he chose sarah palin, who was the one i ended up voting four, and that was for cerak, as between hillary, clinton and john mccain i will take hillary. they are about the same and we would get blamed for it and that was something a lot of us learned during the bush administration like with amnesty. you want to support your president, your party that is in the white house and a lot of the spending runs up. a lot of the things that her republicans and i think george bush was a

thank you very much. >> senator mccain?> thank yes m and i thank them for their continued search service to the country. i think everybody knows the facts of the christmas bomber, a person buys a ticket with cash, one way ticket, his father has already warned the cia, the series of missteps that have taken place, led to the near tragedy. and i thank the witnesses for the gander at 10 -- candor in her forthcoming about the failure to the president said and i pokÉmon genuine seven, i repeatedly made it clear in public for the american people and in private with my national security team that i will hold my staff to our agencies and the people in them accountable when they fail to perform their responsibilities at the highest level. i'd like to ask all three witnesses, who's been held accountable? i will start with you mr. leiter. has anybody been fired, has anybody been transferred? has anybody been put on leave? >> senator, we are in fact conducting an internal review to determine whether not any of those should be pursued.

mccain: madam president?e presiding officer: the senator from i a unanimous consent that further reading under the quorum call be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mccain: and i rise to speak in support of the coburn amendment to eliminate wasteful and duplicative spending. before my colleague from oklahoma leaves the floor, i know he has to go, but i ask -- i pose a question for the senator from oklahoma. we have a listing in your amendment of the many duplicative programs. have we had a study that would indicate how many employees are -- numbers of employees, government employees are engaged in administering these duplicative programs? mr. coburn: no. to answer the senator's question, we don't know how many duplicative programs are out there. these are just the 640 we found looking over a four-week period. when we asked the g.a.o. or the congressional research service about this, what they say is the task is too big, that they don't even know if they can accomplish the task, which goe

it goes back to what senator mccain was talking about. if there are all these people accountable but no one person accountable, the decisions are not made and people really do not know who is supposed to make the decision. is that being addressed in this whole valuation process of what went on? >> senator, i guess, in a variety of ways, but admiral blair explain that one of the things addressed is who has the responsibility to follow up on different lines of intelligence as they come in. >> and so are we going to have a clear set up this person is responsible for making that decision -- is everybody going to know what they're supposed to do and what they are not supposed to do, is the best way to answer that, and when will we have all of those procedures in place to where everyone knows what they are supposed to do and not supposed to do? >> we have 30 days that the president has established to have anything from executive order down to the intelligence community directive, which i would sign, or similar off authorities like secretary to

and he has recorded his first row -- robocall for john mccain. frank, republican, from beverly, new jersey. caller: you have a great show. the problem here is -- not a problem whether you are d or r -- the problem is these guys go up there and did not represent us any more. and until this starts to change, you are going to see the political landscape change very often in washington, because people are really fed up. not only on the r's and d's, but everything they are doing. they don't listen to us. the only thing they are concerned about is keeping their jobs. i am telling you, you watch the people that swap party affiliations now and you watch for people who retire and you watch for people who get voted out of office. this was a referendum on what is going on in washington, d.c. i was shocked we got the republican governor in new jersey because new jersey is a democratic state. and what happened in massachusetts, i was stunned, because that is so liberal and to the left, that state, and how they vote and what they do, the people are fed up now

as john mccain's running mate. much of the polling question, much of the media coverage, much of the discussion at the watercooler and over the cappuccino counters was about the individuals who were running for president. 2009 was a shift away from individuals and back onto issues. we saw this when you look at the tea party goers, and what they were talking about, these tea parties. fiscal accountability, the exploding debt and deficits, spending money on health care reform, bailing out wall street bonuses, many of the code, being a jerk neighbor subprime mortgage or a great deal of concern about issues, particularly fiscal issues. the town hall meetings that were predominately centered around health care, health care not as a heartstrings issues, as i think the administration was banking on that health care which is the same as a heart sings issue, but health care seemed to an economic prison by many of these concerned and nervous citizens who are taken those concerned and that anxiety to these town hall meetings.

and tonight i want to thank my new colleague, senator john mccain. applause] and on a night like this when so many people mark your name on a statewide ballot, you think back to the first people who gave you a chance and believed. and for the trust they placed in me and for all they have taught me i want to thank my neighbors, friends in my senate district, and especially my hometown of wrentham. the victory that all america has seen tonight started right here with all of you. all of you. yes. let me tell you, when i first got the feeling something big was happening in this campaign was when i was driving along on a road out in central massachusetts, in my truck, yes. and it has over 201,000 now. and i knew things were really starting to click when i saw a hand-made scott brown yard sign that i actually hadn't put there myself. [laughing] [cheers and applause] this little campaign of ours was destined for great things. the message went far beyond the sign that was there placed in the snow. it all started with me, my truck, and a very few awment of de

chairman and has also did senator mccain, the response was prompt. within two minutes and 40 seconds of the first 9/11 call, first responders were on the scene of the shooting and by first responders i mean elements of the fort hood security forces. within a minute and a half after that, the assailant had been taken dumb. and come within two minutes in 50 seconds after that, to ambulances and an incident command vehicle from oppose hospital of arrived to begin to dispensed needed medical care. lives were saved, and yet as you have pointed out, 13 people died and scores of others, 43 were wounded. we must prepare better, plan more intensively and take the hard effort to look around the corners of our future to try and anticipate the next potential incident. secondly, we must be attentive to today's hazards. today, the requirement that is imposed puts us in the defense department is to understand the forces that cause an individual to radicalize, to commit violent acts and thereby to make us vulnerable from within. and finally, the threat through all o

policy player, still today when we read articles about sarah palin, whether she's crossed out john mccain'same on a cap or something having to do with her personal life and to a certain extent that's the fault of the media because that's the obsession. on the other hand she's not driving them to a policy point and if she's going to ever be a successful presidential candidate she needs to to do that. >> bret: although she's big on twitter and facebook. later in july of 2009, another exercise in public relations, the beer summit, remember this one? president obama and vice-president joe biden sat down in the roads garden with harvard university professor and the cop who arrested him. sergeant james crowley whom the president said acted stupidly during a confrontation with gates, actually said that about the cambridge police department in general. the president later backed off calling it a teachable moment. charles, what about the beer summit. >> class obama style. here he starts out by making a mistake, accusing cops of acting stupidly, sort of instinctive, sort of prejudice against the cops