. >> they want to run michael bush early. cashing them in. it gave me a play to the playoffs. >> the sharks did not make the cut. they got roughed up by the blackhawks. @ñ@ñlights get uglier as we >>> how about a little ice hockey. there was back to back losses in st. louis and chicago. he was offensive, but with his stick and not his fist. the second period and tied at one. the laser and it is 2-1 sharks. sharks were a minute away from winning when the brunette gets one past him and we go to ot. the sharks lose a heartbreaker 3-2. they now lost six of the last eight. it is time for dwror -- your plays of the day. the tebow lead his boys back to beat the boyars-- the bears in ot and have sole possession of first place in the afc west. t.j. yates hits walter. texas wins. texans are headed to the playoffs for the first time winning the afc south. and he continues to dominate. that's an nfl record for the tightened. not a pleasant day for tom brady. he gets into it with his offensive coordinator after a red zone interception. four td's tied and

. >> they want to run michael bush early. cashing them in. it gave me a play to the playoffs. >> the sharks did not make the cut. they got roughed up by the blackhawks. highlights get uglier as we hey, your high speed internet here, at home... ...and on the go... ...with some really big news. it's b-i-g -- big. high speed internet from at&t at home... ...includes wi-fi access on the go. woo-hoo! [ together ] it's an unbelievable deal. well, gotta go. but wait -- there's more... [ female announcer ] go to the website below today and get high speed internet for the unbelievably low price of just 14.95 a month for 12 months with a one-year price guarantee. it's all the speed you need at a great price. you can chill online at a park. here, pidgie, pidgie. [ pigeon coos ] and surf the web at your favorite bookstore. our internet at home includes access to the entire national at&t wi-fi hot spot network on the go. [ female announcer ] go to the website below and get high speed internet for just 14.95 a month for 12 months with a one-year price guar

michael bush hands it off to murphy, on theverse, 7-0 raiders in the first.ut lions can strike quality. to equal vin johnson, right on the money. 51 yards for megatron and we're tied at 7. they answer through the air, palmer to hayward, he breaks a tackle, 17-14 raiders at the half. fourth quarter. tommy kelly rips stafford, he scoops and scores. but you got finish. on a drive, started from their own 2, career high of 9 catches 214 yards for johnson and two touchdowns, this one puts detroit up. 43 seconds left. they had a shot. 65 yard field goal and blocked. they lose a hart breaker, 28-27 falling to 7-7. >> very frustrating. i thought the guys played hard but obviously didn't play well enough. >> it was all set up for us to get it done but that is disappointing part. >> we didn't do it enough to get it done. we didn't get the big plays when we needed them. >> tom brady took care of denver. braid si to o cinch cinch. >> and brady accounts for three tds and beat the broncos. denver is a game ahead of the raiders in the a.f.c. west. >> upset of the day, rogers

. >> they wanted to run michael bush early. we did a nice job slowing him down a little bit. and forcing turnovers like we did tonight, cashing them in. >> the kind of game you want to play going into the playoffs. >> the thing is we expect those guys to be good, so for us to come up with turnovers and get the ball back in their hand, we feel good about what they're going to do. >> that loss and the broncos win, tim tebow led the bronxs to a win over the bears. tebow to thomas. ten yards. broncos within three. seven seconds left. it's good. going to o.t., broncos recover a bears full. now operator from 51 in the opinion. the denver tebows win, taking over lead to from the raiders in the afc west. >> what a finish. >>> bengals up six. six yard t.d. with two second left. the texans beat the bengals and clinch the afc south, heading to the playoff for the first time in franchise history. >> the sharks back on the nice chicago after losing last night in st. louis. they lost five of seven. antineimi facing his former team. mcgin, few in front of the net. 1-0 sharks. second half ti

they have michael bush. so just keep feeding him. >> he's doing well.mcfadden going to play this season? >> i would think he will come back. they don't need him right now. he's telling reporters in miami that he's going to play on sunday. that's what he is saying. >> miss practice, but the alleged assaults and whatnot will happen in alabama. >> has not prevented him from playing. >> that's right. >> 49er weather will be spectacular. in the low 60s, sunshine. >> that is it for us, the eyewitness news at 10:00. ♪ [ cellphone rings ] cut! [ monica ] i have a small part in a big movie. i thought we'd be on location for 3 days, it's been 3 weeks. so, i used my citi simplicity card to pick up a few things. and i don't have to worry about a late fee. which is good... no! bigger! bigger! ink we're going anywhere for a while. [ male announcer ] write your story with the new citi simplicity card. no late fees. no penalty rate. no worries. get started at citisimplicity.com.

got it but we never should have invaded iraq in the first place why did we invade why did george michael bush invade iraq. what we do do is that the nation now i just thought that obama's fix that problem for us well actually that's a true maybe yes it we didn't at the time get it. yeah right now to now we dive in and. i can't wait to see what dick cheney and feith space is going to look like when with total solder becomes the next brought by mr of iraq because you can bet your boots that the shiite majority of congress inside of iraq is priming him up abseiling him up to do lead the charge when the allowed him to do that we allowed him to get away with murdering american soldiers and american marines and let him take off to iran to study for a couple years and now he's back to his tricks again it's a mess that's an interesting discussion and a really important to have especially as this year wraps up the war is you know sort of over the for the combat troops are gone but there is still a lot that we're going to keep in our eyes on takes over to iraq war veteran in our team blogger joining us

michael bush pitches to lewis coming at a reverse. the 12-yard score makes it 7-0 oakland.en you play the lines the big play to calvin johnson is potentially right around the corner. matthew stafford. oakland answering back with a quick strike of its own. carson palmer to darius hayes. oakland led 17-14 at the half. mid-way through the fourth quarter. stafford deep into territory. oakland in front. it was 27-21. they come this close to a completion of chillings have been able to make the cut. after a punt, the lions started at their own two. the game changed on this play, johnson getting blind the raiders secondary -- behind the secondary. gets the lines all the way through the raiders 17. the raiders go to what's worked before. stafford to johnson. nine catches, 214 yards, two touchdowns for johnson. oakland got close enough to allow sebastian a shot. the lions score the last 14 points in the game to put a dagger in oakland's play off hopes. the raiders stay one game behind the -- >> some other numbers were equally disturbing, the lions were eight for 17 on third down conv

michael bush hands it off to murphy. a 12-yard touchdown. 7-0 raiders. the lions strike quickly.o johnson and they call him mega tron. we are tied at 7. the second quarter and the raiders answer to the air. he breaks the tackle and goes 43 of his own yards. 17-14 raiders at the half. tommy kelly and curry scores. a beat down in the making, but you have to finish. they cut it to 6 and on the drive, they start it from their own two. career high 9 catches and 214 yards for johnson. two touchdowns, this his second puts detroit up by one with 43 seconds left. raiders have a chance to win and janikowski from 60 yards and he has the leg to make it, but it is blocked. raiders lose a heartbreaker 28-27. they fall to 7 and 7. >> we had opportunities in the game to really close the door. we just never had the instinct to get it done. >> we get this crowd be heinz us, and they are screaming and yelling, and they are with us all the way. we have let this crowd down. that starts with me and down to our players, and i am disappointed to that. >> what is disappointing and brady and the patriots

. >>> michael bush was held to 18 yards rushing. they must now visit green bay next sunday. offense did gain 138 total yards on the first nine possessions. finally carson palmer hits mensata. raiders will need to score more than 14 next sunday in green bay. >>> niners lost more than just a game today too. they also lost sole possession of first place in the afc west. that's because the denver tebow's won their sixth straight game today. tim tebow threw it for 172 yards. then find thomas, thomas turns it into a 41-yard touchdown. timmy wants me to score so i must score. that's the second of two touchdowns for thomas today. they need matt prater to beat the vickings. broncos are now tied with oakland with identical 7-5 records. tebow completes 10 of 15 passes. 202yards. who says he can't throw. down cleveland 24-10. >>> green bay packers put their undefeated records on the line today in east rutherford. second quarter until giant's eli manning makes a bad decision. clay matthews makes him play. matthews goes 38 yards. but it's tied 35-35. so green bay needs mason crosby. mason

phil: jarrett bush -- michael bush, that was a good game by us. what did he telled us yesterday me? plays fantasy football. jim says, whose your running back? he says, of course, it's me. jim: got a first down. this super bowl ii, don chandler, like crosby today, had four field goalless. the mad bomber, number three, to bill miller for a touchdown, closed the gap to 13-7 but green bay goes on to win it 33-14. halves the last game ever coached by vince lombardi for the packers. phil: you don't realize how tall he is until you see him in person. jim: the broncos have gotten the ball back against chicago because on one of the plays where you think the bears will run it out, they've got pushed out of bounds and stopped the clock. always interesting things happening. we're going to be out at denver next week for new england and the broncos. looking forward to that. phil: it will be interesting, too. the new england defense again struggled mightily in that game against the washington redskins. jim: the patriots end up winning it to go to 10-3 on the year. gronkowski with another huge perf

out once again, the doll fence can expect to see plenty -- dolphins can expect to see plenty of michael bush. >> coach told me he going to give me the ball 15 more times so i told him just feed the stud. [ laughter ] >> bush has certainly been the stud of the raiders offense since mcfadden went down. he averaged 108 yards rushing on over 100 carries and scored a touchdown in all four games. >> i been around guys that have carried the ball like that and come to practice and they can't move on wednesday. regardless of whether you gave them victory monday or not, they just couldn't move because physically it's tough. he hasn't batted and eye. i think he is getting stronger and that's the knack with a back. you have some guy that you can ride when you need to ride him and obviously we've rided him quite a bit here lately. >> it's going to be a busy weekend for the cbs 5 sports department. for fifth quarter sunday following the raiders and dolphins game at 2:00. >>> whoo! >> saint ignatius and sacred heart cathedral meet tomorrow in the ccs division 3 championship. the irish won the regular seaso

cornerback carson palmer, running back michael bush, marcel reese, and moore will be signing autographs today in exchange for a toy. all you have to do is bring a new unwrapped toy valued at $20 or more. the players will be at the raider image store at the south land mall in hayward between 6:00 and 8:00 tonight. >> ha is one of the bay area charities trying to make the holidays brighter. children in antioch received toys from the chp yesterday and the raiders game had a donation station for the marines toys for tots. >> somebody brought in three bags of brand new jackets she bought at macy's. she was cute little ones for the little ones. i think that is great people are thinking of people in need. >> other groups say even when they think they won't have enough food or clothes, someone always steams to step forward in the final days and provide exactly what is needed. most charities say they accept donations all year but people only think of helping out after finishing their holiday shopping. >> they want us to help out. >> people come forward. >>> sal is taking care of the commute even

it michael chertoff bush's department of homeland security had guy he's one of the biggest lobbyists in this town for these chertoff x. ray porno scanners how can we stop people like chertoff from moving so seamlessly from government industry particularly an industry that's destroying our rights. well i think bringing the issue to live like you do them i don't think you can stop it i think what we've seen is a wedding of the corporation of them and the government so you have a corporate state right now and what they're conditioning i go back and say this is really clearly i've been i've been studying this for years this is what i do on a daily basis there conditioning of the american people to adjust to a police state and the way it's going with swat team raisers up to fifty thousand swat team raids across the united states on a daily basis now well through doors without search warrants for such as such things as an ounce of pot we're being conditioned to accept this as the normal state of affairs and it shouldn't be so the real thing to do is fight about it educate about it write ab

bush andl michael dukakis who was then thf governor of massachusetts or vernor, former governor, and he was at:r democratic nominee. >> what do you remember about ey that debate?. >> i it was hairy in every way i had imagined, and even got hairy before the debate began. there was a, in those days the format was a moderator and three journalist panelists. and we had a meeting the night before in winston-salem, north carolina, it was going to be on the campus of wake forest university, and the four of us had a meeting to go over questions. and i was the moderator, the three panelists were peter jennings of abc news, annie grower who was in the orlando paper and john maasic who was in the atlanta paper. and we went over, we had dinner, and it was very secure, it was in a closed room in a downtown office building, and suddenly peter jennings said i've got an idea. let's forget the debate rules, let's just say, mr. bush, mr. dukakis, go at it with no rules, nothing. and i was stunned. and i got very self-righteous, all of that, i said, oh, peter, we can't do that. we're honor-bound, we ag

and a number of conservatives, including two of george bush's attorneys general-- alberto gonzales and michael mukasey-- both said, and i'm going to quote what mr. mukasey said, and he told this to fox news. not to "mother jones" but to fox news-- he said, "mr. gingrich's proposal is dangerous, ridiculous, totally irresponsible, outrageous, off the wall and would reduce the entire judicial system to a spectacle." now that's a conservative judge... or a conservative attorney general. how do you respond to that? >> i think many lawyers will find this a very frightening idea. they've had this run for 60 years of pretending that judges are supreme. that they can't be challenged. the lawyer class defines america. we've had rulings that outlawed school prayer. we've had rulings that outlawed the cross. we've had rulings that outlaw the ten commandments. we've had a steady secular drive to radicalize this country away from all of its core beliefs. i mean, what got me into this was the 9th circuit saying the "one nation under god" is unconstitutional. we live in a country where judge beery can literal

former attorney general alberto gonzales and michael mukasey both served under president george w. bush. in my exclusive interview right here, just ahead, turns out there are parts of this plan they do not like. if we had a president gingrich and this plan was enacted, how fundamental would the change be to the way america works? daddy, come in the water! somebody didn't book with travelocity, with 24/7 customer support to help move them to theool daddy promised! look at me, i'm swimming! somebody, get her a pony! [ female announcer ] the travelocity guarantee. from the price to the room to the trip you'll never roam alone. forty years ago, he wasn't worried about retirement. he'd yet to hear of mutual funds, iras, or annuities. back then, he had something more important to do. he wasn't focused on his future but fortunately, somebody else was. at usaa we provide retirement solutions for our military, veterans and their families. from investments... to life insurance... to health care options. learn more with our free usaa retirement guide. call 877-242-usaa. 8% every 10 years.age 40, w

. >> when bush senior went after michael decaucus, the same approach you can't be trusted you don't look presidential. let's take a peek at this? as he vetoed the death penalty, his revolving door prison policy gave weekend furloughs to not eligible for parole. many committed kidnapping and rape and still at large. michael could you caucus wants to do for america what he did for massachusetts. america can't afford that risk. >> neil: that puts the fear of god into people. >> black and white. people coming in and going out. 268, even had a specific number there. very effective. >> do you think the message for this campaign year is just go negative. one person's version of negative and another ron paul in iowa being factual. where do you draw that line? when it gets personal or what? >> republicans have have to decide someone though basically survives or no, nomine someone who can go out and beat barack obama. no matter what his numbers are he has the advantage because all of these republicans are attacking and condemning each other. romney's favorability is down and gingrich. even though

michael dukakis finished third in 1988, and one the democratic nomination. george bushessed second in 1988 and -- finished second in 1988 and went on to win the republican nomination. right now, candidates, two weeks before -- i think you have to say it is gingrich, ron paul, and mitt romney. >> suppose mitt romney comes in third, or even fourth, how bad does that hurt him? >> the national vote -- they pretend they do not paid attention to what happened in iowa, but they do. how does mitt romney respond? and does he take a punch? does he lashed out? does he said i am going to be a different candidate? for 11 months he ran an incredibly disciplined, controlled campaign, then he lost the lead, and started to get more personal, more revealing about himself. which mitt romney will we see after i what? >> well, we will find out. the end of the iraq war. >> iraq is not a perfect place. it does many challenges ahead, but we are leaving behind a sovereign, stable, and self- reliant director >> i believe history will judge this president's leadership with scorn and distained tha

been defending that statement and that betting line from the debate and michael reagan says romney is looking more like george bushr. than his dad at this moment. maybe you are referring to the cash scanner thing, the issue that got the president in trouble at the time. but, i don't know what was so bad here. what am i missing, michael? >>guest: well, what you are missing, the whole thing on romney he is out of touch with the common issue. the scanner issue with bush is he did not know how to use a carney, and didn't understand it and showed him be the out of town, and romney betting $10,000 against rick perry, that played into the you are out of town with the common persons. >>neil: was it out of touch or just generic. >>guest: it showed that romney is very uptight when people come after him and at that has not shown very well for romney. he needs a more ronald reagan moment than a george bush moment. >>neil: your father would say, famous for turning things around, that's my microphone comment, where he took charge and showed a little temper and this is famous for younger folks the moment that might have turned t

bush was then losing 17 points to michael dukakis until he said "read my lips, no new taxes." that was going well until in 1990, the two sportsmen in the world told him it would be okay to raise taxes in the believe that. he raised taxes and they're away and other was quite successful presidency. he lost in 1992 because he raised taxes. there were other things going on. he he pushed iraq out of kuwait in did not get stop occupying the place for a decade. he had a very successful presidency with one hole at the bottom of the boat. then in 1994, because the republicans watched bush win by taking the pledge and lose when he broke the pledge, people realized what the power of the pledge was. the pledge allows an elected official to credibly comment that he or she will not raise taxes. politicians going back several thousand years have been lying to people. senator warner when he was running for governor promised to but not raise taxes, except to live. as soon as he got in his crib the people of virginia with a big tax increase. warner would not sign the pledge. he always planned t

then there is this comment from michael gerson, former aide to george w. bush. so adultery is not disqualifying for high office but it can reveal character trait that has might be recklessness, selfishness and compulsiveness are relevant. do personal failings matters to voters in iowa or not? >> certainly newt gingrich has had two failed marriages, but he has and i the question remarkably well. usually it would be hard to overcome. he he has said legitimate question to ask. i repented for that. i think voters so far have seemed in large part to accept that. he has kind of navigated that mine field better than i've seen another candidate do. >> ron paul has devoted following in iowa to say the least in a very sturdy and deliberate organization that is vital to that unique caucus process. did he suffer a setback or maybe a near debilitating setback during the thursday night debate. what do you think? >> i think ron paul's performance in the thursday night debate was the only notable performance where he hurt himself. all the other candidates didn't much to hurt or

michael, i will start with you and we have breaking news. confirming that bush 41 is backing romney for president and admits he is not gingrich's biggest advocate. does it matter and is this expected? >> it's a reinforcement to the republicans who lined up to governor romney. the world of bush 41 and i don't know that he is going to move the needle necessarily with those we have been talking about who here to for have been reluct apt to embrace romney. those who moved from herman cain to michele bachmann and everybody except going to romney. it's a great thing and ought to help him. >> a few more comments from the former problem. i think romney is the best choice to us. i like perry, but he doesn't seem to be going anywhere. she not surge forward. it sounds like perry would have been his second choice. newt wouldn't even have been his skt choice. >> when you think about the thing you just read, at least going down the final stretch or the iowa caucuses, romney might be the only man left standing. not because people are voting for him, but simply through a proces

michael pitts 60 at the inner harbor. -- unbelievably cool. 60 at the inner harbor. scattered rain showers through the afternoon. we will see another rain rain around bush in overnight and into tomorrow. -- we will see another rain push overnight and into tomorrow. depending on how cold it gets in baltimore on wednesday night, there could very well be some snow in the area, especially west in baltimore in the higher terrain very we are expecting rain showers tonight with mostly cloudy skies. 40's in the suburbs. 50 downtown. rain showers are likely tomorrow with winds out of the northwest. temperatures will be much cooler. highs in the morning will be in the 50's. seven-day forecast. rain today and tomorrow, as well. early thursday, that's when it gets tricky. if it gets close to the freezing mark, there could be a little bit of snow. friday, it looks dry, but only in the 40's. sunday, sunshine with a high of 49. >> what would you do to win $50,000? the hit reality show, "fear factor" is back and promises to answer that question. the show's host, joe rogan, joins me now. thank you very much for joining me. >> thank you for having me. >> i am totally gro

michael the caucus would look at a short compared to george h. w. bush. all of that was the issue will. one of the candid it's, some of these candidates swept a lot more than other people. some people swear more. we all know that. well, the people who sweat always want the temperature to be 30 degrees. >> to initiate the temperature. >> and it's all, for instance, the formats, that is the format. bob dole. bob dole is a man who talks in bursts. one-liners. never talks for more than about two and a half minutes. so his negotiators, we want to give up anything in order for those answers to be on the -- never more than two and a half minutes want. so, of course, against the oakland he could talk for two and a half hours on any given question. so in order to get that plan also wanted a town hall thing. in order, they swapped. their negotiators walked. dole got what he wanted which was sort answers all the debates in exchange for clemens people getting what clinton wanted, which was a town hall debate for the first time. and everything, everything about what t

michael finney investigates a phone calm that rattled a bay area woman >>> welcome back. something that is staples nuisance here is a killer. most. carolyn johnson traveled to the west african nation. >> the bushountry of sierra leone is beautiful with miles of unbroken jungle but hovering in the background is a silent killer. mosquitoes that carry a deadly form of malaria. in the surrounding villages, it hits young children especially hard. >> you worry about malaria and illness. [ speaking a foreign language ] >> yes. >> the concern for their son. >> he hasn't had it yet? >> malaria. >> with the help of a flashlight sammy and his family took inside and showed us the mosquito net they sleep under at night. if a child does develop malaria, immediate treatment can mean the difference between life and death. >> it is the number one killer disease. >> a surgeon trained at san francisco general trauma institute is learning the latest techniques for healing fractures but most are suffering from extreme complications from malaria. families don't reach the hospital until the symptoms are severe. >> they are rushed in gasping requiring a blood transfusion. >> when you help could soon be on the way fro

who was the nominee and you have dole in 1988 from nearby, kansas, but herbert walker bush was the nominee. >> michael barrone in "the wall street journal" today was very funny. >> huckabee won in iowa but mccain went on to be the nominee. >> funny editorial says as goes iowa, so goes iowa because that's it. you can't necessarily see it as a bellwether or take it as what it ultimately is. it's interesting, we're all sort of fascinated and hanging on what's going to happen at the caucuses but doesn't necessarily mean anything beyond iowa. having said that, mike huckabee was on our show and he says what it is it imbues your campaign with lots of money. >> perhaps the three left standing. that's why you have newt gingrich spending so much time in south carolina. he says that's his firewall. the high water mark for him will, of course, come in south carolina. and again, out with a new ad sort of steeping himself in history, of course, much was made over the weekend about his comparison with his campaign setback to not being on the ballot in virginia to pearl harbor. he's out with a new christmas ad from 1

bush administration alike. -- administration liked. michael steele, the former chairman of the republican national committee said frank was right. he a acknowledged that that was wrong. i did not become chairman until 2007. as soon as i became chairman, we acted. what more could i have done? >> tom delay gave the order that said, i do not want to see any more housing legislation. i tried to pass a bill to regulate fannie and freddie. bush said it was too weak. they say george bush gave them the one thing dissolute and that was the end of it. in 2007, we did pass the bill to block bad subprime loans in the house. we were denounced by the wall street journal. i will make copies of the editorial available. for restricting the market. that was the wall street journal in 2007 when we were in the majority. in the 2008, the blockage of bad subprime loans is part of the financial reforms. the kind of laws that got us into trouble cannot be made any more illegally. thank you. -- cannot be made any more legally. thank you. [captioning performed by natio

bush and dan quayle and the former chief of staff john sununu while newt gingrich has michael reagant's taking place, sort of conservatives who are really paying close attention are starting to notice that as well. >> jeff sachs actually has the laffer curve framed over his bed. >> i got the original map. >> one of his favorites. also in this nbc poll voters were asked who they think is the, quote, true conservative in the race. this is inside iowa. rick santorum and ron paul tied atop the list there. michele bachmann at 16%. rick perry at 11%. mitt romney getting only 7% support. newt gingrich at 6. mark halperin, front page of the "wall street journal", talks about iowa's evangelical rift. which i guess is splitting some of the candidates we just looked at there. in "the wall street journal" it's concluded that helps mitt romney. do you agree with that? >> i do. you know, it helps him here. it also could help him in south carolina. the muddle amongst the conservative movement, rick santorum has risen but rick perry's got some support, michele bachmann does, gingrich does. the best

publicly because the original george bush was making a big thing about the flag waving a type of politics and was accusing dukakis, what was his first man i forgot, michael dukakis of being soft on patriotism. but anyway, everyone expected stevens who had a reputation as being pro free speech to oppose the state in affect and he didn't. he wrote a dissent saying that in this case the burning of the flag or of the symbol has tremendous value just as a political object and he felt in this case because i was the flag and not some other document or something like that that it should be kept coming and he cites in the decision not personally but he does allude to the world war ii efforts, military efforts before that. his son served in the vietnam and although he's never told us that i think that may have influenced him as well. >> let's move onto other experiences one with the courtship for justice rutledge and the other with his multiple years in private practice. gene, can you start with either of those and say what his influence of time was about and time in private practice as well. >> stevens became a clerk for the justice by the flip of a korean. he wa

bush. ron paul equals thomas jefferson equals profit. remember, dr. paul called the financial collapse back in 2001. and michael by the way, is the howard dean of 2012 and mitt ais more f the bob dole. you want to read more, go to my blog, cnn.com/caffertyfile. blog, cnn.com/caffertyfile. >> thank you. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com >>>> happeninp>>> happeninh facifacinp facing reporter. here in "the situation room," itpit' it's promisit's pro mayp maybe a thimaybe a th ththat mitp that mithat mi quote, zany. plus, president obama thanks the troop trootroops for their q aand welcomes them home. critics say he's and a frightening link between deadly mideast extremists and a drug cartel. a new federal indictment exposing an alleged trail of cocaine and laundered money in america's backyard. we want to welcome our viewers in the united states around around the world. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." the republican presidential candidates are out in force in iowa today. newt gingrich, ron paul, rick perry, michele bachmann, rick santorum, all there. less than three weeks before the leadoff c

michael suggested to block things from republican's point of view -- >> i'd take that a step further, you're right, obama does benefit from inaction right now. let's go to december of 2012, that's when the bush tax cuts are expiring and when we have to -- what's the other one? the sequester, the triggers will be there and defense cuts. all he has to do is sit on his hands, don't like that version, give me another one and he gets his way. it's been a huge flip-flop from where we were a year ago when he didn't want the bush tax cuts to expire and he was the one searching for a deal or the debt ceiling. >> i think there is a difference compared to the debt ceiling in delgs of 2010 he came out of those negotiations and strengthened in a lot of ways. he did a victory lap before he left for hawaii. he managed -- >> a little bit of something at the end of last year. and that's not where we are right now. i think to your point, the president right now is driving this agenda and it amazes me how in 11 months' time given all of the momentum and energy the republicans had coming out of 2010, wind in their sails and people behind them, sending members to congress to draw bright lines on the ground about

bushes, or paul ryans, or mitch daniels. >> i want to ask you a question -- >> why don't you direct it to michael steele. >> michael, i don'tan this glibly. >> of course not. >> i don't. why is it -- explain to me from the political landscape, to a behavioral model, and please don't defend any of these candidates, why a strong, competent human being out of a country of 300 million people can't be there? i don't understand it. just explain -- >> could we ask the same about who the democrats gave us four years ago? >> but at least there's a difference -- >> no, is that really as good as it gets? a guy who doesn't know how to run -- >> at the time, you went wow, here is a special guy. >> did we really? >> yes. >> well, then you were -- >> come on. >> by the way, at least you said if nothing else, that's an impressive human being. >> no, no. if you thought that he was going to be prepared to be president of the united states, your ideology -- let me finish, because we always hear this as republicans around this table and we talk about it nonstop about how the republicans are disconnected from reality. you'll -- you suspend your

michael joins from atlanta georgia. good morning. >> caller: i just a quick question. the guy from whatever country talking about both of their houses, think that's the wrong angle. what george bush was getting ready to pass the 3 million-dollar tax cut democrats, teachers, people on the street said it was open to destroy the economy. the media, c-span, no one even to the into the arguments like we were twa would have been impacted the states come impacted the counter programs it happened then we fought the war meant without paying for them and people try to make the issuer about it. then people occupy will trigger getting hit upside the head by people standing out with president obama's speeches with guns but no action. me to start looking at it, called a spade a spade. we are in this problem for one reason. cardinal people's health programs, heating assistance, cutting education, this makes no sense wire rich people were not like to make all their money by themselves and people didn't get out and help them or their employees, teachers, educating their employees. elizabeth warren have a right. >> guest: michael, my experience in 40 years of working in budgeting both on the u.s.