and michele bauchmann was right.999, and then with what happened at fannie and freddie. and then that was newt's follow-up. >> so we go from the men that we saw on the stage last night to the man on the cover of "newsweek." and that's kind of a wah-wah. the men last night and then the steve jobs passing. >> what is really exciting, in a sense, when we put together this special issue was seeing again and again reinforced his tremendous fearlessness about being willing to fail and putting himself out there to fail and then learning all the time when he did fail and turning that into the next thing that he built on. and i think that's probably one of the most inspiring aspects of the jobs story. >> we're hearing now over and over again one person after another, including steve jobs. and what a great lesson this is for americans. that it was -- that steve jobs would've never become steve jobs, the thomas edison of our time -- i would say mixed with the john, paul, george, and ringo of our time had he not been fired in 19

michele bauchmann might know something we don't know. >> don't tell michele bauchmann.k perry after he was in first place for 15 minutes. but we now have the statement that he said on piers morgan a couple of nights ago saying he was pro-choice. we around the table suspect despite the fact he's trying to back off of it, it's probably not going to play well in iowa. >> no, i don't think so, particularly because this is an area in the iowa caucuses where he wants to make a stand. a lot of these candidates, cain, perry, bauchmann, and the rest, are trying to make an iowa campaign work. the thing about cain, and when i interviewed him last week, this business about making a joke about an electric fence or his performance in the debate. saying no, i wasn't asked about al qaeda and letting a hostage go. and it's so clearly on the tape. he's not remembering things or playing a little bit loose on some of these things, but it's not a good strategy. you can't play that loose on some of these issues and be shown to be to be ill-informed or just to be that inconsistent. >> david,

i said that about michele bauchmann, and people got upset. and he is strolling for president. >> strolling. >> you look at the amount of time logged, the effort logged in the early states, he's not there. he was in tennessee the other night. he's on a book tour. and while he's on a book tour, he's saying things like he's going to put up electric fences that -- >> no, he was just kidding. >> that kill illegal immigrants. >> he was kidding. >> that's some kind of joke. >> he's running in an unconventional way. >> that's a polite way to say it. >> the way to look at him is less as a nominee and more as like occupy wall street. something's happening in this country right now. and people are reacting to it in ways that are elevating herman cain, elevating these protesters. he is tapping into people's desire to have somebody from outside washington at the center of the republican party. >> and doesn't matter whether they know how washington runs or not. you would think the republicans that have been saying for years that barack obama was ill-equipp

some of the statements she said, the same thing with michele bauchmann.am republicans aren't standing up and calling any of this stuff out because they're afraid that they'll be kicked to the side. >> they're still afraid of the nonexistent christian coalition, and it's all the sort of history of all that stuff. but i just feel like that if they don't start saying stuff like that, we're going to go down a pretty icky road. >> all of this helps barack obama. >> yeah. that's why the republicans are -- >> this is a display of the republican party, i think, that scares mainstream voters and certainly excites -- >> the problem is, it's not representative of the republican party because the republican establishment won't call it out and all the talk show hosts will rally around the comments. >> if somebody was talking about a religion other than his own. but the rest of them, i mean, there's no backbone left. the tragedy of this election is you don't have anybody -- like when mitch daniels and hailey -- that would have been just such a dream. these guys who are

and it has continued through michele bauchmann who is not ready to be president. and perry who can't articulate a basic vision for america. and it's moved on to cain now. i think this is pretty unprecedented. >> it's a significant passion gap about romney that i think will be overcome because republicans -- >> didn't that help last night? >> you know, perhaps. >> was it just me? >> perhaps. he certainly was more of a character. he has been a caricature. and so he actually made an impression. >> he stood up for himself and was like, really, i'm not going to put up with this. >> you may be right. let's finish the story on cain. last night, minnesota congresswoman michele bauchmann who had some really good moments last night. >> fiery moments. >> as did newt gingrich. this is what michele bauchmann said about herman cain's indefensible statement before the show. >> for any kand date to say that they would release the prisoners at guantanamo in exchange for a hostage would be absolutely contrary to the historical nature of the united states and what we do in our polic

. >> michele bauchmann may have hit another bump on the campaign trial. while campaigning in iowa today where she was born, she spent time dispiewght a report that all five of her paid campaign staff in new hampshire have quit. ahead, the protests have gone global, but will a uniifying message from the occupy wall street crowd emerge? that story is next >> it's been more than a month now since the occupy wall street movement took root in lower manhattan, then spread throughout the country and even abroad, but what exactly is the message? elaine quijano went to lower manhattan to ask the occupiers. >> reporter: five weeks after it began, there's still no single list of demands by the occupy movement, but protesters say right now, that's not the point. >> really, what's going on, this is a place where people can get together and the conversation can be had where we can start to work towards what this is about. >> reporter: kendrick is 27 years old. he didn't want to give his last name but says after he lost his teaching job he was forced to move back in wit

i would be careful around michele bauchmann. she's probably got a left hook. wow. >> boom.ttle bit harder and she would've had a head injury. that was some contact. >> you know what the real shame of all this is, snl is off this week. >> did i call this a reality show or what? this is such a reality show. >> you nailed it. i have to say. >>> up next, house majority whip kevin mccarthy in the studio. >> he's going to actually sing some songs from "american idol" when we return. coffee doesn't have vitamins... unless you want it to. new splenda® essentials™ no calorie sweetener with b vitamins, the first and only one to help support a healthy metabolism. three smart new ways to sweeten. same great taste. new splenda® essentials™. the world needs more energy. where's it going to come from? ♪ that's why right here, in australia, chevron is building one of the biggest natural gas projects in the world. enough power for a city the size of singapore for 50 years. what's it going to do to the planet? natural gas is the cleanest conventional fuel there is. we've got to be smart abou

>> michele bauchmann. >> michele bauchmann. not even in the top five.h tells you what about these tea party voters? volatile. and they're looking for a home. >> and rick perry in theory, his message is supposed to be appealing to the tea party, and apparently it's not. what do you think of the polls? >> rick perry's falling off a cliff. 6% is so amazing. statistically, cain and romney are tied, it's a four-point difference. what's fascinating about this poll is even as the other candidates move around, even as perry loses all the support, ro romney is right where he is. he stays steady. i feel these polls are voters acting out a little bit. not ready to marry romney, still looking at other candidates, still moving around. but herman cain is not going to have any traction in the long run. hep hasn't built the infrastructure you need. his iowa campaign office, virtually empty. >> say that one more time about iowa. as we look at this number, mike allen, which is stunning, here we are late in the fall, it's almost october. i mean, it's almost halloween when

that was freaky to look at michele bauchmann talking -- >> isn't that something? >> yeah, it is.actually it was a fun debate, intelligence squared is a speakers series at nyu. and jeff madrick and i, who is an author, were debating with the granddaughter of the former president and we prevailed and convinced the crowd to change their mind. and grandma's benefits do not endanger the younger people in this country. what the problem is the political people are endangering the younger people in this country. the benefits are not the problem. you don't cut the benefits in medicare and social security, you fix the programs, and you can't fix the programs if there's gridlock. >> what's the big fix on social security? >> it's not a big fix, you have to tweak the taxes and so forth. in medicare, you need to pay people, you can't pay people fee for service anymore. you've got to fix the whole system, the whole health care system. medicare is not the problem, the problem is the health care system. >> we'll move the conversation forward. up next, "washington post" columnist ezra klein. ♪ ♪ ♪

herman cain, newt gingrich, michele bauchmann, and rick santorum.r candidates who all have said they will boycott the nevada caucuses because the nevada caucuses are up against when new hampshire wants to hold their primary contest. in addition to that, though, fred. >> i'm sorry. go ahead. >> reporter: in addition to that, though, the question is, what is the nevada republican party doing out here? and i'll tell you what, they're staying by their guns, sticking by them. listen to what was said earlier on cnn today about their decision to keep the caucuses on the date of january 14th. >> we're going to stick to our date. our state is working hard on finding their locations. and we worked together with the states making sure we coordinated and communicated. the new hampshire gop has been fantastic, very supportive, it's the secretary of state who has the end say in the situation. but we reached out to him and he did not return our calls. we did have the governor talk to him, as well. and during that time, he still did not have a date picked. and he s

we've gone from donald trump to michele bauchmann to rick perry, who each of which has staggered and now we've got herman cain. i think the air is going to go out of that balloon too and the party will be confronted with this that really the only plausible alternative to governor romney is governor perry and he increasingly convinces republicans that he's not up to the job. >> is he done, though? his fall from the heights that he was occupying just a few weeks ago is breathtaking. >> well, done is premature. he has raised a lot of money. but i think what he's shown in a lot of national television is he's not good at handling stress. presidency is a stressful job. he's not good at thinking on his feet. you have to do that if you're going to be president. and he's got kind of an unbecoming whining. just the other day his wife was on television complaining that people had been brutalizing rick perry for his faith. if mitt romney had gone to an event and been introduced by somebody who had attacked rick perry's faith, then rick perry would have a valid complaint, but the shoe's on the ot

total collapse of michele bauchmann down to 8%. the second story is mitt romney sitting at 22%. and if i'm mitt romney's people, i've got to start thinking what barack obama was thinking this time four years ago. if i can win iowa, i got it. >> remember, this was out of play. he wasn't going to play in iowa. and he's looking at these numbers and we kept asking the question, what bursts the herman cain bubble? maybe this is the story that does it, but mitt romney keeps playing it down the middle, keeps his head down. and if all of these other candidates fall to the wayside. look at rick perry in that poll. the guy he's got to play in iowa. he might have to win iowa, he's at 7%. >> 7%. >> 15 points behind mitt romney. >> if only we knew somebody -- if only we'd had somebody -- >> about mitt romney. >> talked about mitt romney trying to close this out. just like -- >> the temptation of mitt -- >> don't do it. >> here's the deal about vanderbilt, listen, i am mr. optimistic, right? seriously, the fact that he said arkansas's going to beat vandy by five or six points. they almost bea

from donald trump, sarah palin, michele bauchmann, nobody's been able to move mitt romney out of theng he doesn't go up, but he doesn't go down. none of these guys have been able to get romney out of the race. >> and romney can't finish making the sale. david gregory, earlier this morning, we read a quote from peggy noonan and rush limbaugh, two different sides of the republican party both saying the same thing. basically saying i like mitt romney. he's a good man. he's a decent man. but he's not a conservative. now, of course, rush limbaugh would say now is not the time for moderation. but more fascinating is the fact that peggy noonan said the same thing. now is not the time for moderation. >> right. and joe, i remember talking to conservatives in 2008 who said that conservatives in the republican party simply don't trust mitt romney. they didn't feel he was authentic. the political epiphanies he went through in running against ted kennedy simply had slowed him down in the conservative movement, never really to pick up the pace yet again. and i think he's still hobbled by that at a

. >> i still think it's fascinating, mika, if michele bauchmann had said something like that, that barack a situation that would lead to increased rapes in america, you would be going crazy right now. the same with herman cain. and i would be agreeing with you. but here you've got the vice president of the united states who suggested before that republicans were hostage takers, and now this time has said pass a bill with a tax increase in it or you are contributing to the increase of rape and robbery across america, and you want to give him a free pass. it's not consistent. >> i think it was highly emotional when he presented it, but what he was saying, the numbers will go up. >> when rush gets excited and says inappropriate things, emotion's involved there too. you just can't call out the other side and not call out your own. >> look, also, he said it had already gone up, which turned out to not be true. i think it was over the top. i think it wasn't appropriate for the conversation we're trying to have. >> why is it that the president following up on the senator's comments, why is it th