joining us now to help read today's fed tea-leaves is michelle girard, senoir economist at rbs and mike holland of holland and company. welcome to the program. >> good to be here, thanks. >> what is your assessment of the fed's state today? it seems to be the most optimistic that they've been about the economy in some time. do you agree with it? >> yes and yes. i think in both instances it's been several meetings, several months since we've heard this kind of optimistic, i don't want to overstate it, there's still good reference in there to the horrible jobs picture and so on, but things are getting grudgingly better, and i think that's a fair assessment as i talk to businesses and retailers, things have at the least leveled off and are beginning to move up a little bit. >> so why didn't the stock market rally or why do we see the selloff that we saw, do you think? >> stock market on a day-to-day hour to hour minute to minute basis is sometimes totally irrationale and some people say often irrational. in the last half-hour there was a big program that some people come in, there was nothing in t

joing us now to help read today's fed tea-leaves is michelle girard, senoir onomist at rbs and mike holland of holla and company. welcome to t program. >> gooto be here, thanks. >> what is your assessment of e f's state tay? it seems to be the mos optimistic that they've been about the economy some time. do you agree with it? >> yes d yes. i think in both instaes it's been seral meetings several months since we've heard this kind of optimistic, i don't want to overste it,here's still good reference in tre to the hrible js picture and so on, b things are gettin grudgingly better, and i think that's a fair assessment as i talk to bunesses and railers, things have a the lst leveled off and are beginning to move up a littl bit. >> so why didn't the stock market rally why do we see the sloff that weaw, do u think? >> stockarket on a day-to-day hour hourminute to minuteasiss sometimes totally irrationale andome pele say often iational. in the last half-hour there was a b program tt some people come in,here was nothin in the federal reserve stement in th openarket statement that had anything to do

i'll speak about that with democrat chris van holland and republican mike pence. i'm wolf blitzer.civilian lives and four american troops are killed in a bloody clash at eastern afghanistan. as the u.s. death toll rises, there's also growing concern right now in washington that alleged election fraud by afghanistan's government could set back the entire war effort. cnn's michael ware is standing by live in kabul, but let's begin with our foreign affairs correspondent jill dougherty. jill, serious allegations against president karzai's government. >> reporter: right, wolf. have patience, let the electoral process play out. that's what the state department is saying today as evidence of vote fraud mounts. even as afghan president hamid karzai moves past 50% of the vote needed for re-election, the country's electoral complaints commission demands a recount of ballots from 600 polling stations finding what it calls clear and convincing evidence of fraud. most of those complaints, the commission says, point to fraud by supporters of karzai. >> one thing that we saw in one ballot box was

. >> jim: mike maddux the texas pitching coach out for a chat with holland.because he's the guy in the rangers that they seem to score a lot of runs every time he goes to the mound. he doesn't have enough innings to qualify in the league leaders, but they have averaged 6.1 runs per game when he pitches. that's a lot of run support. >> rick: it is. jeremy guthrie has had 6.1 runs per game, you would have seen a lot of difference in his won- loss record over the last three seasons. >> jim: texas will draw the infield in for fiorentino, already trailing 2-0. big opportunity for the birds. here is a strike at the knees, 0-1. >> rick: jim, you were just talk about the orioles lack of big, big home run hitting guys. i think floor two guys in the line-up now that can some day produce that many home runs. adam jones for one. >> jim: that will fall for a base hit. mora scores, wiggington to third. and jeff fiorentino has a base hit and an rbi, and the orioles have a 3-0 lead. >> rick: we talked earlier about his veteran presence and approach to hitting. this left-hand

holland tunnel straight to new jersey. >> always ends with a jersey joke. here with us now, politico's morning playbook, chief political correspondent mike allen.ke. >> happy friday, willie. >> happy friday to you. let's talk a little bit about general mcchrystal, the top commander for us over in afghanistan. we're getting a little preview of his "60 minutes" interview where he's basically asked are things worse or better than you expected, were they worse or better than when you arrived in afghanistan? he said, frankly, they're worse. tell us more about that, mike. >> willie, i'm going to translate that. this is very difficult to say. what the general is telling david martin in that interview is even if we went in with all the fire power in the world, we would not win. it's a very tough message. but all of the evidence from the ground shows that. this bolsters the case that general mcchrystal made in that report that was linked to bob woodward for counterinsurgency strategy. what this means is we can't just keep clobbering the bad guys. we need to make the country safe for local people and work with the population to defeat the insurgency. the