mr. abdullah, you have worked with the president karzai. you were the first foreign minister. what do you think of him as a leader? what are the flaws ma tthat leau to feel you must challenge him in this election? >> our hopes were he would be a fair leader and take action in the beginning where the whole afghan nation joined hands in supporting the afghan people as well as the process. he has turned his leadership -- a golden opportunity has turned into today's situation, which is a disappointment, an utter disappointment. so i am disappointed, but i should mention i didn't vote for him in the election despite the fact i was the foreign minister, and i have told him i have not voted for him for certain reasons. because i could see that he is leading country towards the wrong direction, which is today's situation. in today's situation, afghanistan should be more stable, democratic institutions should be functioning better, and the corruption issue, we should end up being on the top of the list, and many other issues, including the failure to deal with the insurgency. >> let me

mr. abdullah, you have worked with the president karzai. you were his first foreign minister. what do you think of him as a leader? what are the flaws that obviously lead you to feel you must challenge him in this election? >> our hopes were he would be a fair leader and take action in the beginning where the whole afghan nation joined hands in supporting the afghan people as well as the process. he has turned, under his leadership -- a golden opportunity has turned into today's situation, which is a disappointment, a total disappointment. so, i am disappointed because of my support earlier but i should mention that i didn't vote for him in the earlier election, despite of the fact at a i was the foreign minister and i told him, i had told him that i have not voted for him for a certain reason, because i could see that he is leading the country toward the wrong direction, which is today's situation. in today's situation, afghanistan should have been more stable, democratic institutions should be functioning better, and the corruption issue, we shouldn't end up being on the top

mr. abdullah talk about the differences that he would have with u.s. it should be an intriguing election with a lot riding on it. coming up, is president barack obama backing down on health care? we will talk about the politics of the public option is deputy press secretary bill burton. >>> plus new reaction to jenny sanford's big interview about her cheating husband, the governor. you're watching "the big picture" on msnbc. ♪ 'cause now i'm driving off the lot in a used sub-compact. ♪ ♪ f-r-e-e, that spells free credit report dot com, baby. ♪ ♪ saw their ads on my tv ♪ thought about going but was too lazy ♪ ♪ now instead of looking fly and rollin' phat ♪ ♪ my legs are sticking to the vinyl ♪ ♪ and my posse's getting laughed at. ♪ ♪ f-r-e-e, that spells free- credit report dot com, baby. ♪ it's taken my time. time that i should have had to be with my family. it's like you're getting violated. these are uncertain times. and it's tough enough in this economy without... the added pressure, headache, and heartache of having... to struggle with a stolen ide

mr. abdullah, president karzai and others about how much fraud may have occurred onbehalf of the state inthese places. but most of what i saw was pretty well organized. couple other quick things. i'm going to speed up here. the campaign process of the summer. i was not in afghanistan for most of that. we were lucky enough to hear from a lot of people who were and who organized watchdog organizations who ran eitr private or government sponsored but inpendent organizations. and they documentedhe amount of press coverage of dferent candidates and so forth. state-run media definitely favored president karzai. quite a bit too much. but private media seemed to have done a pretty good job of covering all of the candidates more or less in proportion to what their respective standing would seem to warrant. there were lie televised presidential debates. there were campaign rallies around the country including in kandahar b several major candidates where people actually talked about the issue with abdullah, abdullah,@@@ @ @ how much coverage they gave him versus anyone else the enthusiasm of the afg

mr. ataris a former vce presiden of the governmentf mohammed qatari. sitting alongside him, who oe served as depy foreign minister. so in court, abdullah rama zan da ze. a former gornment spokesma and aformer senior lawmaker,mofinmidadari. e reformist politician a journalist mohamm, is also on trial. is a form industry minister, the general prosecutor said cret documen showed had suggested setting up an antidicktearership with opposition parties. this trial is an attempt byhe authorities to diffuse the growing criticism i iran the abusive treaent of these tainees. by bringing about charges of rioting, holding illegal rallies, clashing wh security forces and acting against national security,he authoritiesre trying to legitimize their ipprisonment. but a general prosetor went mh further with s conspiracy theo today, stating that the foreign media played assailant role in training the rioters and proving unrest. canadian ns reporterbahari. mr. bahar later appeared at a press conferce, where he said the mediaas a key element i thiselvet revolution. he's not been seen by his family or his lawyer since his detention six wks ago. it's not kno

abdullah's camp of voter fraud and voter intimidation. he claims they were widespread. what say you, mr. karzai? >> i think if you look at the entire process, we have seen everybody in the international community, whether we talk about the european union or secretary general of nato or secretary general of the u.n., all of them have said that the afghan election have been successful. president obama gave a conference where he said that the afghan elections were a success. clearly there have been some irregularities and minor technical issues with the ink and other challenges would emerge. there is no elections that are perfect. all the elections in most of the world have some sort of glitches and technical issues but overall the election process was in my opinion fair and it was quite a success for the afghan people. >> geraldo: was the taliban with its campaign of terror and intimidation with the killings of the more than two dozen people and cutting off of the ink stained fingers are two voters, were they successful in suppressing the voter turnout? >> absolutely not. i think what we

mr. atari is a former vice president of the government of mohammed qatari. sitting alongside him, who once served as deputy foreign minister. also in court, abdullah rama zan da ze. a former government spokesman. and a former senior lawmaker,mofin midadari. the reformist politician and journalist mohammed, is also on trial. as is a former industry minister, the general prosecutor said secret documents showed he had suggested setting up an antidick tearership with opposition parties. this trial is an attempt by the authorities to diffuse the growing criticism in iran of the abusive treatment of these detainees. by bringing about charges of rioting, holding illegal rallies, clashing with security forces and acting against national security, the authorities are trying to legitimize their ipprisonment. but a general prosecutor went much further with his conspiracy theory today, stating that the foreign media played assailant role in training the rioters and provoking unrest. canadian news reporter bahari. mr. bahari later appeared at a press conference, where he said the media was a key element in this velvet revolution. he's not been seen by his fami

abdullah abdallah. thank you. >> thank you. mr. isby? >> tnk you. the mo important u.s. policy decision is not implementing current policy but rather deciding what should come after them or hard realities or politics in the unite states underlying $0.02 a x. first, the situation afghanistan i that serious and the need of improvement in so many areas of geographical and functional is so profound, that even if all elements of th current poliay are successful, afgnistan nnot be solved in three years. suessful ilementation can at best me a down payment on success and if we don't we can put afghanistan back into a civil war. second, over the next three years u.s. politics ll have the increasingotenal to affect afghanistan. the current of frustrati will want to have afghanistan in the rearvw mirror as the cqrrent sayi goes by the time they run for reelection in three years. if theeft-wing base would like you to be happy with the course of conflict at baton public support is already declining they do n 1/2 to explain it to the electorate. but i didn't find her policies is impor

mr. karzai 44% of the vote, short of the 50% needed to avoid a runoff. his closest competitor, former foreign minister, abdullah abdullah polling around 26%. if no one wins a majority, the top two finishers face a runoff in early october. this is the second presidential election ever held in afghanistan. and it's not easy to hold a vote in a war-torn nation. ivan watson looks at the challenges the candidates face during their campaigning. >> reporter: it's been the bloodiest summer yet since the overthrow of the taliban eight years ago. despite the violencviolence, cas for afghanistan's top office out on the campaign trail. among them, incumbent president hamid karzai making rare trips from the safety of his presidential palace. reminding supporters that after three decades of war, ruin and disaster, 5 million refugees have returned from exile to live and work in afghanistan. after seven years as president, karzai is afghanistan's most recognizable politician. >> why do you like karzai? >> because karzai's the only man that people believe in. he serves the country, the afghanistan people. >> reporter: karzai re