still with us, mary matalin, and peter hart and cnn's gloria borger. run republican campaigns for a living, mary, heading into the next stretch, what is the biggest question for governor perry to prove, that after the initial boomlet, he has staying power? >> he's a very solid front-runner. peter's polls show he's got the highest front-runner number of any previous front-runner and i think also peter's poll shows among the most intense activists, the so-called self-identified tea party activists, he's 2-1, holds a 2-1 lead and all this happened in three weeks. but he has to show that he can withstand the front-runner assault, the comparable period in the last cycle hillary clinton and rudy giuliani and fred thompson were the front-runners, so you have to stand up to having the target on your back, which i think he -- his political skills as are evidenced in his longest-serving governor in texas are considerable and misunderestimated as we adopted texans say, so we'll get through the debates. and i think it's got down to the two-man races as ed rollins

of fear and it shows no sign of dissipating all right thanks very much for your thoughts there peter hart from the national media watch from there in new york. now the world size talkee community remains it morning with a loss of almost the entire look a motive team after their plane crashed on wednesday forty three people died when the ak forty two crashed on takeoff near the russian city of yes level people also gathered in prague to remember three czech nationals who were among the many top players killed hundreds have been lee flowers their names and lighting candles in their memory top check ice hockey official and former national. well says the loss is a whole. page hard even to talk about we've lost players in their prime they were the hard core of the national team i knew them very well even though they were playing abroad still they were always trying to get better they cared they didn't just want to be part of a system they wanted to know the details of their positions and how to best score they took a huge interest in what they did and i really enjoyed working with them. people

let's go to peter hart, we know rick perry has the big lead.it it up with tea party supporters and nontea party supporters. perry at 45, romney 18. he also leans among non-tea party supporters. getting twin%. romon those who describe themsees as moderate or liberal republicans, which is still a quarter of the republican party. >> okay. problem for on the republican side. they haven't settled. the voters month after month after month there is somebody new that's hot or whatever else it is. >> this 38 is a big number. romney has yet to hit that number when he was the front runner. >> exactly right, but in the bottom line, they're all still being tested. none of them have proved that they're ready, because we looked at them not only in terms of feeling thermometers and not in terms of how interesting they are as president. every element, they have to prove themselves. as you say, for the president, it's tough times. the republicans, they're going to go through tough times this fall and in the spring. >> bill, both republicans, the two front runner

their home country americans themselves don't understand the point of the war that's the view of peter hart from the national media watch group fair based in new york. but i think united states has made substantial efforts to. sort of conventional propaganda in afghanistan to explain the u.s. occupation of the war there it's not working out he says that reaching a lot of people and i think you know we're we're less worried here about what taliban propaganda can do this way or that way then with what the u.s. media establishment can do they have a difficult time convincing americans that the war makes sense at this point it makes perf. it's perfectly logical that afghans have no idea why american troops are there so i think if anything we share this kind of befuddlement the war must continue and must go on he it's a we have a media system in this country that i think echoes an amplifies state power instead of questioning it and if we had i think serious reporting from afghanistan that talk afghans people might feel some sympathy toward them and wonder what exactly the point of the war is rig

afghanistan for to know all this talk more about the lasting legacy of nine eleven i'm joined live by peter hart from the national media watch they're based in new york thanks very much for being on a program ok so it's been a decade since the war of terror was born this was following the of nine eleven attacks what do you think has been achieved i mean has international terrorism in fact been dealt a major blow. that's difficult to say i think what we've seen in this country in the united states is a state of permanent war much of this is either media manufactured or media enabled first afghanistan then iraq and the dia all of them are a part of i think a larger story that the media are telling and constantly telling that we are in this generational conflict with shadowy characters. a war without end even the iraq war which you know the u.s. media have celebrated is more or less ending it is not ending the war in afghanistan it is interesting that you cause a delay or even end war actually i mean this has been going on for ten years i mean looking at the human cost and it's just keeps on draggi

and a very good pollster, peter hart, said obama is no longer considered the favorite.s is between two governoring philosophies and a guy who has the record on it and can articulate it the most, and the one with the most authentic voice is the one who will go on. kiki is right on that. >> i am a person that grew up in south texas. there's a difference between tough talk and extreme talk. it's important that people recognize and that the press recognize the difference. i think people want to see our leaders lead with some level of decisive conviction. but there is a difference between that and extreme moments. i think where perry or any of the rest of them get in trouble is when they engage in extremism. i think there will be some of that tonight as well. >> do you think romney will go after perry by name, and should he? >> well, you know, the mitt romney in the last presidential campaign, it looks like he has learned a lot about the art and tactical skills of campaigning. because through the summer he has shown a lot of discipline to his own message, and sometimes that

this is a column and he quotes bill and peter hart pollsters from either side of the aisle. and one of them said he thinks the debt ceiling wrangling of hurricane katrina and the collapse of the financial markets may be a defining political moment. >> guest: it doesn't seem to be helping anyone right now. it's probably a little early to say how it will compare to those things but certainly in the short term it's been up there. >> guest: i think your caller's statement which i found very moving, we've been fired. she's 61 years old. she's not far from my age -- or i'm not far from her age, however you want to put it. this feeling -- and here you have one generation that says the baby boomers are kind of the guilty party here. we've lived off the fat of the land and now we're passing all these debt on but yet look how this woman feels. and a lot of people feel that way. there's a lot of alienation now. people feel they worked all these years and now look at what it's come to towards the end. now, some of that is a despair that may not be entirely grounded in reality. things ha