. >> this hour with us msnbc's rachel maddow joining me to talk politics and protests. >>> the president of thencaa and his investigation into the penn state scandal. >>> they seem ready to kick the can further down the road, all of the way to next november. >> this fight just begins because now we're going to hold people accountable and we're going to continue to bring to the floor, continue to the bring to the senate, to congress, choices about how we can act spons my. >> i believe this election will be an opportunity for the presidential candidating on each side and the candidatinges of t house and senate to give washington more of a mandate of which way to go. >> kelly o'donnell joins us with oural daily fix. kelly, now what? are they going to let the automatic triggers go into effect a year from now are they going to try to revise that and create even more potentially more problems? >> well, it spreads now the responsibility because many people would ask me why was it called the super committee? in part it was because that group of 12 had the power to ram this through without the us

. >>> in the wake of recent allegations of past sexual harassment against herman cain, rachel maddow asked them to weigh in on perceptions from women in the country. >> every characterization that has been made by this campaign has been to create a box whereby if a woman reports, she is a gold digger. if she doesn't, she is also a gold dilger. if she comes forward, she is a liar. if she doesn't, she is also a liar. i think the point has to be let's address this on the merits. let's not start from the assumption that every single woman is desperate, desperate to speed dial a plaintiff's attorney and humiliate the candidate. let's start from the assumption that we have two competing narratives and need to sort it out but not from the assumption that one part of the narrative, the narrative from the accuser is tainted by the fact she is a woman and a liar and looking to get rich quick and get a book deal. it is amazing we have put into place an entire legal system that encourages her to come forward, that protects her from being called a hooker and a gold digger for coming forward and y

. >>> last night rachel maddow asked robert reich to describe the mood as a large occupy protest got underway on campus. >> on campus there's a mood of restlessness and uncertainty. a lot of people don't know if the police are coming back in. there's a nervousness but also a sense of indignation about what happened last week and righteousness with regard to the purpose and history of the free speech movement here. you know, rachel, the irony of all of this is not only mario savio, it is that right now we are at a time when the supreme court has said money is speech. speech is money and corporations are people. we've turned the first amendment on its head. instead of allowing people to peaceably assemble and express outrage at how much money is going into politics, we have mayors and other officials all over the country saying you can't assemble, you can't express yourself, but we are going to listen to the money from the big corporations that now are basically engulfing american politics. >> be sure to watch "the rachel maddow show" weeknights at 9:00 p.m. eastern. >>> he stopped it,

now let's turn to my colleague, rachel maddow, host of the rachel maddow show here on msnbc. rachel, your impressions of what has happened tonight across the country. we have seen the governor, a democrat in kentucky, win by 21 points. we see the state of maine tonight has voted to restore same-day registration. and i think it also should be pointed out that in the state of arizona russell pearson, who wrote the anti-immigration law, is trailing in his recall. rachel, how do you call it? some pretty interesting stuff happening out there tonight. >> it is for liberals and for democratic-minded americans and for progressive americans and for people i think who would put themselves more to the center of politics rather than to the right where the republican party has really staked a flag this year. this is going to be a night of good cheer. the mississippi personhood amendment, it should also be noted, was defeated. a lot of people thought that anything that could be branded even remotely anti-abortion in mississippi would pass in a walk. mississippi voters voted that down. and

the rachel maddow show starts right now.nb see you tomorrow night right here on msnbc.g >>> if you're a civics dork or even just a politics dork, election day is kind of like secular christmas. no matter what your religion is÷ every single year, even when it's an off year election, election day is an exciting thing.é@e1 but if you have a job like we d here at msnbc, it is like christmas, but it's christmas where you're the parent, not christmas where you're the kid.1 meaning that even if you are totally psyched about it and it's your favorite day of the year, and it is, it's also a lot of work.e1 it's a fast-moving live parts, sort of high-stress night of making television.t( it is exciting, it can be exhilarating, but it goes>7!y later than a normal night on tv. you're tap dancing the whole time. and the next day, particularly early in the day you're a little bit spent. so today, early this afternoon here from the rachel maddow show, thanks to the laughing squid, we spent most of the afternoon figuring out which politicians in today's news are most suited for the musthair treatment

also i have to tell you tomorrow night is our first ever "rachel maddow show" fan appreciation night. if you're a fan of the show, you may have heard this is happening. we have sent packages of "rachel maddow show" stuff like baby size cocktail shakers and highlighters and stuff to lots of people across the country who signed up online and they're going to be hosting watch party tomorrow night where the main atrack is this homely little show. now, the cool thing about this is it's a way that you can meet other people who also like the show. so you can find each other other than online, flesh and blood. and then of course you will go on dates and ultimately decide to reproduce, thus creating a new generation of people genetically inclined to be fans of this show, thus ensuring a long-term future for this program and all of our staffers. ha. that's the good part. the less good part is that we have never done this before and we have no idea if it's going to work or how it's going to work. if it does work, we will do it again. so hopefully, we'll get good reports from you all tomorrow nig

and also rachel maddow, host of "the rachel maddow show" here on msnbc. rachel, let me go to you first, if i may. what message, in your opinion, does it send to other states and governors if the defeat is as big as it appears to be at this point. with early voting, i know. but what message, rachel, do you think this sends to other republican governors and maybe all the way to the white house? >> again, ed, we don't want to extrapolate too much from this small proportion of the vote, and there's, you know, there's worries that polling on issues like this can overstate what the results are going to be, particularly when one side, in this case the no on issue 2 side, is really, really depe depending on turnout. it's a lot easier to tell a pollster who calls you at home that you're going to get out and vote against this thing. it's another thing to actually get out there and vote. we'll have to see how this turns out. if the numbers tonight do follow the polling and as john nichols just said, there does turn out to be a really strong vote against sb-5, a no vo

rachel maddow show starts right now. >> congratulations on that interview. >> he's quite an american, isn't he? >> very impressive. appreciate it. >>> thanks to you at home for staying with us. our guest for the interview is somebody who puts a spring in everybody's step around here when we know he's going to be on the show. we feel particularly lucky to have him here tonight. >> let me be very clear. i will neither be a lobbyist nor a historian. i promise you on both. there is no way i would be a lobbyist. look, i will miss this job and i'll have some regret when the new congress is signed up, but i will tell you this. you know, maybe you're going to laugh, but one of the advantages to me of not running for office is i don't even have to pretend to try to be nice to people i don't like. now, some of you may not think i've been good at it, but i've been trying. >> barney frank trying to be nice to people or fairly regularly failing to be nice to people while making his political point, that has been one of the great spectacles of american politics. one of great spectacles of american

rachel maddow starts right now. rachel, thank you for buying lunch today. i gave you barbecue from iowa and you feed the whole "ed" team supper. >> the whole fleet of sandwiches is worth one thing of iowa barbecue. >> thank you. >>> thanks to you at home for joining us this hour. i want to show you a picture of oak creek, wisconsin, today. oak creek, wisconsin, in the lower right hand corner, the glimmer of a sort of pretty color, that's unfortunately is lake michigan. here's another view of this. what you are looking at here is a collapsed bluff at a coal-fired power plant. that's right on the shore of lake michigan in wisconsin. for perspective here, so you can get a sense of how big this spill is, that tiny littletangl other rectangles of a similar size, those are containment units similar to the ones you see loaded on the back of an 18 wheeler which is something that's this side. the explosion tossed the units into the mire and intoç the la like they were tonka trucks or toothpicks. the flat piece in the muck is the roof of a building. the scale of thi

it's not barbecue from ed day at the rachel maddow show, it's not just halloween. it's a day packed with political news. there's a ton to talk about with what happened to republican front-runner herman cain today. we'll be getting to that in just a moment. there was actually something to talk about even with newt gingrich's campaign today and it's not just about newt gingrich trying to get his hands on your money this time. oh, wait, actually the newt story is just about him trying to get his hands on your money again. there is new newt news about that today. today was a big, a big political news day. what is the most important presidential politics news of the day in the sense i think is the most devastating to a specific campaign is specific campaign is this footage, footage that came in over the weekend of texas governor rick perry. an appearance that rick perry made in new hampshire on friday. now, this is sort of a sensitive issue to talk about. because there is not an empirical means by which i can explain why this footage may be the end of rick perry's campa

. >>> the rachel maddow show starts right now and i think it's going to be a little chilly outside, but it's a couple of shows next week, rachel, that i will not miss for sure. >> that's going to be spectacul spectacular. we have a bunch of news on issue 2 on sb-5 coming up this hour, too, ed. we're happy you're going to be there. >> thanks, rachel. have a great weekend. >> you, too. thanks at home for staying with us the next hour as well. i had an a-ha moment about 2012 politics. it is one for which i'm scolding myself i have to tell you. the reason i'm scolding myself is because i should have known at pokamon. i feel like an idiot about this. we noted it when the pokamon thing happened and it seemed like an aberration from normal news and politics and a one-off weird thing. looking back now, now that it is so obvious and finally donned on me, i should have known at pokeman. we all should have known. it was the first presidential debate back in august before the ames, iowa, straw poll. they have their debate. at the end of the debate the candidates give their closie ii statements. the

the musthair tumbler and the laughing squid blog inspired us here at "the rachel maddow show" today to create our own examples from some politicians in the news. here, for example, herman cain, difficult because he doesn't have any hair on top to blend, but there you have it. incidentally, as ed noted last hour, the the american mustache association did rescind its herman cain endorsement today, for what's that worth. here's the musthair version of john bolton, former u.n. ambassador. here, i hope he does not mind, because he's about to be our guest, here is raul greelva. and here's a man name terry branstad. terry branstad looks the most amazing of anybody i have ever seen with the musthair treatment. the mustache as hair treatment. and that might be the only way terry branstad is ever going to become nationally famous. just being the governor of iowa right now is not making terry branstad nationally famous. i mean, like john kasich and scott walker and rick scott and rick schneider, terry branstad was elected governor of iowa in the great tide that was the huge republican election in

the "rachel maddow show" is next. good 'ing. >>> thank you at home for staying with us the next hour. tell me if this reminds you of anything. this is about a year before the presidential election, this was the front runner for the republican nomination. he sat down with a local but hard nosed aggressive reporter. and the candidate totally blew it. just fell right on his face. what does this remind you of? >> can you name the president of chechnya? >> no, can you? >> name the president of taiwan? >> yeah. lee. >> can you name the general who's in charge of pakistan? >> is this a 50 questions. >> no, it's four questions, four leaders and four hot spots. >> the pakistani general has just been elected. he's not elected. this guy took over office. he appears he's going to bring stability to the country. i think that's good news. >> can you name him? >> the general. i can name the general. >> i asked bush to identify the leader of india's government. >> and the prime minister of india? >> the new prime minister of india is

. >> comcast and ge are paying for dylan, for rachel maddow, and news corp.ying for sean hannity and those guys. >> and cnn -- >> these are corporations that are engaging in political speech. so the corporations that you're discriminates against or the people you're discriminating against are people who don't happen to own a gigantic -- >> which brings up a good question. which is, how do you handle the press? yeehaws like myself who have shows and shoot our mouths off. and also, how do you handle for access for politicians and financing -- in other words, have you thought beyond the get money out lens to what about yeehaws on tv? >> i think it is an important issue, because the constitution also protects the freedom of the press. but i think media companies are different. their job is to report news. and giving -- >> what if they don't do that? >> what if they're rachel maddow who gives opinion -- fl well, giving opinions is one thing. giving contributions is another thing. in other words, i don't think corporations are protected to the extent of making cont

"the rachel maddow show" starts right now. good evening, rachel. >> good evening, ed. welcome back. i missed you, my friend. >> i put on a few pounds. we slimmed up the camera tonight. the turkey did it to me again. what can i say? >> i'm going to be sucking it in for the entire hour. i know exactly how you feel. thanks, man. >> you bet. >>> thanks to you at home for staying with us the next hour. it's good to be back. the herman cain campaign is in damage control after a local fox station in atlanta aired an exclusive interview with a woman who says she had had an adulterous affair with herman cain for the past 13 years. >> he made it very intriguing. it was fun. it was something that took me away from my sort of humdrum life at the time and it was exciting. >> she says the physical relationship ended about eight months ago. right before cain announced he was running for president. but the communication did not. when we asked for corroborating evidence, she pointed us to her cell phone. one name, herman cain. she showed us some of her cell phone bills that included 61 phone calls o

. >> smith: or more recently who think that sean hannity and rachel maddow are journallsts. >> klein:>> smith: right? >> klein: exactly. >> smith: you don't make that mistake. >> klein: no. >> smith: yeah. >> klein: no. they -- and by the way neither of them will ever have me on. >> smith::they'll never have you on because yyu won't go you? asked, they've never asked me. >> smith: they know not to bring you on because you'll. >> klein: i mean youuknow the thing is my problem is that i don't just give opinions. i've been out there and i've seen things and my opinions tend not to be in an orderly straaiht line. >> smith: yeah. >> klein: .youuknow, on the left or the right. when i write my memoir someday it's going to be called flaming moderate. >> smith: yeah. [audieece laughter] but, you know, you, you, you say that the problem with the media today is cynicism but the criticism of the media is often the opposite, which is that we're not cynics, we're stenographers. >> klein: mm-hmm. >> smith: basically what we do. >> klein: sometimes we are. >> smith: .we just take down what the offici

the rachel maddow show starts right now. rachel, they love you in columbus. > i love them back, man. amazing show. amazing show. i'm so glad you're there. hello, columbus. thanks so you at home as well for staying with us for the next hour. there is so much going on. the long running grossout genius performance arts satire radio spectacle that is the "howard stern show" which is now just on satellite radio, they're apparently promoting a singer. i don't know if it's somebody howard stern enjoys or if this is a paid arrangement or something. today, republican presidential politics in america were briefly taken over by this. >> this is not what you think it is. just calm down. no, it's not what you think it is. just calm down. this is about alisa jordana. this is not about me. this is about alisa jordana. j-o-r-d-a. alisa jordana. the name of one of her songs is [ bleep ]. and "young love" is a good song to listen to. >> benjy, you're on live mike. seriously. >> i won't say the bad word. it's f-u i'm fine. >> he's right. that's