we talked to a seni fellow on theouncil of fort relations. he believes obama is committed to the afghan w. >> he said it the rht war, that iraq was therong war. i thi he has tstand by hi statements. he has to some extent say mightot give you everything you k for, but i willive you enoug to see the way through to the next measurement, whenever that is. do you think presidentobama will granthe thousand or tens of thousan of more troops that are expeed? > he will not geverything he asks for, and on hears that could be as gh as 45,000. i do think thatbama will do two things. one is to rethink the is strategy and phaps to sce back the ambition, to pull in the reins of the nation-building component and to do more to train afghan forcesnd to go after al qaedand extrists, and that he brings down the game, the commitment, and slightly increases the resources, may be another 20,000, th may be that he can get that elusive bance between what he's aiming for and the resources he is going t commit. >> wre is your see of whe this leads predent obama? >> thi

now these steps will inensure that you, america's senis, get the benefits you have been promised. they will ensure that medicare is there for future generations. and we can use some of the savings to fill the gap in coverage that forces too many seniors to pay thousands of dollars a year out of their own pockets for prescription drugs. that's what this plan will do for you. so don't pay attention to those scary stories about how your benefits will be cut. especially since some of the same folks who are spreang these tall tales have fought against medicare in the past and just this year supported a budget that would essentially have turned medicare into a privatized program. that will not happen on my watch. i will protect medicare. [ applause ] now, because medicare is such a big part of the health care system, making the program more efficient can help usher in changes in the way we deliver health care that can reduce costs for everybody. we have long known that some ples like the intermountain health care in utah or the geisinger alth system in pennsylvania offer high quality ca

senis are definitely out ere. that's aood thing. i think a couple tngs. as gail said this is goingo happen over time. the medire advantage savings that a intended are going to happen over a number oyears. the sangs to hospitals and other rebursement rates are going to happen over aumber of years. there's always timto ratchet back or recalibrate. i would say we're talking about the balanced budgeact back i'97 i think we have o important differences here in these bills one is that the savings or cuts, the money fr the cuts if we want to call it that i ing to be reinvested in the health care systems i said before not ideficit reduction. it won't flow outside th health care system. that's important. i would say secondly tt kaiser fily foundation study shows that the bance budget t cuts in '97 were about 12% of basine medicare spending. the senate bill oks like 's about 5%. so we're talking about a smaller ount of savings than we were in 199 that might also mean that congress doesn'tave to come back and change us. but ift does it certainly has the oppounity to

. >> rose: jake tapper, abc news, white house seni correspondent. back in a moment. st with us. >> rose: we ntinue our conversati about the financial crisis with two journalists who have closely dumented the events of the past year. anew ross sorkin ofthe "new yorkimes." he's an editor of the times daily financial reporthas been reporting onhe financial cris and has a book coming up in the nea future. al, james stewart of the "new rker" magazine. he chronicles the govnment's respse to the collapse of lean brothers in the magazine's most recent issue, eight ys last year ashe financial system stood on e brink, government officialsnd c.e.o.s foughto save catalism and themselves, revealing intviews with principle figures involved d panic deal making behin the scenes broht about unprecedented and controversial government interntion. one year later, the question remas, did they make theight choices? yes? >> well, let's wor backwards. >> rose: all rht. >> thebrought us ba from the brink d they deserve, i think tremendo credit for that. >> re: the brink... >> the wednesday a

we also heard about the donut hole where there's a gap for seni seniors, having to pay for some of theirrescriptions and so forth. it does address some of that. again, it's an eye of the beholder moment. some people think medicare will be improved, there will be greater efficiencies. others say there will be some cuts because there are cuts planned, but not specified, which raises concerns among republicans who say seniors should be wary. lots more to talk about and understand in the days going forward. >> kelly, there is a point also being made that those in the insurance industry don't seem unhappy as of yet, that one thing they're getting out of this is potentially 30 million more customers. >> the insurance lobby is powerful. there are many forces that are spending money to try to influence the debate through the lobbying channels and also on television. i'm sure people have been noticing many ads across their tv screens, arguing some of the points that have been in the debate. insurance be companies are watching this closely and, of course, part of that what they're saying is the in

. >> seny came from springfield, the judge who opened up and at the springfield newspapers were having a real challengeocally in terms of trying to get that information. >> somimes the way you tell it locally perhaps by looking at very specific cases. i know in new hampshire there was very good reporting on the dais seas. >> and there were some public court cases that could have gotten without the help of lawyers. >> one of the wonderfulhings about the globe's extraordinary effort on this was that it prompted investigations all over the country, and it scared the pants ofof the church as we know and you see that-- [laughter] that was a really bad analogy. we would occasionally get calls to the globe saying what is it with a priest in boston in course those people miss the point, which is probably happening in all the diocese. >> that is why we all need editors elizabeth. >> i think one way, any way you are reporters. anythingou see that you think is worthy is worth calling the newspaper. i think some people are reluctant to do that. lot of newspapers take zipline phonecalls. aqc news c

general nieve shaw brown is seni editor for travelocity.>> thank you for having me. >> the good news, an inexpensive fallravel season. the bad news, it doesn't go across the board. air fares are still up there, right? >> it's possible air fare will go up when airlines cut capacit this fall. so hotels are where you want to look for the deals. they will have tremendous value this fall and beyond. >> we're talking about something that the travel industry calls shoulder season. so the prices are low. is there any down side to traving in shoulder season? >> not really. the high-season commands the highest prices, low season the lowest. it offers all the great weather of the high seasonithout the crowds and with lower prices. so it's a great time to get away. >> let's get to some of the dpeels you found. you like hilton head island in south carolina. y? >> i do. it's one of my favorite places in the world. and fall is really its best-kept secret. the weather is still warm without the humidity of summer, fewer crowds, plenty of time to golf, plent