. >> tim russert was following it, the late tim russert. he knew it. >> he had that piece of paper. it was uncannily accurate. >> it was about -- their mantra was it's about the delegates. keep your eyes on the prize. don't get distracted by polls -- >> bring the movie forward to the last couple weeks. there we had people running around. i do think there's an ethnic piece to this. i know there's an ethnic piece looking at the latest numbers. people who still think he wasn't -- let's look at this number about born in the united states. still people in this country, 14% republicans, 16% conservatives who say he's not born here based on the facts. this is driving while black. this is racist. this is awful. >> absolutely right. knew all along there was a racial component, but you saw the decline, then to now, of people who actually believe that nonsense. i think those are the people that among their complaints about president obama, they didn't quite get him as commander in chief, a military leader. >> well, they've got him now. >> they've got him now. >> what are they saying in the sal

i to debate with somebody on "meet the press" that his argument was purely -- tim russert asked the question why did they hate us? the answer that he got was because they are taught to hate? why? because they hate us. that was really going to be instructive but that was what we were learning. and in popular culture was no better. we did studies of television and movies and what we found was that the main two images of arab were terrorists and oil shakes. now there are terrorists and their oil shakes, but they are not only by no means the majority but an infinitesimal minority. would be told in the arab world we asked which culture is more violent t. know who they say is more violent? they say us because they look at columbine and they look at tucson and they look at the fact that we kill our own 18,000 a year with handguns which they -- it is safer today in cairo with all the upheaval that it is in miami beach. in terms of violent crime and murder. murder of that sort simply doesn't exist and yet we are massacring ourselves every year. they look at that in this they say americans are violent

second the consequences for not raising the debt creeling are dire and everyone knows it i have my tim russert prop. if we don't raise the debt ceiling the government cannot issue new debt. we take in 60 cents for every dollar we spend. we spend 40% more than we take in. you can choose to not pay the interest on your current debt, which amounts to effectively a defau default. how would the markets react to that. >> that's bad. >> we think so. >> okay. >> currently the u.s. used as a safehaven. would markets continue to think of us that way? we don't know. the second choice is more scary to me, that is we have to cut spend big 40% and that comes from social security, medicare. >> that's a big cut. >> it's a huge number. >> where does your arrow go if you do that. >> to depression. i want to cut government spending but i don't want to do it overnight. if you have to cut spending by 40% you're looking at a 10% contraction in the economy, looking at depression. that's a pretty clear choice. raise the debt ceiling. >> that's not what we're hearing from a whole lot of other conservatives. you lay th

and then was very wisely and beloved tim russert came along and snatched her up and brought her to nbc news and where she was the chief political and congressional correspondent. and then gwen was the moderator, as some of you might remember, as the vice presidential debate. in 2004 and again, in 2008 where she stoically walked on to the stage with a broken leg. >> carried if i can say. by two strapping football players. >> yes. [applause] >> it was quite a sight. >> the best part of the night. [laughter] >> and, of course, she's gone on to win many awards and not went on to the pbs where she is the editor and monitor of "washington week" and the senior chief correspondent as newshour with jim lehrer and cohost at times. and then meschelle has the same kind of background which is really just extraordinary. she, too, started in newspapers. and she ended up -- first she was -- is it the "l.a. times"? and then to the "chicago tribune." and then "the washington post." and then she went on to work for abc news. and from there she won many awards, dupont, emmys and peabodies and she wisely w