the old toyota gm plant. >> rose: all right. great to see y again. captioning sponsored by rose communications captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

people thought that was done forever, and toyota would be the biggest company in the industry going forward. and gm is back on top. i don't think size is quite as important to their success as focus. and continue to improve their products. and i think the most telling effect about gm's rebirth is the number one passenger selling car in the country today is chevrolet cruise, small car from general motors. >> host: we've been talking with bill vlasic was the author of "once upon a car." i enjoyed your book and certainly enjoyed visiting with you. >> guest: thank you very much. appreciate it. >> that was "after words," booktv censure program in which authors of the lives nonfiction books are interviewed by judas, public policymakers, legislators and others familiar with the material. "after words" airs every weekend on the tv at 10 p.m. on saturday, 12 and 9 p.m. on sunday, and 12 a.m. on monday. you can watch "after words" on line. go to booktv.org. click on afterwards in the upper left side of the page. spent on the go, after which is available via podcast to itunes and xml. is a booktv.org and clic

now, gm and ford slumped despite modest sales in growth in terms of october, but toyota still strugglingorted a nearly 8% drop in sales. drug giant pfizer was able to buck the trend, edging hire on better than expected quarterly earnings. and bank atlantic shares soared more than 110% on word that it will be acquired by holding company bb&t for about $301 million. that's it from u.s. from cnbc, first in business worldwide. now back to "hardball." >>> welcome back to "hardball." i've been saying for a while and i'll say again that president obama really needs for his re-election is a strong core of allies, who will go to the mat for him when he's right and occasionally when he's wrong. who seems to be standing up to that cllenge is his one-time rival, hillary clinton. she sure sounds like a supporter these days. here she was on "meet the press" last month responding to david gregory's question about her famous 3:00 a.m. phone call ad from 2008 and whether the republicans ads -- the republican candidates need to show foreign policy competence as they run for president. >> i'm out of politi