there seems to be no desire to back down from this totally debunked claim. my question is a bigger one which is, is there any accountability? are there any consequences to just straightup lying or at best, misrepresenting your opponent's record? >> i think there are. we're getting to the point where there. it's one of the interesting developments of this campaign. look, obviously, political campaigns generally operate in a gray area. it's not uncommon for campaigns in either party to take some liberties with the truth. that is common. but what you have in the welfare example is a perfect example. there really is joe scarborough said on his show the other day, there really is nothing, there is no there there. when you look at wat romney campaign is saying. it's put news organizations in a position where they say do we do the traditional story where mitt romney said this, barack obama said that and some expert down in the 14th paragraph says if you think about, what romney's saying doesn't make much sense. this is -- there is a story that