kim jong-il died two days ago. two full days went by before the a initial announcement came out. that's how tightly controlled the media is there. when it did arrive, his blinkered and brainwashed followers mourned him like the god they had been told he was. the grieving as you would imagine is intense for a leader they had been told first walked at three weeks of age. talked at two months and authored, not read but authored 1500 books while in college. those who are not overcome were simply dumb struck on receiving the news. like this gathering. they, like most north koreans not aware that eschar offed lobsters and had cognac while north koreans starved to death during the familiar inhis economic policies created. the mourners who made their way by the masses past a statue of kim il-sung did not know how -- how it is. when kim il-sung died, north koreans were told that a thousand white cranes tried to carry him off to heaven but were prevented from doing so by the pull of his devoted followers. people living then as now in one of two north korea's. the one they're allowed to see but keeping them honest we mostly see the other. sometimes they see more than they're supposed to and they wake up. they make a run for it over the border into china. out of the ground of a foreign embassy. some of them make it. this group did. others risk it all as a family in the clip we're about to show you. not everyone succeeds as you'll see in this clip from the documentary soul train. [ speaking foreign language ] scenes from china which shares a border with south korea. a shaky alliance as well. beijing is terrified at the prospect of millions of refugees flooding into southern china if north korea collapses. as we said, most north koreans don't really know their country is what it is. they don't know that it's that big space down there between china and south korea with the lights off at night because their power system barely work. a big black box. in more ways than one and more than ever tonight. but tonight we are taking you as far inside north korea as we possibly can with people who have seen it up close or dealt directly with kim jong-il, the dear departed leader. gary tuchman starts us off. >> with the beau font hair, platform shoes, over-sized glasses and trademark jumpsuit, kim jong-il looked every part the crazed tyrant. >> the appearance made it a little bit more difficult to treat him seriously, at least at first. >> he was certainly a man of eclectic and fine tastes. mr. kim was said to have a love of fine wines, cognac and foreign prostitutes. this despite an incredibly poor and often starving population. inside north korea it was all about kim. but state-run media created and nurturing a fully formed cult personality. he was the dear leader bravely flying fighter jet or writing operas or even shooting 11 holes in one in his first attempt at playing golf. he was also said to be a big fan of hollywood. his favorite movies, gone with the wind and any and all james bond movies. his father founded the totalitarian regime and died in 1994. he was considered god-like among his people. >> from the moment of his birth, he never could measure up to his father. he's had very, very difficult shoes to fill. >> bruce cummings studied korea for 40 years. he says the elder kim was ruthless. he was also charismatic and loved to be around people, unlike his son. kim jong-il's official biography says he was born in a log cabin in a sacred mount tan. when he was delivered, special stars shown in the sky. western scholars say it was more like siberia in a camp. he was a ruler who loved to make his people dance. a million of them all at once and all in step. you chase away fierce storms and give us faith, they sing, about their dear leader. charles armstrong said in an interview with cnn last year that despite his theatrics, he was a political giant. >> he's not a mad man. i think he's very smart man. he's very capable. he's well-trained in the art of politics. and he's very shrewd at how he operates. >> he was long at odds over the nuclear program in his country. having the capability to build a bomb was his greatest ambition. a goal he only recently realized had north korea tested the nuclear weapons in 2006. it put the world on notice and gave mr. kim the ultimate bargaining chip. the uncertainty of what comes next is all the more important. gary tuchman, cnn new york. joining us now are lisa and laura ling. she has a documentary which arms tomorrow night at account on the national gee ask channel. she snuck into north korea to make the documentary. her sister laura was taken by -- when they were filming along the north korea, chinese border. they were held, subjected to a show trial, convicted and sentenced to hard labor. after months of effort and efforts by former president clinton, they received a pardon and came home. they co-authored a book about the speerps called somewhere inside. one sister's captivity in north korea and the other's fight to bring her home. good to see you both. laura, i have to ask. kim jong-il's regime, they put you and your family -- so many of us watched while you were in captivity for five months. what were your thoughts when you heard about his death? >> it was very surreal. i got chills immediately. but i also thought about the north korean people, people who have been suffering under that regime for decades. i also thought about my guards, my interrogator, my interpreter. you know, these are people who are tasked with keeping me prisoner, but at the same time we did share, develop a relationship. i thought about what the future might hold for them. >> lisa, i imagine some of your thoughts, your initial thoughts were the same. it must have been a very emotional moment for you as well. >> it was. it was quite surprising for both of us. when president clinton met with kim jong-il when he negotiated the release of my sister and her colleague, he was very surprised by how coherent that the quote-unquote dear leader was at the time. he brought his physician with him. he noticed some paralysis on one side of his body. he his said his mental faculty were fully intact. >> he had had a stroke at some point in the recent past before that time that you saw him. laura -- >> reportedly. >> laura, you know firsthand the power and you saw the piece from gary tuchman that kim jong-il had over his people. what struck you about that while you were in captivity? >> sure. i was allowed to watch television and every piece of video on that screen practically shows images of kim jong-il as this other worldly figure and doing these wonderful things for his people. oftentimes, my guards would be moved to tears watching their dear leader and they talked about how much he was doing. they did mention that he was aging and that his health was failing. but they said that it was due to the fact that he was working so hard for his people. >> sanjay, you menged that i reported in north korea a couple of years before laura was held captive. i was astounded by the level of indock krin nation under which the people of north korea live. it's hard for us to imagine ha that could possibly be like. you mentioned all of the books that kim jong-il allegedly authored. when i was staying there, every single book on my bookshelf in the guest house was written by the dear leader or the great leader. when you're born into believing this is the only way of life, it's hard to even be curious about what the rest of the world is like. we've been hearing in the last couple of years, since laura was held captive, through an organization called liberty in north korea or link the refugees who have come out have gotten information because this black market exists and information is being smuggled in the way of cell phones at increasingly larger levels. >> it's absolutely fascinating. part of that documentary as well, if i remember, you were helping -- you were undercover and helping an eye surgeon perform these operations and i remember the documentary. i want to play a quick clip where this girl had been blind for years and gets her sight back and sees her father. take a listen. >>. [ speaking foreign language ] [ applause ] >> she is getting sight restoring operation. you said what shocked you the most was who she thanked after the operation. >> yeah. sanjay, as you know, cataracts can be so debilitating for people in the third world. they can live with total blindness for more than a decade. that was the case for so many of the people who the doctor was treating. once their sight was restored, it was quite amazing. they would have all of the people in a big room, there would be possibly a hundred people in the room and they'd remove the bandages from their eyes and instantly you would think that they would thank the doctors and their teams for restoring their sight. but in fact, they would immediately rush to the photo of the dear leader to thank him for restoring their vision. >> that was all -- i mean, this was of their own doing. they weren't being forced. this was of their own volition from all sounds of it. laura, let me ask you. kim jong-il's heir apparent, his son, he's young. the country is a young country, he's been educated outside of north korea. does this make you optimistic at all for the future of this country. >> well, i mean, i think that everyone right now, all we can do is speculate. there could be a window of opportunity. kim jong-il, there was 20 years for him to be groomed into a leader. kim jong-un has had less than two years. when you talk about this propaganda machine, kim jong-un has not existed for very long in that machine. it will be interesting to see what happens. >> we were trying to negotiate laura and euna's release. it was interesting because our sources were actually dealing with two entirely different factions inside of north korea. because it seemed that there was this schism between the members of the foreign ministry and the military. so if that is any indicator, it seems like it's just an extremely unpredictable time in that country right now. >> yeah. see if those bridges will be created. it's good to see you both. i'm glad you look so well. you look healthy. thanks for being with us. >> thank you. >> lisa and laura ling. thanks so much. let us know what you think about this. we're on facebook and google. follow me on twitter as well. sanjay gupta, cnn. i'll be tweeting throughout the show tonight. staying on topic, north korea's military might. it's nuclear arsenal. we hear approximate this. now there's a new finger on the button. we get a threat assessment from bill richardson. take you live to the most dangerous border on earth. the one separating north and south korea. later, when it comes to the republican primary, what goes up, must come down. another gop high flyer who is feeling gravity's pull. the latest on newt gingrich's slide in the polls. okay-y... okay??? i've been eating progresso and now my favorite old jeans...fit. okay is there a woman i can talk to? 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[ louder ] hello? but we still need your signature. right now during sign then drive, it's never been easier to get the all-new passat, the 2012 motor trend car of the year, for practically just your signature. that's the power of german engineering. visit vwdealer.com. south korean armed forces on high alert tonight and not just because kim jong-il is dead. according to south korea's news agency the north did more missile testing just this morning, just before the death announcement came. and now the man supposedly in charge of north korea's massively armed forces, nuclear weapons included, is now apparently 20-year-old something kim jong-un. that's one concern. but so is everything that we don't know yet about north korea's military might. here's tom foreman. >> reporter: for a poor country north korea has long spent a disproportionate amount making its army look strong. what concerns military analysts most, however, is what we cannot see. first, the nuclear threat. under the obsessive prodding of kim jong-il, the secretive nation has been enriching uranium and amassing plutonium, possibly enough in hidden sites to make six or eight nuclear weapons or more. analysts are convinced north korean missiles can reach south korea, japan and maybe hawaii or alaska, although it's unclear whether they can carry nukes, but that may not matter. another credible theory is that north korean nukes could be hiding on merchant ships and sail to ports around the globe. second, the artillery threat. after the korean war, the north was heavily supported by russia. that stopped in the early '90s, but analysts say north korea has retained many pieces from that era and added more rockets and scud missiles although the fighter jets and ships would be destroyed quickly in open warfare, analysts think those ground weapons could pour explosives on to seoul 30 miles to the border producing tens of thousands of injuries and deaths in just the first hours. and third, there is the human threat. north korea has 400,000 infantry troops which military experts believe would either flood across the border into the south or dig in to repel any counterattack. more important, the north is believed to have 200,000 highly trained special forces soldiers who could infiltrate the south, wage guerrilla war and spread panic among civilians. the north is so unpredictable, even informed analysts admit all of these are just educated guesses, but they add, the world must be ready for the worst with north korea because that nation has been so unpredictable for so long and maybe even more so now. tom foreman, cnn, washington. >> and whatever may happen, the major flashpoint is just a short drive north from seoul on the demilitarized zone where north and south korean troops, not to mention american forces, all stand eyeball to eyeball. and paula hancocks is there tonight. paula, a lot of people have been following this history here. last year north korea sank a south korean warship killing dozens of sailors. these were believed to show that kim jong-un was a tough military commander. is there a fear now in south korea that further acts of aggression could take place to show the strength of this new korean leader? >> reporter: absolutely, sanjay. this is the crucial question. will he feel the need to have some kind of action of empowerment? this is what is believed to have happened last year. two very big attacks killing 50 south koreans and tensions then were as high as they have been since the 1950s korean war. so certainly that was believed to be a case of their showcasing an heir apparent a new successor and they wanted to show strength at the same time. now, the crucial question is will kim jong-un feel weak domestically. if he does, then we could see another attack in the future. this is something that the u.s. and the south koreans here are watching very closely. we're just a mile away from north korea. you can see it in the bad. you can see it in the background. this is something they're watching very closely. will he have all the old followers of his father's or will he bring in new loyal followers that would be loyal to him? it's really a very difficult question to answer. >> do you know just how ready south korea and the u.s., for that matter, is to respond to any provocation by north korea? >> reporter: the line is that they are constantly in a state of readiness. now, we know that the south korean military has actually increased its alert status. it is at one of the highest statuses at this point. that's a high alert. monitoring what the north koreans are doing very carefully. they're trying to see if there's any kind of troop movement, the south koreans and the u.s. but the u.s. has always said that they're here as a means of deterrent. rather than to respond in any way. this is what they've been working towards. u.s. soldiers here, an immense amount of military capability. there are missiles here to shoot down incoming missiles. they're ready but not trying to play it up in any way. >> paula hancocks, a short distance away from the demilitarized zone. please be safe out there. joining me former new mexico governor, energy ambassador bill richardson, he's logged plenty of miles and air miles dealing with kim jong-il. thanks governor for joining us. appreciate it. >> nice to be with you. >> thank you. you've said that what north korea's military does in the next day or two, 24 to 48 hours, is going to be decisive. is the danger, governor, more the unpredictability of the regime or the fear that the military becomes more belligerent in this region? >> well, the real fear, the real danger is the uncertainty. because what you have now is a totally new situation. kim jong-il is gone. there's an untested new leader designated by his father, but there's a cult of personality, a line of succession that has happened for many years in north korea. so the early indications are that the establishment has rallied behind kim jong-un, the son, the untested son. but the issue is will there be subsequent power struggles within the military, within the family that keeps kim jong-un with some degree of power? that is the uncertainty. now another point is that under kim jong-il, at least in the last 12 months, things were getting a little better. they weren't as belligerent. they were talking to south korea. they were talking to the united states on humanitarian aid. the north koreans said they were ready to re-engage in six-party talks on nuclear negotiations. again, you never can predict what they're going to do, sanjay. they're an isolated country. i've been there eight times, but i still can't predict what's going to happen next there. >> most people seem to know, ambassador richardson, about north korea, who even pay a little bit of attention, is its nuclear power. and they know some facts about its military. but correct me if i'm wrong, north korea doesn't seem to have the ability to launch a nuclear missile. is the bigger threat the potential to sell nuclear capability to u.s. enemy? >> well, that's the biggest danger that i think is overlooked, the fact that they have sold nuclear materials. they did it to syria. there's reports they did it with pakistan. they did it with burma. the sale of nuclear materials, enriched uranium for foreign exchange because they're the poorest nation on earth. that's the danger. and the fact that they have enough fuel possibly for six to eight nuclear weapons. that's the danger. the two missiles they sent out were maybe defective, but they did have some kind of a capability. so when you have a million men in arms, when you have all those missiles, then you have 25,000 american troops on the dmz, we have a treaty with our friend in south korea, you know, this is a tinderbox. you got to keep an eye on that situation. and the best way to do with them, i've always said, sanjay, is you engage them. you don't isolate them. you have a dialogue. you're skeptical. you verify everything that they say they're going to do. they usually don't keep their word. but isolate them to punish them, to ostracize them, to not have anyone talk to them, the chinese not talk to them, that's not the way to go. and i think the obama administration has been moving in the right direction to engage them. again, the last year has been a little positive movement. now, we're going to have to wait and see what the signals are from this new leader. >> a lot of people watching with waitful eyes. governor richardson, i really appreciate it. thanks very much for joining us. >> thank you, sanjay. still ahead tonight "raw politics." newt gingrich is slipping in the polls, but he's not giving up the fight. does he have time to turn things around before the iowa caucus, which is two weeks from tomorrow. also ahead a family's desperate fight to save their baby's life. medicaid refused to pay for the life-saving surgery for this 4-month-old. we'll explain the story. it's a heartbreaking one with a surprising twist. that's coming up. 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"raw politics" tonight, with two weeks to go until the iowa caucus, hard to believe, newt gingrich's front-runner status is evaporating. the latest cnn/orc poll which is out today both have 28%. ron paul's in third with 14% and michele bachmann, rick perry, rick santorum and jon huntsman are all in single digits. last month gingrich was leading romney 24 to 20%. but with the clock ticking toward iowa, gingrich is slipping, romney is gaining. here's what gingrich had to say about this at a campaign stop in iowa today. >> the establishment in both parties is panicking. but just as they did with ronald reagan. go back and read what people wrote about reagan in '79/'80. they're right. i'm an agent of real change. i want to change the way washington work. i'm prepared to have large struggles to change the way washington works, and it will make many conservatives in washington who are establishmentarians feel very nervous about the way that newt gingrich would shake it up. >> joining me gloria borger, mary matalin and matt kibbe, president of freedom works. thanks to all of you. gloria, you look the chilliest, we'll go to you first. you talked to newt gingrich today about this, why his polls seem headed south in iowa. take a listen so what he had to say. >> watch tv here for two days. you've had all sorts of people and all sorts of these super-pacs that have consistently been running negative ads. you get enough negative ads before you start answering them, your numbers go down for a while. >> he's blaming it, gloria, on the negative ads. he was doing well before the debates. is he right about this? and if he is, what can he do about it? >> sure. well he was right about it. it was interesting he was so honest. i said you're going down. he said, yeah, he is going down. he gets it. he doesn't have enough money to fight back in the ad wars. and so what he's trying to do, sanjay, is make a virtue out of necessity, and that is go positive. because ads are expensive, negative ads are something that people use after they've introduced themselves and then they go after the other candidates. gingrich is playing catch-up here in iowa. so he's got some money. he raised about $500,000 over the weekend. he's now going to start putting up an ad, introducing himself to people in the state of iowa. he's also starting teleconferences so people can talk to him over the telephone. they're called ask newt. so if you see these negative ads, he'll respond person to person. >> and just to get a little context, some of the numbers i read show head was being outspent by romney by almost 34-1 in iowa. mary, let me ask you about that. >> exactly. >> what gloria just said, do you think it's all about the ads or is something else at work here? >> the ads certainly have had an impact, but there are other contributing factors, not least being the conservative establishment, the national review editorial sort of for mitt but definitely against newt has made an impact. and honestly, mitt romney has done a good job. what people were concerned about with mitt romney was he wasn't doing what was the -- >> right. >> -- the cause of newt's ascension which was fight, fight, fight. he was in this -- they called the mitt witness protection or mitt-protection zone. when he got out for a week, his free media, his earned media, he took it right to newt showing that he has the kind of fight that it takes to do hand-to-hand combat. i don't think newt's slipping so much as stabilizing, but his decrease is as much due to mitt's improvement and actually campaigning. this last man standing strategy that he had prior to the newt ascension just was not bringing it home for conservatives. >> matt, let me ask you. you heard newt gingrich's comments there and he called himself the new agent of change in one of those sound bites. what do you think about that? what should his goal be in iowa? do you think he can still win here? >> well, i actually think that this thing is wide open. and for newt gingrich to claim to be a change agent is difficult for him because he's been around a long time, he has a long record. voters are beginning to realize that the guy they thought was the anti-romney guy has a quite similar record on a lot of the issues that really matter to voter who will vote in the iowa caucus. i think you might see -- i think it's quite likely that ron paul wins iowa and michele bachmann and rick perry have a very strong showing. this thing is going to go on for a while. >> and who knows what that means in the end, who wins iowa, because we've seen a lot of people who have won iowa in the past who have sort of staggered after that. gloria, i read in one of the cnn polls released today they gave romney the edge here specifically. they talked about the fact that six out of ten republicans vote on personal characteristics more than the issues. >> sure. >> i mean, how big a problem is that? and how much is that playing a role in all we're discussing here regarding his status in iowa? >> well, in iowa, that could be a problem for newt gingrich, particularly with evangelical voters who may look back to his personal past and raise a lot of questions and say, you know what? i don't think having three wives is such a great idea. but i also think what was interesting about our cnn nationwide poll is that gingrich was still beating romney in one area and that was leadership. when i was talking to people here today who came out to see newt, most of whom were undecided, by the way, cannot overemphasize that, they're still undecided. six out of ten people in the state of iowa are still undecided. what they said, though, that they liked about newt gingrich, was he was someone that could take it to barack obama. they wanted somebody who was a leader who could do that. and their big question was was he electable. and that's going to weigh on the minds of people here as they go into their caucuses. >> gloria borger, mary matalin, matt kibbe, stay tuned. we'll have more on this. still ahead a mother's battle to fly her critically ill baby halfway across the country for an operation to save his life. we'll tell you who paid for the flight in the end. that's next. forty years ago, he wasn't worried about retirement. he'd yet to hear of mutual funds, iras, or annuities. back then, he had something more important to do. he wasn't focused on his future but fortunately, somebody else was. at usaa we provide retirement solutions for our military, veterans and their families. from investments... to life insurance... to health care options. learn more with our free usaa retirement guide. call 877-242-usaa. it's good. honey, i love you... oh my gosh, oh my gosh.. look at these big pieces of potato. ♪ what's that? 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[ male announcer ] find your program at phoenix.edu. tonight a story that really hits me in the gut. as both a father and a doctor. there's a new development we're going to tell you about in a moment, but first, a baby at the center of the story whose name is pierce. he's just 4 months old. when we first met him, he was in desperate need of heart surgery. pierce lives in indiana and he gets his health insurance through medicaid. indiana designed its own medicaid program including what care they'll cover. the program says it would pay for the operation that little pierce needs, but there was a catch and the story gets a bit complicated. here's elizabeth cohen. >> they didn't give you a bath this morning. >> reporter: she says government bureaucrats are trying to kill her 4-month-old baby. >> there's very few children like pierce on the planet. >> reporter: he was born with an extremely rare condition called heterotaxy syndrome. about 16 children are born with it in the united states. they have multiple heart defects. many die as infants. >> i sat by his bed thinking that if i close my eyes i'd miss my last opportunity with him. >> reporter: pierce has spent most of his life in the intensive care unit in riley children's hospital in indianapolis. he needs surgery soon or he will die. so when they first talked to you about surgery here, tell me what they said. >> that taking him into surgery would be like a death sentence, rushing him into surgery at this point was very unsafe. >> reporter: but the hospital's ceo says his surgeons can do it. riley hospital says they've done nine open heart surgeries on babies like pierce over the past decade. but fields found a much larger hospital that says they've done over a hundred in the past few years alone. boston children's hospital. many studies show the more procedures a hospital performs, the better the outcomes. also boston has a cardiac intensive care unit. riley doesn't. but there's a problem. pierce is on medicaid and they denied her request to transfer him to boston. is the government making a life or death decision about your child? >> absolutely. medicaid is the one who holds my child's life in their hands right now. >> we have regulations that we are required to adhere to. >> reporter: neal moore, a spokesman for indiana medicaid said riley hospital is capable of doing pierce's surgery and it doesn't matter that boston has more experience. >> this is not a question of what's the best medical choice. it's a question of based on the systems that we have, the funding mechanism have very distinct, you know, regulations that are associated with that that we must adhere to. >> reporter: i just heard you say this is not about the best medical choice for this child. so what is it about? >> from the medicaid perspective of this circumstance, there's only one question that is being considered. that question is, is there a solution that exists in indiana? the answer to that has been given that there is one. >> reporter: didn't ask them how often they do it, you didn't ask them if they do it well, you didn't ask if there were other people that can do it better. you asked them can you do it? the answer is sure, they can do it. but you didn't ask them was this the best for baby pierce? why didn't you ask them that question? >> i'd given you the answer repeatedly here that the process is in place that includes the solution. and i don't know what else i can say to you that would be an appropriate answer beyond that. >> reporter: of course, hospitals can't be transferring children around for every major surgery, but baby pierce's condition is so rare only a few places like boston children's have had a lot of experience with the intricate surgeries he needs. >> mommy's strong boy. >> reporter: meanwhile, back at the hospital, fields gets a miracle. mothers of other children with heart problems get together through facebook and donate enough money to send pierce to boston. >> i think it's sad that a bunch of moms and strangers who don't even know me or my child have stepped up to the plate more than, you know, the government and insurance and medicaid. >> reporter: after the moms volunteered their money and after cnn started asking questions, the indiana hospital did step up and they paid for the transport. but medicaid, even at the very end, refused to pay a cent to get baby pierce to boston. elizabeth cohen, cnn, indianapolis. and the cost of that flight, by the way, was about $40,000. a lot has happened just in the last couple of days. pierce arrived in boston, he went into surgery this afternoon. pierce's story raises a lot of thorny questions. they're just the kind of questions that art kaplan specializes in. he's in bioethics at the university of pennsylvania. he joins me now. we had the chance to talk about this in the past. you say this particular case with baby pierce, that the medicaid offices in indiana should have sent him out of state to boston. now, i was a little bit surprised to hear you say that. why do you think that's the case here? >> well, initially you want to ask the question, does it matter how old this patient is? this is a baby and an infant. i think they have a special claim on resources. then what are the outcomes for a pretty expensive operation and some to follow, sanjay. initially when i heard about this, if indiana can do it, it has to be done in indiana. if they can handle this kind of a case, okay. but subsequently the facts have become clearer. elizabeth cohen did a good job reporting this. that condition's very rare, the outcomes in a few hospitals that deal with this kind of complex case are much, much better. i think a case can be made that even though indiana could try to do it, the safest and best outcome will be achieved in boston. >> you know, you probably get this question all the time. i know i do. people ask me, what's the best place for, you know, fill in the blank or who is the best person to take care of this. that's a tough question to answer. and the reality is there often isn't an answer. when you talk about a case like pierce, does that muddy the waters a little more? how do you determine what is best? how do you determine who gets what? why in this case and why not in others? >> yeah, tough question, sanjay. part of the answer is for a rare condition where it is really high specialty surgery, it makes sense to say, if you've done 100, 125 of these, you'll do better than a place that's done 9 over a decade. just the odds will improve by experience having the right team and the right follow-up care. this case, you may be able to get a clear answer. in other cases, you know as well as anyone, you get into situations where hospitals take tough cases, very sick patients, their outcomes don't look as good, but they're dealing with the toughest and the sickest, so their outcomes aren't going to be as good. it's not always a one-on-one in terms of best outcome, best place. >> and there's no question it's not just the surgeon. it's the team, the icu doctors, the nurses, the whole healthcare team. what is the message that people should be left with? is it reasonable for parents to think they'll get whatever care they want for their child, no matter what the medical condition is? >> i'm going to sound a little non sequitur here. even given this case, given the rare condition and the small number of hospitals that have dealt with it a lot, i don't think people can expect to get the absolute, quote, unquote, best care. they're going to have to get care that's good enough. the healthcare system isn't going to fly everybody all around the country, here, there, no matter where on public expense because they have a 2% better survival rate. we're dealing with a situation here where we have to have reasonable expectations. unless you're a baby with a really rare condition, in public programs, you'll have to see people say satisfied with good enough, not necessarily the optimally best, most wonderful place. >> art kaplan, i always enjoy these conversations with you. i appreciate it so much. >> thank you, sanjay. up next, more deadly clashes on egypt's tahrir square today. a woman severely beaten by police over the weekend. that video is going viral. it's fuelling the outrage. plus the hazing death of florida a&m university, what school officials decided about the university president. learned in the military are very transferable into the corporate and real world. chase hired me to be a personal banker. the 100,000 jobs mission has definitely helped me get my foot in the door. chase is giving opportunities to vets who don't think that there's any opportunity out there. chase and these other companies are getting a great deal when they hire veterans. chase is proud to help 100,000 veterans find jobs at home. because for every two pounds you lose through diet and exercise, alli can help you lose one more by blocking some of the fat you eat. let's fight fat with alli. ♪ gives you a 50% annual bonus! so you earn 50% more cash. according to research, everybody likes more cash. well, almost everybody... ♪ would you like 50% more cash? 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[yawning] homeowner's discount. safe driver discount. chipmunk family reunion. someone stole the nuts. squirrel jail. justice! countless discounts. now that's progressive. call or click today. tonight we're going to start counting down the top ten ridiculists of 2011, determined by your votes on the ac 360 blog. coming in at number ten, anderson's tribute back in april to a very sleepy joe biden. >> tonight we're adding vice president joe biden. now it's not as dangerous as -- [ snoring ] -- as air traffic controllers nodding off on the job. this afternoon biden dozed off while his boss gave a speech. >> to keep the promise we made to care for our seniors. years from now if you're a 65-year-old who is eligible for medicare, you should have to pay nearly $6400 more than you would today. >> all right. granted, it was a pretty long speech, and president obama did have a mellifluous voice, one that can be soporific. just ask the kids at west point commencement speech. >> schools that promote academic excellence, personal responsibility, lasting success. it doesn't happen in an instant. we can't count on military might alone. now, let me be clear. the military that along with your families has already borne the heaviest of all burdens. >> think about the topic of the speech, the deficit. anyone who has seen ferris bueller knows a monotonous voice and a lecture lethal. it sends you into a rem cycle. >> anyone? anyone? the great depression passed the -- anyone, anyone? the tariff bill. the holly/smooth tariff act which -- anyone -- raised or lowered? raised tariffs, in an effort to collect more revenue for the federal government. did it work? anyone? anyone know the effects? it says that at this point on the revenue curve, you will get exactly the same amount of revenue as at this point. >> biden, biden? look, i get it. a long speech, a calming voice, right around afternoon nap time, i get it. biden might as well washed down ambien and nyquil with warm milk while listening to sade in a sleeping bag fresh out of the dryer while chamomile tea was being administered intravenously. i get it. but isn't it a huge part of any politician's job to stay awake while other people are talking? >> and elected a democratic legislature. and in 2005 -- >> hey, expediency asked the question is a position politic -- >> willing to work in a collaborative fashion with the federal government. >> could we please get some red bull to the capital stat. maybe it's our problem. maybe we need to think about our politicians the way we think about babies and puppies. maybe we could learn to think they're adorable while they're falling asleep. look at this dog falling asleep on his darling little feet. huh, huh? i haven't seen anything that cute since this afternoon when joe biden could barely keep his eyes open. i know it was not really the same. it was worth a try, though. when biden is asleep he's not dropping f-bombs into an open mike, messing up his boss' name, behold the greatest gaffes of joe "lullaby" biden. the awake years. >> stand up, chuck, god love you. what am i talking about? the man who will be the next president of the unite barack america. three-letter word, jobs, j-o-b-s. >> i don't know, i'm getting four letters not three. maybe i'm tired. as tired at joe biden at a speech. a quote from harry truman the job is to go to weddings and funerals. let's send joe biden to a bunch of events that take place in churches that don't have air conditioning. that will wake him up.