negotiations to continue. key elements of the republican establishment are trying to nudge the hard line conservatives to a compromise. defaulting on our debt is not an option. it has real, immediate, and potentially catastrophic consequences. the ratings agency standard and poor's sent a team to capitol hill saying not raising the debt ceiling would stain america's credit rating and drive up interest costs for everyone. many house conservatives, though, aren't ready to give up and some of them won't budge. they say if there's any new taxes in this deal at the end, they would rather have the first default in american history. in our new cnn/orc poll gives us a fresh sense of what you think. 34% of americans say any deal to raise the debt ceiling should include only spending cuts. but nearly two thirds, 64%, say the deal should include a mix, spending cuts and tax increases. that's what president obama wants and here's a little more proof he at the moment has the upper hand politically. 52% of americans say the president has acted responsibly in this showdown. 46% say he hasn't. only 33% of americans say republicans are acting responsibly. 63% say they are not. so, let's go inside the critical house debate right now with two members of the freshman class that delivered the majority to the republicans and the speaker's gavel to john boehner. nan hayworth represents new york ci city, and then we've got a member of the house that represents dole's old area. do you believe the warnings it would have a catastrophic impact on the american economy? >> john, certainly i have been well persuaded that it would have substantial impact on interest rates, and that includes, of course, what happens on main street, not only on wall street. so, the resolve of this member, and i think of the majority of the conference, if not everyone in the conference, is to get this issue settled by august 2nd. >> so, to get it settled, congressman, to get it settled by august 2nd, you can't get your way. the house passed its plan. it will fail most likely tomorrow in the senate. then what happens? are you willing to sit down and authorize your speaker to sit down with the president of the united states and negotiate a deal that gets you much of what you want but not all of what you want or if there are any revenues in that plan, would you say, no way, i'm walking away? >> well, john, i think it's very premature to presume to know what the u.s. senate has done. they've not taken a vote yet on this issue. they are going to have a clear plan on the table. they've not no detailed plan and the president has no detailed plan and that's frustrating as a freshman to say, hey, we'll negotiate with folks that won't identify a solution. cut, cap and balance is a solution. it's balanced in terms of the necessary spending cuts but does give the president his debt ceiling increase and i think it's a reasonable balance. >> you say it's a reasonable balance and i certainly, sir, respect the promise you made to the voters when you ran oit, but we have a divided government, and the house of representative which has passed its plan and you like that plan. i can do the math pretty well. our hill reporting team can do the math pretty well, and they say the votes aren't there in the senate and the president said he would veto it. >> you got to let them vote. you got to let them vote. there are 23 u.s. senators that have said over and over in their district they support a balanced budget amendment. this is part and parcel of helping pass a balanced budget amendment and those 23 senators many up for re-election are going to have to go home and plain explain why they promised one thing and did another. you can do all the counting but the final vote is on the senate floor and i look forward to them casting their first vote on this issue after months and months of discussion. >> i look forward to the debate moving forward anyway. congresswoman, let me go back to you, the president said even if the senate passed it, he would veto, maybe you can say if the senate passed it, he would, but if we get to the point where we need a new plan, are you willing to support a plan with some new tax revenues in it if that's the best the speaker can get? >> i think, john, if the plan is to bring revenues in through growth, that's something that a lot of republicans can support. we can have any net tax increases. that's anti-growth, john, and that's the key. we can do lots of great things to bring this debt under long-term control and we need to do them and we need to do them by being fair to the 14 million americans who are desperately seeking employment and who can then contribute their fair share to the work ction of the federal government. that's really what we're talking about when we talk about no net increase in taxes. let's get working capital back into the economy. >> so, here's my rough understanding of what the speaker and the president talked about. it would be about $3 trillion in long-term, over ten years, deficit reduction. it would have substantial cuts in the medicare program. it would have some changes to the social security program. it would call for some defense cuts and other cuts in the domestic discretionary spending the bush tax cuts would expire on 2013. congress would have to act to change it and the speaker and the president would have a commitment for the congress to work on tax reform which would go from six brackets hopefully to two or three brackets with lower rates but tax revenues to washington, then, as a result would come up. congressman, to you first, are you okay with that? >> well, john, we're looking for the details. and i visited with the speaker a couple hours ago. there is no deal. there are discussions. and it's amazing how people claim to know what's in a deal even before it's been reached. and agreed to. but frankly, i agree. we need more revenue, and we do this by putting folks back to work, by letting the economy create more jobs instead of hammering small businesses across the country. we need to encourage them. we need lower regulation. we don't need higher taxes. that's the way we get more revenues. most americans are very supportive of that concept. they recognize washington is not helping to create jobs, 9.2% of americans are out of work, 14 million americans, we need them back to the work. we passed multiple job bills in the house and they refused to consider them in the senate and the president hasn't presented a jobs package either. >> an important point, i want to stick to it, there's an impression that most republicans don't trust the process so they don't want any deal that could lead to more revenues. if your plan fails in the senate, i understand you want to see it go forward first, but you would be okay voting for a deal that had some things you didn't like, like the bush tax cuts expiring as long as there was a promise congress would work on overall tax reform that would lower rates. >> i will not favor expiring -- allowing the bush tax cuts to expire, john, if there's a net tax increase there. that sure sounds like a net tax increase and i have trouble believing that our speaker and our leader negotiating with president obama haven't made that clear. we can certainly make the tax code flatter and fairer. there's a lot of opportunity to change the entire system of exemptions so-called loopholes without raising net taxes and activate the economy. and, john, that's the kind of tax changes we're talking about, not about a net tax increase. >> let me ask you, we're going to have to wait probably several days before we see how it plays out before we have more details about what would be a plan "b," "c," "d," or "z." you're the new republican class. you're the reason john boehner is the speaker of the house. what are the conversations among you as a group? and you represent two very different districts. i'm wondering if you agree on this point, in the sense that this is what we promised. this is what we're here for and if we have to vote no and even if the country were to go into default and even if we were to lose our seats, is that how important it is to stand your ground here? >> i think what's going on here is pressure coming out of the white house, the treasury department picked the date of august 2nd as far as i know we're still kind of looking at what the actual cash flow numbers are. and we certainly don't want to have a default, but if there is a default, it would be the president's choice in my opinion. this is the president that threatened to withhold social security checks just seven days ago and that was wrong to say that, so we need to be honest in negotiating. we need a detailed, written plan from the president. we need a detailed, written plan from senator reid. we listened to your polling as we went in here. there was no discussion of u.s. senate. what is their plan? what is the discussion? what are they going to pass? they never passed a budget in 811 days. they have no deficit or debt ceiling plan. we sent cut, cap and balance and have them consider it and have a full, open, honest debate, but tax increases on job creators and small businesses in america doesn't create jobs. and if they can unleash entrepreneurs across america, that would create more revenues. i do not want to repeal the bush/obama tax cuts. they were continued under this president. i think they should continue in the future so we can create more jobs. >> john, we're not going to let the nation go into crisis based on the actions that we take here. we are here to solve problems, not to make them worse. we are here to put 14 million americans back to work. we are here to revive the economy. and we will assure that that will happen in the timely fashion. that deadline will be met. i have every confidence in our leaders to make it happen. >> congresswoman, congressman, appreciate your time. we'll keep in touch as it plays forward. a dramatic moment for the country and a big moment for the freshmen house republican class. thank you for getting with us tonight. i want to tell you about breaking news, we're told roger goodell is coming out to speak soon. the owners are voting on a plan tonight that could end the nfl lock-out, could bring us closer to having an nfl season. commissioner goodell to speak in this hour. we'll bring you that as soon as we can. now, let's get a quick first impression as we weigh in from the contributor, erick erickson, and cornell belcher, the democratic pollster who worked for president obama in 2008 then senator obama and john avon a senior columnist at "newsweek." it's pretty clear that they don't want to go off the rails here and that if they get a promise of tax reform, they seemed more open-minded than some of the freshmen have seemed in recent days and weeks about let's try to figure this out. >> yeah, and what i'm hearing from members of congress, in fact, before we went on the air, i fielded a few calls from some of them, and their concern goes to the gang of six deal, they're willing to consider some alternatives if the cut, cap and balance fails in the senate which it probably will, but they want everything to be now. they don't want to raise taxes now with promises of spending cuts in the future because they feel very strongly that when republicans have made the deals with democrats in the past we've never actually gotten to the spending cuts. >> and so when you hear this -- let me ask the guy in the middle here. you know, we've had this talk, will we have armageddon, will we go off the rails, will the house republicans' plan end in default? it sounds increasingly that not everybody's happy, but that's how you get it done. >> the devil's in the details. the pro-growth fiscal conservatives should be gearing about the gang of six plan. it's really a matter of folks moving toward the actual balance between everyone's got to give a little bit. and the folks saying all are nothing are those risking to drag the economy off the cliff. talk about american decline, that's a way to ensure it. >> we know that speaker boehner wants a deal. we know the president wants a deal, but we also know that some conservatives don't like what they're hearing and a lot of liber liberals, and the president is meeting with the congressional democratic leaders, the democrats were howling about the new deal. he may make progress with the republicans and have a problem with the democrats. >> and it's not going to be the democrats that's the problem here, because in the end mark my words on this, in the end the speaker's going to need democratic votes to get it done. and you see them backing away from this. because they're getting killed in the polls. you had a poll that the majority of the republicans don't agree with the positioning. their positioning is awful and it's killing them with middle america and it will be democrats who reach across with the speaker to get it done. >> erick erickson, you right feisty e-mails sometimes and you wrote an e-mail today telling the house republicans don't listen to standard & poor's, don't listen to the people telling you don't blink, don't blink, hold the line. define the line. >> i think the line is they need to force the votes on cut, cap and balance, and some conservatives are saying maybe we need to push up to august 2nd. the republicans are frustrated. they've come up with two plans now, paul ryan's plan and cut, cap and balance. the president has never said he'll cut -- the senate killed the budget 97-0 if the democrats aren't going to put up, then they need to treat the republicans a little more seriously. they need to hold the line on this. >> i want to let our viewers know and i grabbed a prop off the set. we keep toys on the set. commissioner goodell is speaking at any moment. nfl network has reported that the owners voted in favor of the new contract. we may take a pivot to sports in a minute. maybe we'll toss the ball around while we wait. this is a question, we're making light because of the football announcement, but it's divided government and you have a lot of new house republicans who god bless them, you know, they're doing something -- we criticize politicians when they don't keep their promises, they are saying this is what we campaigned on, but sometimes they say it so passionately that there's a senate and a presidency, it's only one chamber of government. it's a learning curve. >> it is. but it's priorities. a lot of them were elected to deal with the deficit and the debt, that means you have to put forward a balanced plan. if you have the democrats backing entitlement reform that's a big deal. the simpson/bowles commission should have pushed forward, and gang of six, and people are throwing tantrums and holding their breath -- >> moveon.org commissioner of the nfl, let's listen to a little sports news here -- >> you all set, gary? >> yes, sir. >> okay. good afternoon. the clubs approved an agreement that was negotiated with the players this afternoon. in addition to approving that agreement, we also approved a supplemental revenue-sharing system for the next ten years. with this ratification and with the ratification of the nflpa board, we will be prepared to open the training facilities beginning on saturday, this saturday. we will then be prepared to start the new league year next wednesday subject to the full membership of the players ratifying the agreement, recertifying as a unit. obviously you know that we're all in a time constraint. that's one of the reasons we worked to get this agreement completed tonight. we are unfortunately going to have to cancel the hall of fame game this year. the time is just too short, and we feel that oit's important fo all 32 teams to be operating with the same number of preseason games and also starting camp at the same date or near the same date. so, unfortunately, we will not be there to play the game this year, but we will be, of course, the ceremonies will go on. hopefully we can all work quickly, expeditiously and get this agreement done. it is time to get back to football. that is what everybody here wants to do. and we will allow our chairman, mr. richardson, who did an outstanding job, to say a few words. but before i to and before we take questions and hear from mr. richardson, let me just tell you how hard i think everybody in the nfl, how hard the players, how hard demaurice smith worked. we crafted a long-term agreement that can be good for the game of football, be good for the players and be good for the clubs and most importantly, good for the game and for our fans. we really are anxious to get back to football, and hopefully today's development and the developments of the nflpa over the next few days will ensure that. so, i'll hand it off to mr. richardson. >> thank you, commissioner. we all know this journey began in may, 2008. it's been long. at times it's been very, very difficult, but we're happy to say and we feel very good about the fact that we are confident that the players and the teams have arrived is a good place. we think we have a fair, balanced agreement. it has been a joy for me personally during these negotiations to have close contact with the players. they have been tremendous, and we've ended up, we feel, in a very good place. thank you. >> okay. questions? >> what is the situation with the union and the ratification from a union standpoint? how soon do they have to ratify? as a union to go ahead and get this thing go something >> well, those are decisions that ultimately have to be made by the union as to what their process is going to be and their timeline. but as i mentioned earlier, there's an your jennings surgey. we want to have a full 2011 season that includes the four preseason games, and we're up against the wall. and i think that's indicated by the unfortunate cancellation of the hall of fame game. yes? >> has there been conversations with the players association as far as backing and ratifying? >> yes. i just spoke to demaurice probably 20 minutes ago. >> what did he say? >> he's going to go take care of his business. >> roger,? [ inaudible question ] waiting and see mode or do you think you'll be back to football by the end of the week? >> scott, i think the word is exhaustion. we've been working very hard. the members up here, jeff is the lead negotiator for the owners. you know, it's been an incredible effort. and we indicated earlier that the players have worked equally as hard. i think have done a fantastic jock of co job of coming up with an agreement that is sensitive to their issues, strikes a balance between what i think are very important issues with what i think are player health and safety and the work rules and putting together the right kind of agreement that works for our retired players, that also works for the growth of our game going forward and encouraging investment in our game. i think it's an outstanding agreement from that standpoint. one at a time, sir. >> can you shed some light on what the final issues were to be settled today, the past couple of days, how you worked to resolve those? >> well, you know, you work through it like you do every other issue. you address them. you try to understand the issues, and you try to come up with a resolution. but we've essentially had the core of the agreement for well over a week, as you all know. and what we tried to do is make sure that our ownership fully understood that today. they understood all ramifications, put in a supplemental revenue-sharing system that i think will be good for all clubs and continue to have the competitive balance that the league is famous for, and make sure that we continue the great game of football. >> what's the [ inaudible ] watching the process and wondering what is going on the last couple of days and why it took so long at this point? >> well, i understand their frustration, and i hope they understand that we're working hard to get that agreement that is going to secure the game of football for the future. we have a ten-year agreement, which i think is going to be great for everyone involved, for the game, and number one, our fans. so, i guess i'd say to them, we're getting close to getting football back and that's what we want. we want to get started with football. >> roger, over to your left. it's questions of clarification. ten-year agreement, so it's through the 2020 football season? >> that is correct. >> okay. and also, if the players do approve, when would teams be able to start re-signing their own players, and then when would the free agency period begin? >> i'll let jeff touch on a few of those issues. jeff? >> thanks, commissioner. peter, there's a -- i think in the press release that greg's distributing, there's a calendar which goes through that in detail. and what we're -- what we're looking at is once the ratification has been -- a process has been completed, there would be a period where the players would come in. you do your physicals. you'd get your rosters in order. teams could begin signing their own players, their draftees, and the like with the contracts sort of being in a state of suspended animation until the ratification is complete, but they could begin that process. and then what you would have is an opening of the new league year perhaps next wednesday, the 27th. and at that point free agency would begin, training camps would open. but, again, all of that is dependent on how the ratification process proceeds, which is not entirely in our control. >> jeff, over here. >> i'm sorry -- >> listening here to live coverage. a major announcement by the nfl commissioner and the owners. the owners voting tonight to end the nfl lock-out. now, this is subject to approval by the players union, but the owners say they have a new agreement with the players, and the owners have approved it. a new ten-year agreement. under this agreement they say if the players ratify it, facilities will open as early as saturday. players have not been able to train at their team facilities because of this lock-out. they would open as early as saturday. the league year would commence beginning wednesday, that means free agency, training camps and the like would begin as early as next week. an important footnote we need to make, we don't know all the details of the plan and we know the players need to approve it first. but our david mattingly is on the scene there with the negotiations playing out. it's a huge deal for football fans. it's a huge deal for the economy of football cities around the country. we knew in the end there was a dispute about trying to adjust the rookie salaries to get more money up to the veterans, there were disputes about other issues as well. do we know what in the end that caused the deal on the owners' end to say we have a deal, let's move forward? >> reporter: like you said, there were numerous issues and we've been hearing about it from the players' side. we don't know specifically from the owners at the moment what were the sticking points and why it took so long for them to do this today. but they decided early on today that they were going to go ahead with a vote, and they came in here feeling confident that they could reach an agreement, even though they didn't have prior approval from the players. now, what we've been able to find out today, that based on the agreement, the multipage release that they just came out, that come saturday, they will allow players to go back into facilities, so the lock-out is over, players can go back in and start voluntarily working out on saturday. then the teams begin with their training camps. that will be next wednesday. this will, of course, be contingent upon approval by the players. they have to recertify their union. they have to have their conference call tonight to go through the player reps, with the details of this. and there's going to be a lot to digest. so at the moment, the commissioner himself, just expressing the sense of urgency, wanting to get this done and get done quickly. but we've heard from the representatives of the players all along that they're going to do this on their own timetable, so we'll see if the plans that the nfl has right now to get started next wednesday will indeed come about. john? >> cnn's affidav 's david matti scene of the negotiations. we have to wait to hear from the players. but the owners approved a ten-year supplemental revenue deal with the players tonight. under the plan commissioner goodell said the annual hall of fame game that was scheduled for august 7th, will be canceled, the preseason could begin on schedule on august 4re6911th, be players need to approve it. we'll try to get some reaction. but if you're a football fan and you live in a major football city, they have approved a new contract ending the nfl lock-out and we'll wait to see if the players want to ratify the agreement. a quick break for us. and when we come back, drew pinsky joins us. dr. pinsky had an extensive interview with bristol palin. that's just ahead. my doctor told me calcium is best absorbed in small continuous amounts. only one calcium supplement does that in one daily dose. new citracal slow release... continuously releases calcium plus d for the efficient absorption my body needs. citracal. t the motorola expert from sprint. its powerful tools help you work faster and smarter so you can get back to playing "angry birds." it lets you access business forms on the go, fire off e-mails with the qwerty keypad, and work securely around the world so you can get back to playing "angry birds." it's the android-powered phone that mixes business with pleasure. so let's get our work done, america, so we can all get back to playing "angry birds." the motorola expert from sprint. trouble hearing on the phone? visit sprintrelay.com. so we can all get back to playing "angry birds." we inspect your air filter, cabin filter. there's bugs, leaves, lint, crud. you'll be breathing that. i do believe it's part of a locust. make sure your alignments good. your brakes are good. you've got all sorts different things that you check off. your fluid levels. pretty much everything you could need. it gets done. it gets done quickly. and it gets done correctly. the works fuel saver package, just $29.95 or less after rebate. only at your ford dealer. you're a doctor. you're a car doctor. maybe a car doctor. male announcer: be kind to your eyes with transitions lenses. transitions adapt to changing light so you see a whole day comfortably and conveniently while protecting your eyes from the sun. ask your eyecare professional which transitions lenses are right for you. female announcer: thanks to the eyeglass guide, it's never been easier to find the right pair of eyeglasses. check out eyeglassguide.com today, brought to you by transitions. tonight on our sister network hln dr. drew pinsky talks to bristol palin about her life about what it's like to be a teenage mom and her mother's political ambitions. >> i think she could debate anyone and do very well. >> and you hope she wins. >> no, i think the people will be talking about my family and her and everyone else no matter what we're doing. >> do you like that? >> i mean, i don't know how to feel about it. i think that there's awesome opportunities that come with it. but then i also think there's lots of drawbacks and lots of negatives towards it. but i think whatever she does will be right for our family and right for herself. >> dr. drew is with us now live. dr. drew, let's do a little more digging on that point there. i thought pretty candid there. there's some pluses of being in a famous political family, downsides being there. what was your sense? obviously she said she wants her mom to run. do you get a sense she knows? the final decision is down the road a bit. do you get the sense that she knows? >> no, i don't get the sense that she knows. i get the sense that she's separated from the political machinery and she is really just their daughter. she's a teen mom and she has found a way to capitalize on the public life, and she's found a way to make a living from it and she's grateful for that, but i think some of the acting-out behavior that she manifested that led to the pregnancy was a function of both how tightly wound the family system is and how she then acted when her mother was taken away by the governorship. she really didn't understand what she was feeling and started acting out. and that ended up in a pretty bad place. >> it's an interesting point. i want on get some more of the interview in a moment, but i want to follow on that. because i tagd along for a little bit of sarah palin bus tour and you had piper palin, i don't know if she was joking with reporters or not, saying thanks for ruining our vacation. it's a family, in your own experience as someone who has been around families under stress, what is your sense of the toll it takes and in bristol in particular, what lessons she's learned from it? >> well, i'm not sure she learned the lesson. i had to kind of push on her a little bit on this. because what i saw, this is, again, the very short period of time i spent with her, is that she is not -- her sense of herself and her emotional landscape is a little bit sort of disconnected and that's because they are so tightly wound as a family system, and they're trying to live as normal a life as possible for the kids. i mean, they really have gone to great lengths to do that, but the reality is that the world, in fact, intrudes in and it creates all kinds of ambivalent feelings and unless she can really express those feelings, it leads to, you know, inappropriate and bad behaviors particularly in her age group. what i was telling her was, look, everyone has to not be responsible for each other's fe feelings, but let's hear what you're feeling. i think they're somewhat in denial of the stress of being in the public light as much as they try to pretend it's not happening does affect their kids, as you heard there, the young one, saying thanks for ruining my vacation. the kids are feeling something and they're just not really allowed to speak up vividly about it, because after all this is their mom and she's chosen a certain path and they want to support that at the same time. >> so we met bristol palin and we learned about levi johnston in the middle of about as much publicity as you can get, the middle of a presidential campaign. back then the mccain/palin campaign tried to say they were a young and pretty secure and solid couple, we now know that's not the case. in your interview she discussed what she now talks about, an infamous night, i don't mean to be disrespectful, of being drunk when it all played out. >> to have the series of bad decisions that i made all in one night -- >> but one of them was intoxicated. >> yes, underage drinking. >> in california that would be a rape. is it the same in alaska? >> you know, i don't know the laws on it. but i'm not accusing levi of rape or anything like that obviously -- >> does it feel like a rape? >> it was consensual because i stayed with him for years on end after that. >> she seems to be having, you help me with the clinical term, but the evolution and difficulty with trying to process all this herself. >> right. this is very typical of adolescents, right? she's presented with a series of facts which in california the fact is you cannot be intoxicated and render consent for a sexual act. in california this would have been a rape. i'm told by my legal friends that in alaska there are similar laws in place, when i present that to her, her way of justifying is, no, that wasn't a rape because we got engaged so, you know, that's how adolescents think, it was okay, even though it wasn't okay, because we ended up having a relationship. that's why she clung to the relationship. there were all aspects that were not working to her and she did have a mature moment and a moment of clarity and she has had enough. >> and she has a message and she's perhaps one of the most well known of teenage mothers in america. she has a message for others like her. >> my life, my teenage years, were cut completely short. i was on the fast track to adulthood in an instant because of that one decision. and tripp is just the love of my life. he is everything to me. but do i wish that she had a dad that was involved in his life? absolutely. and do i wish that i had an education and a real career path? absolutely. >> so, you were robbed of a few things. >> absolutely. i'm not out there saying don't have sex, i hate that kind of stuff, but i'm saying birth control needs to be used effectively each and every single time. if you're going to be having sex, because teen pregnancy is the hardest thing that i have ever had to go through. >> you asked her as part of this interview that, you know, brist bristol, you have a relatively solid family life and you made bad decisions. what was her answer? >> she was a bit evasive about it. and she wants to take responsibility for these things and yet she really doesn't understand what kind of led to these actions, but i tell you what, i'm so glad you played that clip, because that was a very, very clear message. and goodness knows that people like me are trying to educate adolescents all the time about teen pregnancy and safe sex and all these things and one thing you know you can fill their head with information and it does very little to change behavior. but you give a relatable source, another teenager who has had a cautionary tale and that they're very astute with those sorts of messaging, i'm actually glad that bristol is out there. there are a lot of other teen moms and bristol has a special opportunity because of her own mother, but the fact is i'm grateful that she's out there giving the messages because kids will hear it. >> let me ask you lastly. we met her in a political campaign. we've seen her in more of a celebrity setting. i guess i'll describe it as, in a sense of somebody is she growing in the right direction or is she somebody who in your view is still a little lost? >> well, it's a tough question. again, i had a very brief bit of time with her. when i actually interviewed her a year ago, and then she was very involved with being an autonomous individual, separate from her family, being a young mother and setting up a life for herself and her child. and this time i found her back with her family and dependent on her family and more disconnected from her feelings and really struggling, she wants to be a complete adult. you know, she's 20 years old, let's give her a little bit of a break here and she's had some very serious interruptions in her life, i think she's moving along to a good place. i really do. >> outstanding conversation. dr. drew sits down with bristol palin. you can see it on our sister network, hln, appreciate it. the nfl owners vote to end the lock-out, but what about the playerses? that's next. so this is enzo, the artiste behind my wardrobe. you know, when i got him on e-trade he was all like "oh no, i cannot do investing." that's actually a perfect enzo. but after a couple educational videos, and a little hand holding from customer support... next thing you know he's got a stunning portfolio. now he's planning to retire in tuscany. we're both pretty emotional about it. shhhh, don't say a word. you're welcome. [ male announcer ] e-trade. investing unleashed. >> announcer: this past year alone there's been a 67% spike in companies embracing the cloud-- big clouds, small ones, public, private, even hybrid. your data and apps must move easily and securely to reach many clouds, not just one. that's why the network that connects, protects, and lets your data move fearlessly through the clouds means more than ever. members of the american postal worker's union handle more than 165 billion letters and packages a year. that's about 34 million pounds of mail every day. ever wonder what this costs you as a taxpayer? millions? tens of millions? hundreds of millions? not a single cent. the united states postal service doesn't run on your tax dollars. it's funded solely by stamps and postage. brought to you by the men and women of the american postal worker's union. energy is being produced to power our lives. while energy developement comes with some risk, north america's natural gas producers are committed to safely and responsibly providing decades of cleaner burning energy for our country, drilling thousands of feet below fresh water sources within self contained well systems and using state of the art monitoring technologies, rigorous practices help ensure our operations are safe and clean for our communities and the environment we are america's natural gas. welcome back. here's the news you need to know right now. this hour's breaking story, the nfl team owners just voted unanimously to ratify a proposal to end the nfl lock-out. the players still have to agree. they're holding a teleconference tonight at 8:00 eastern to discuss recertifying their union. another breaking news story, a u.s. official telling cnn the pentagon is set to certify that the u.s. military is now prepared to accept openly gay and lesbian service members and that doing so, the certification will say, will not harm military readiness. according to the official an announcement of the historic certification which is required to repeal the don't ask, don't tell policy is likely to come tomorrow. the heat wave across much of the united states is stressing the nation's power grid to the max. the organization that managing the flow of bulk power in the midwest said it's set an all-time record for demand today and declared an emergency alert. more politics in a minute, including this, president obama just wrapped up a lengthy meeting with the house and senate democratic leaders. what kind of deal might they cut to get the debt ceiling increased in exchange for spending cuts. more on that in just a moment. here at quicken loans, we like to go the extra mile for our clients. with the wassman family, it was 2,500 extra miles. we're the wassman family from skagway, alaska. livin' so far out and not havin' a bank within 90 miles... i was runnin' into dead ends. happened to come across quicken loans online. 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[ kathy ] they were quick and efficient. quicken loans is definitely engineered to amaze. they were just really there for us. quicken loans is definitely ewoman: saving for our child's college fund was getting man: yes it was. so to save some money, we taught our 5 year old how to dunk. woman: scholarship! woman: honey go get him. anncr: there's an easier way to save. get online. go to geico.com. get a quote. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance. update on one of tonight's breaking political stories. the president had a lengthy meeting with the democratic congressional leadership, their concerns about what deal he might cut to get the debt ceiling increased. the negotiations continue. if we get new details, we'll bring them to you tonight. let's go to other politics, the race for the republican nomination, those that would like to run against president obama next time. with us erick erickson, and cornell belcher, the democratic pollster and joining us is gloria borger. tim pawlenty, we talked about him last night, on the trail today he was rather aggressive. he doesn't name names, but he's telling republican voters be careful who you pick because -- >> we learned some other things along the way since president obama's been a candidate. you can't put somebody in the oval office who hasn't had executive experience leading a large enterprise and driving it to conclusion under difficult circumstances with a public component to it. he was a college professor. he was a community organizer. he was in the united states senate long enough to have a couple of coffee before it got cold. and then we put him in the oval office and made him the leader of our nation and we wonder why it didn't work. we don't want to make that mistake again. >> pop scquiz, governor pawlent is in iowa saying we can't have somebody who doesn't have executive experience, who is he talking about? >> oh, maybe the lady from minnesota who i think might be running for president, michele bachma bachmann, someone he knows quite well actually. >> mr. erickson wins the prize. you can see the conversation, here's one of the reasons he might be making the argument. here's the latest abc/"washington post" poll, a national poll, but we know that michele bachmann is leading the polls in iowa and in this poll, sarah palin, michele bachmann, third, you have to go down a ways to find tim pawlenty. gloria, it's early. he's out in iowa. he's making the case. governor pawlenty, he has plenty of time. he has plenty of time. >> right. >> however -- however -- when you have somebody like that in your way, from your own state, governor pawlenty needs iowa. he's being more and more aggressive. >> we've always been talking about the fact that pawlenty was the tortoise, slow and steady, been the first one out there, but suddenly the tortoise finds himself in a race with michele bachmann for that number two slot. and he wants to be in that number two slot to challenge mitt romney. and so you saw him the other day take on michele bachmann on her migraine headaches, although he kind of backed off of that. and then you just heard him take her on on experience. so, it's very clear the tortoise has got to knock her out of the race. >> i think this is interesting because something is going on here. tortoise? he's a snail quite frankly. but from a strategic standpoint i don't know if going after bachmann gets you to number two, because i don't think they're pulling the same sort of voters. if anything this seems interesting to me because going after bachmann quite frankly helps romney more than him. there's something going on. >> he wants to pull her voters. evangelical, conservative. >> there's a problem with tim pawlenty, the iowa polls matter more than the national polls for pawlenty. there's a pig problem in the iowa polls called rick perry and all of a sudden pawlenty is not in third place, he's in fourth or fifth place. >> you mentioned governor perry, i had a third issue i wanted to talk about, but let's focus on this, you think governor perry is and most people think he's definitely in. governor perry is smart politically to stay in the mix. the shuttle landed this morning and governor perry put out a statement saying unfortunately with the final landing of the shuttle "atlantis" and no plans for future missions this administration has set a significantly different milestone by shutting down our nation's legacy of leadership in human space flight and explorati exploration, and the president would disagree with that. the story to slap the current president of the united states, that's a pretty clear indication to me he wants to run. >> i think he is. it helps him in texas and nationally. the number of him nationally. the number of conservatives who e-mailed me this afternoon saying, why is this guy talking about the space program? we should privatize it. >> that's my reaction, obs. >> most americans don't want to spend billions of more dollars exploring space at this time. i think it's an odd way to get into the story. >> he sort of took a turn and tried to make it into a leadership issue. this is about presidential leadership. the space program was what america used to be about when america was great. now barack obama is president, and we're killing the space program. >> we wouldn't have pain but for nasa. >> he's still governor of texas, and there's jobs in his state. >> by the way, the governor of texas who wanted to secede from the union. let's not forget that part. >> we'll have time for that one on another day. >> houston, we have a problem. >> thanks very much. we'll save that for another day. when we come back, we've been talking politics of space. if you might have been sleeping, we're going to show you the final space shuttle coming home and talk about it. in here, the planned combination of at&t and t-mobile would deliver our next generation mobile broadband experience to 55 million more americans, many in small towns and rural communities, giving them a new choice. we'll deliver better service, with thousands of new cell sites... for greater access to all the things you want, whenever you want them. it's the at&t network... and what's possible in here is almost impossible to say. new natureluxe mousse mascara! we took out a heavy synthetic and put in a light touch of beeswax. up with the volume, down with the weight. new natureluxe mousse mascara. easy breezy beautiful covergirl. 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"atlantis" touched down at 5:27 a.m. here in the east. its safe return home the final act in a space shuttle program that spans three decades. many at nasa see a period of uncertainty now. >> i'm sure next week when -- you know, usually when one mission gets done, we're getting ready to work the next one and go back to the office, and there's not a next one to work. that's going to hit a little hard. >> nasa's administrator, though, tried to accentuate the positive. >> this final shuttle flight makes the end of an era but also the start of a remarkable new chapter in our nation's story of exploration. children, some of them here earlier, who dream of being astronauts today won't get to fly on the space shuttle, but one day they may walk on mars. >> your views about the space program, well, they've changed with the times back in 1966 during the cold war days, 61% of americans said it was very important to stay ahead of the russians, the soviets in those days, and other countries in space. 38% say that now. what should happen next? 54% of americans say private companies should take the lead. 38% of you prefer the government should stay in the lead. let's take some highlights. number one, that final flight of "atlantis," bring it right up here to show you. last 30 minutes, 5,000 miles from the landing site. five minutes, 25 miles from the runway. 15 seconds, the main and nose landing gear are deployed. touchdown, it's traveling at 226 miles an hour. that's what happened today. how about what's next? not too long ago, i spoke to one of the entrepreneurs trying to lead the next chapter of space exploration, the british businessman and explorer richard branson. sir richard branson, thank you for your time. you are one of the world's best known risk takers. in the past decade, what was your best bet? >> i hope our best bet will be deciding to go into creating a commercial spaceship company, and galactic was born. the spaceship is finished. the mothership is finished. the space port is nearly finished. and president obama has basically been an indicator that he wants commercial spaceship companies to offer space travel to people rather than spending all that money on nasa in the future. >> now, that's a combination of what you hope is a good business decision but also this sort of sci-fi romantic adventure. >> i've always wanted to go into space. companies run by governments don't often think about what i want to do. so having waited a number of decades, i decided, you know, let's do it ourselves, so that myself and my family would be able to go into space and many other people would be able to join us. that is something that i think most people, if they can afford it, would love the chance to go into space and start to explore space. >> and if you're right, how far out is not only a few hours of a trip up to experience weightlessness for a few minutes, how far out is the hotel? >> i think within the next decade there will be a virgin space hotel. i think within five or six years we'll be offering not just suborbital flights, but orbital flights. i think that quite quickly we'll be able to offer people -- offer schools their own satellites, universities their own satellites at a fraction of the price that's happened in the past. >> i want to come back in a moment to some of the challenges here on earth. but how important is it -- to you, it's part of a business model. but how important for society, for cultures, for individuals, for groups of individuals to dream the impossible? >> i think it's enormously important. the 400 people that have been to space, they all come back changed people. they all come back wanting to protect this beautiful world we live in. we've got to aspire for -- we've got to reach for the stars. if you're in a position to do so, you mustn't waste that position. >> listening to richard branson there, if you believe him, the future is in commercial space options. here's some of the commercial space options already being paid for, taxpayer dollars going to several companies developing private ventures to get into space. that would assure access to the international space station. this is the potential for future commercial space travel. what could be next for nasa? number one, nasa still has exploration going. go back to mars perhaps, a multipurpose crew vehicle for longer missions. a lot of scientific missions. some of these up there now, the saturn orbiter,