new now now there's about a thousand to 1500 folks over there, and by contrast, the energy seems to be tonight on the right on line side, the tea party movement, the tenor of the polls, the atmosphere of the campaign trail. it seems to be leaning toward the gop and conservatives. here today they've had two big speakers already, nancy employees, the speaker of the house, and harry reid. both of them experiencing some degree of unpopularity because liberals, progressives feel a certain degree of unrequited love as well as the white house with president obama in charge. they feel that the agenda that has been accomplished on the left so far this year is actually inadequate. they prefer to have had a public option, a government-run insurance program and health care reform. they believe that the financial overhaul, the financial deregulation program we reformed just a few days ago is itself inadequate for lack of teeth. earlier today nancy employees pi warned democrats they need to be careful, there's more to be done, and they're expected to have losses. they may be the price of what they've achieved. here's what she had to say. i'm sorry. brian? yeah. go ahead, brian. >> i have a question for you, carl. it has to do with the situation there in las vegas. it really is remarkable that bloggers have become so important to our political process that you have everybody coming to las vegas to sort of cow tow to them. it's amazing, isn't it? >> well, listen. harry reid today acknowledged that sometimes he gets on the bloggers' nerves and the most. [ applausapplause he got in thee day is when he said frankly, you get on mine. there's a real antagonism between the left of the blog osphere and the democrats. it's their job to apply pressure. what they're trying to do is push the democratic majority to a more progressive and liberal agenda. on the right on line convention of conservatives, their argument is ostensibly the same thing. the tea party movement is trying to get the republican party to be more conservative, back to a more constitutionally founded type of governance, and so you have both parties and their extremes competing and doing so on line as never before, brian. >> all right. carl cameron is going to be standing by in las vegas, and again in a few moments we're going to listen to what al franken has to say. he's the keynote speaker this evening. we'll go in about, oh, 2 26 minutes or so and listen to al franken. in the meantime we've assembled an all-star panel. let's go through the people gathered here with us tonight to talk about politics. the co-founder of real clear politics, tom bevin, has a great website if you like to follow politics. a republican strategist is in arkansas tonight. here we me in studio, syndicated columniscolumnist ann coulter al around good guy, tell you about the cow who ate the cabbage. doug, let's lay the ground work. if you get the numbers laid out, then that's the ground work for the rest of the discussion. where are we right now, democrats versus republicans, house, senate, and the governorship? >> let me do it simply. the generic vote, democrat versus republican, is about plus 5 for the republicans this year. >> what does that mean? >> that means if you're asked in a poll who are you for, democrat or republican in your state or district, the republicans have a clear advantage. hasn't been that way, brian, in a number of years, 2006, 2008. it was the democrats who had the advantage. that's flipped. to your specific question, we're looking at about six seats now in the senate for the republicans, could be more if this is one of those wave elections where there's a tide, like '94. house of representatives, anywhere from 30 to potentially 40 or more seats for the republicans given the pickups the democrats had in 2006 and 2008, and the best estimate from real clear politics on the gubernatorial elections is about 35 to 14 to 1 for the republicans. it could be at this point a blowout for the republicans. >> tom, you watch this stuff closely. you eat, drink, sleep it, eat it. you follow politics to the nth degree. have you ever seen a situation like we're seeing right now? >> no, not really. i mean, it's pretty amazing. if you look across the landscape, for example, there are seven democrat incumbents pulling under 50% three months before the election. that's almost unheard of. these are not first termers, people like harry reid, barbara boxer. it is, you know, the democrats are facing a real headwind. the news for them is they know they're facing a headwind, so they've been raising tons and tons of money to try and fortify themselves. >> right. >> it's going to be a real battle over the next three months, absolutely. >> let's get a couple of people in here, kiersten, give me your sense of where the landscape is. >> i agree exactly with what dog said. what tom said, iconic democrats like finegold or boxer on the ropes, at this point people think they'll pull it out. i don't know if you agree with that. i think it's them being on the ropes, those are the seats over the six or seven you're talking about that turns it into a wave. >> ann? >> well, close doesn't count f we don't pick up those seats, i mean, it may be something oh, boxer is in a close race, but this isn't a good year for republicans in the senate. there are as many democrats as republicans that are up in the senate. only a third of the senators are up every year. i think republicans ought to be careful with all this rah-rah cheering. we're not going to take the senate. if we pick up 30 seats in the house, we're not picking up the house. knonoelle, we'll be to you in a moment. north korea ups the ante in the war if the u.s. has war games with the south koreans. we'll tell you about it straight ahead. what you d at this morning's meeting? that was pure poetry. stop it. hello? you spotted a milli dollar accounting error that no one else noticed. that was pretty sweet. but you did have eight layers of sweet crunchy back up. what can i s? you're the man. or -- you know, the little dude. that's me. 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>> all right. thank you very much. let's talk about that, the situation with foreign news right now. we haven't focused much on what's going on internationally because we've got so much happening domestically right now, but ann coulter, your thoughts about how the obama administration is handling foreign affairs and difficult issues like this. >> yes. luckily for the obama administration, the country, like the obama administration, isn't paying attention to foreign affairs. you did not have north korea bombing south korean ships when bush was president. you did not have north korea threatening to use nukes. this foreign policy approach of going around and apologizing for everything america has done does not seem to be working that well. >> you see secretary of state hillary clinton in that story. she's out there, she's active, and a lot of people are wondering what she has on her mind politically these days. >> i don't think she's running for president. doug, i think you agree with that. >> absolutely. >> i think there's a lot of people that would like to think that -- in fact, a lot of republicans would like to think she's going to be challenging barack obama. i think that's a long slot. i would never, ever, in politics rule anything out. i haven't heard anything to suggest that there's anything -- there's no dirt there. >> i do think this. our response to the north koreans has been more robust than a lot of other circumstances. i think most people of good will believe to have the secretary of defense, the secretary of state making it clear to the north koreans that ther that their vey will not stand is wrong. it's something that democrats and republicans can agree on. >> where are americans right now on how the obama administration handles domestic and foreign policy? >> they give foreign policies better rating than domestic policy only because domestic policy is so darn bad. that being said, they've seen some weakness in our foreign policy and our response in the middle east and towards north korea and iran. this is a welcome good news politically and substantively. >> noelle, any thoughts on this? >> i think obama has made the united states almost appear weaker like when he did the apology tour. when he walked around, he was bowing lower than he probably should have. he went around and he did say he was going to be a president of the world or a global president. let's face it. i think he has made us weaker, and i think just like with the sanctions on iran, i mean, they're laughing at us. they've been building nukes for years, since the '70s. >> the big issue domestically, of course, doug, has been the oil spill of late. we've been talking about that non-stop for what seems like months. your thoughts about how that's playing right now, how the obama response to that is playing with the american public. >> there's a key concept in american politics, competence. bush lost it, and it was something that made him suffer at the polls, and obama has suffered a loss of confidence because it took so long to cap the well. now we have the difficult issue of the cleanup and the federal government being on top of that and getting just compensation from bp. all open questions, both the confidence and the ultimate reaction. >> i also think another problem with it, and it's sort of unfortunate for the obama administration, is now there's this moratorium on drilling which is the major political issue where you even have democrats in the region saying we want to have more drilling and obama has put them in an untenable position where if he says go ahead with the drilling, everyone will say how can you happen. if he doesn't, people will say don't you care about people losing jobs? you're hurting the economy. he's stuck between a rock and a hard place. >> i was down in alabama for four days, and people are really concerned about the oil spill. that seems to be getting a little better now. seriously concerned about wanting to get back to work. a lot of people have jobs tied to oil. >> this larger issue of the economy, brian, and creating jobs is the achilles heel of the administration going into the election. the oil spill ties into larger concerns, creating more problems for an administration with difficulties. >> let's leave it right there. major developments on the offensive in southern afghanistan as u.s. troops try to flush out the taliban. we'll have that story straight ahead. you're watching americans election headquarters. brian wilson in new york city tonight with an all-star panel. we're waiting to hear from al franken in las vegas in a short while, see what's on the senator from minnesota's mind. back in just a moment.ndshak fords that five-finger bond that communicates trust... honor... follow-through... and follow-up. it's a promise that says go ahead and buy a ram 1500 or heavy duty without a payment for 60 days. and if it doesn't do everything you ask it to ... bring it back. ♪ ram. fighting continues to intensify as u.s. forces step up operations against the taliban in southern afghanistan. five american service members were killed today in bombings. another two u.s. service men are confirmed missing at the moment. nato forces have launched a full scale search for the two men. their identities not yet released. conner powell is with u.s. forces in afghanistan, and he saw firsthand just how dangerous the region can be. >> reporter: fighting in recent months, the u.s. military launched a massive operation here in kandahar province. recently there were 13 joint u.s. military and afghan police checkpoints set up around kandahar city. the hope is to try to stop insurgents from moving weapons and people in and out of that area. here in the district, kandahar, the u.s. military is trying to push into taliban-controlled areas. it's a slow and difficult process. the taliban are very strong here. on one patrol this week, fox news camera man richard harlow and i were caught with u.s. and afghan troops in a taliban ambush. we were trying to move to a nearby town, but we were hit by insurgents almost immediately after leaving the joint u.s. and afghan base. at times during this 30-minute battle, taliban fighters were only a few feet away from u.s. troops. this kind of intense and close range battle happens every day here. this is an area that is a key spot for the taliban. it's the movement's spiritual home and main route for moving weapons an fighters around southern afghanistan, so it's not surprising they are putting up a strong fight. u.s. troops patrol only with afghan police and afghan soldiers. it is a difficult partnership, but one that u.s. troops on the ground say is improving. as intense as the fight is now, and it is extremely intense, commanders believe over the course of the next few months it will only heat up as u.s. and afghan troops push deeper and deeper into the taliban country. brian? >> conner powell reporting in afghanistan. 70 americans died in afghanistan this month. president barack obama said he will begin to withdraw troops starting next year if afghanistan can stand on its own. that country is planning on holding parliamentary elections september 13th despite the possibility of more attacks from the taliban. let's continue our discussion with our all-star panel. let me turn to noelle who is out there in arkansas. noelle, your thoughts about where we are. can the obama administration wind this thing up and declare victory? >> wow. i don't see how they're going to be able to. we just sent 30,000 troops at the request of then mcchrystal to help fund this over there, and another thing that's kind of troubling is the afghan funding war bill and the other thing, they're not getting republican support with that. i'll give you an example of why they're not. it's because that they are trying to pass extra things with it, just like they did with the health care when though put the student loans funded this that. that's one of the key reasons. i do think that he's going to have trouble pulling out in the time line that he thinks he is going to be. >> kiersten, your thoughts on this. >> well, i think -- i think everyone here probably would agree. it would be a wonderful thing to defeat the taliban and to have a stable afghanistan. that's a very noble goal. unfortunately, we don't seem to be really getting that much closer to it, and obama saying we'll pull out if afghanistan can stand on its own. i mean, does anybody really think that's going to happen, that they're going to stand on their own? >> and who cares? this is a typical democrat war. there's no point to this war. when bush left office, there were elections in afghanistan. we had a minimal presence. there were only about 100 al al-qaeda there. who cares if they have a democracy. >> i care. america cars. we believe in freedom and liberty. >> we're going to have to stop there. we will have plenty of time to discuss this. we'll find out what congressman rangle is up against t soon. we're waiting on al franken. back in a moment. strong ] in 20 years of cycling, ev when i was ahead, i was always behind. ♪ behind cars... behind trucks... behind the guys... tailpipe... 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ever gone against charlie in a q and a? >> no, have i not. i think at this point his arrogance is kind of out of control, frankly. first of all, he's causing a lot of problems for democrats. i think a lot of people were surprised that he's making himself so front and center and kind of acting like he hasn't done anything wrong when he clearly has done something wrong. the ethics committee never finds anything, and they found something against him, so i think that he frankly should be stepping aside, but he doesn't seem to want to do that. >> noelle your thoughts. >> i want to know what coo koold is he drinking? he needs to step down. where does he get off? it's not that republicans haven't had their own troubles. it's just that we're not the ones with something to lose right now, and i think that this couldn't have come at a worse time for the democrats and incumbents. he looks like part of that good old boy network. that's the last thing they need right now. he's got to step aside. i can't believe it. >> coulter, i'll turn it over to you. >> i have some thoughts. >> not what you would expect. he's probably one of the more ethical democrats. i don't understand why he's being gone after by the "new york times" and the ethics committee when you have rahm emanual who made 18 million dollars for two and a half years at a hedge fund between working for clinton and running for congress. really, what did he do to earn $18 million? you have chris dodd who said he won't run again who was getting sweetheart deals from country wide, who got a deal on an irish home. >> how about -- how about emanual? >> let me try to explain why there's a method to charlie wrangle's seeming madness. he is going to have potentially public trial if there isn't a plea bargain. if there's a trial, it would be after a september 14th primary that he's favored to win in new york, so wrangle has some leverage here, and he's saying basically put up or shut up, and if they do put up, and there are charges, the democrats, not wrangle, could be the victims, so he's doing this to sort of try to get a plea bargain sooner rather than later. that's what's going on here. >> someone made off with 90 million and 36 million that caused the current economic crisis right now. we're presiding over a $5 billion fraud at fannie may. how about those democrats? >> in retrospect, this is all small potatoes. >> this is tie know potatoes. this is what they go after republicans for, not democrats. >> it's not illegal to make money in the private sector. >> except that he's getting 18 million. >> oh, come on. >> in capitalism people make money. it's part of the american way. >> 18 million in two years? >> no, no, no. i'm sorry. jon corzine had to work years. 18 mill for two years? come on. >> is charlie going to survive this, doug? >> he's going to survive politically, i think, because there will probably be a deal within the next week. he'll probably be sanctioned, could be censured, but given the pathology ipolling in his distrs likely he'll be renominated and reelected. >> i mean, he owns that district. he's owned that district forever, so like that doesn't really mean anything. >> the liberals are ganging up on him this time. he's the one who is going to be the poster child who pretends they go after their fel fellow democrats. >> there's hundreds of thousands he can't account for, that he didn't declare. >> he didn't declare it on his congressional form. >> all right. >> rahm emanual making money in the private sector? i don't see how it's the same. >> it was a payoff to get favors from the government. >> i you don't get $18 million when all you've done is be a bag man for big clinton. >> there's no expectation that he'll run again until your friend blagojevich ran for the governorship in illinois. >> there was no suggestion he would be in government? >> i've got to take a commercial break. you all hang on for a minute. we'll be right back, everyone. stay with us. 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american loves a good political scandal, or do they really? maybe it's a case of the media loves a good scandal and the american people, not so much. let's explore that with our vaunted panel. we just saw a few of the ones that were most notable of late. there are others that we haven't begin to touch on. noelle, i don't want to leave you out of this discussion. >> thanks. >> you love jumping in on this one. do you think the american people care about this? some people said they care sometimes and they don't others. what makes the difference? >> okay. i'll tell you real fast. i'll break it down. i think it depends on what it is. i mean, let's take an example. you have giuliani affair. you've got sanford affair. you've got edwards affair with a baby. you've got hooker. you've got larry craig. i want to see man on man going on. that's odd. i think it's like with clinton. clinton messed around. he had sexual oddities, but guess what? people loved clinton. people loved guiliani, my former boss. i've gotta tell you. i think it depends on if you have charisma and people really like you. then you can get away with anything. these guys like larry craig, he had no personality to begin with, so he was toast, and i mean burnt toast after this thing went down. >> doug, any thoughts on this? what is the thing that makes them care sometimes and not others? i mean, some of these guys, they got reelected, no problem. sometimes it ends to people having to walk away from their jobs. >> if it is just a sexual relationship that in some way is outside of marriage, you know, most people just don't care. they care about the person doing the job. when there is an economic impact or a question of integrity or some outrages behavior, then maybe people care. umentlyultimately, brian, the ma cares a lot more than the voters. >> everything that has been said here has been completely wrong. the difference is republicans care, democrats don't care. it's very rather for republicans to be able to be reelected. as for the media being obsessed and the people not caring, i'd like to see the journal with postings on covering john edwards' affair. i think the people were a little more interested than the media were on that one. as for bill clinton, what is weryour proof that people love l clinton. >> ann, in 1998 the democrats won the mid term elections. >> as i say, democrats do not care. >> it was close to 60% approval. >even for ann coulter. >> he's the first sitting president or vice-president not to win election in peace time in a good economy. >> maybe the votes weren't counted. >> bill clinton knows it's because of bill clinton as does stan greenberg. that's why it was such a weirdly close election. >> gore had his own problems. there's something else brewing in the race in louisiana. >> his 0 poabt stol opponent ste congressman's wife. >> i have it here on google. >> i mean, he married the woman and had an affair with her son's wife. i mean, i can't keep it quite straight. >> hard to follow. >> speaking of david vitter, that's the most bizarre of them all. >> i can't explain that. that's the one exception. i think that's because by the time it came out tha which i thk is very weird, it was -- he had seen the prostitute five, six, seven years earlier. his wife had forgiven him. this happened ten years ago. he doesn't have a good opponent. if he had a harvard educated right wing opponent who speaks well the way he does, he might be out of luck. >> noelle, jump in there. >> i'll tell you the one that really ticks me off, and it's the elliot spitzer and ashley did you pre, his hooker on the imperial website. after this all blows over, he gets to host an msnbc show, and she gets a column to right lovee advice. how is that w rewarding for bad behavior. >> the new york post was doing that to stick it to spitzer. all that tells girls is hey, go out and get an on line hooker deal and get a politican. you'll be set for life. >> i don't think it pays that well. i think in that case the disgusting person is spitzer. the girl, actually, if you read a lot about her, and we don't want to get into that. she had a sad upbringing and bad things happened to her. he was preying on young girls and having sex outside of marriage. >> people have sort of become numb to these things over time, have they not? it's good late night tv talk show fodder. >> the thing with spitzer, as a crusading attorney general who tried to clean up wall street and the issue of prostitution in new york. it made him look like a complete hypocrite. >> i feel like he actually could in five years run for office again and get reelected. >> i hope not. >> he has a tv show on the mainstream media. >> people just don't seem to care. >> the people who are producers at cnn and msnbc, they may not care. it's exactly the opposite of what doug cares. the media doesn't care. normal humans do. >> i mean, i think that, you know, elliot spitzer has so outraged sort of common decency with his hi po hypocracy, i hops not coming back. >> i gue maybe my faith in humanity is waning because i female like more anfeel like moe do this and jump right back. >> let's recap where we are. the reason we wanted to come here right now is because there's a fascinating meeting down in las vegas. bloggers from the liberal side are gathered in one room. bloggers from the conservative side are across town. we're waiting to hear what al franken, of all people, is going to say to the liberal group. they're running a little bit behind schedule. can we throw up the picture of what's going on there, show you that we're waiting for al franken to come to the podium. we expect him to have interesting things. he has the way of sort of turning a good word now and then. we want to see what he does as they wrap up this convention. i just wanted to talk while we're waiting on that to happen about sort of this amazing thing that has happened in this election cycle, doug, where the bloggers are really driving the news. i mean, we're reporting a lot of news, but i mean, the bloggers are the ones out there breaking stuff that a lot of times we're following. sometimes they're right and sometimes they're not. >> the bloggers speak for the activated stitch when see const. the blogosphere is actually extremely influential. if the the they can mobilize the democrats, that's huge for the democrats. if democrats don't come out of this convention mobilized and activated, it's a real disappointment. >> there are only 2000 people there. >> there's a democrat base there. >> the right wingers are staying in a better casino. the right wingers had an event in washington where there were 10,000 people. 7,000 of them were under the age of 30. they got 2000 people for this. bottom line, why are we waiting all night on the words of al franken. >> because we migh think it mige interesting. kiersten? >> there are a lot more active conservatives than there are liberals. that's the demographics of the country. that's borne out in every survey or poll. >> they're not as activated, but i think that they are -- >> motivated. >> yeah. there's an enthusiasm gap, definitely, but there's way too much ragging on the bloggers, frankly. i've done some of it in my time as well, but i feel like they've moved into a space where there's a lot of great reporters. they find out a lot of information that main stream reporters aren't covering. i often learn more by going on and reading a lot of the stuff than they do than i frankly learn in the "new york times" or other places. it's just much more thorough. i think, you know, pick any paper, frankly. i'm serious. >> noelle, jump in. >> it is a generation of bloggers. it's a social media network, and everybody's, you know, either doing twitter, they're doing facebook, they're blogging, they have their own blog set up, so it's kind of important. you know, back to the speech with al franken, i'm kind of surprised they would pick al franken to end this note on. he's not one of their best speakers, and you know, with his background on snl ... thanks. >> there is an answer to ann's point which is why do the 2000 bloggers matter? two years ago we elected a president because of bloggers, liberal activists, and a fund raising and political network that was activated by barack obama in ab unprecedented way. >> that's not true. >> ask hillary. she'll tell you. >> it's the vote and the money that was raised. the only reason the liberal glog bloggers exist is because of the money. you're giving liberal bloggers credit for breaking all these news stories. i'm willing to be educated. what broke on a left wing blog. >> the candidacy of barack obama. >> no, it wasn't. >> i have to jump in. the social media thing really was a huge part of what got excitement about the obama candidacy. >> that isn't breaking news on liberal blogs. i'm waiting for you to tell me the big story. >> young people have never been so active as they were with barack obama's race. young people came out in droves just as they did when jack abe rabramoff got them all riled up. >> liberal bloggers. >.>> who is paid? >> american progress. >> it's a think tank. >> it's not true. >> there are lots of liberal bloggers. i actually wasn't talking about just liberal bloggers. i read conservative bloggers as well. i think there's a lot of good work out there separate from whether they're breaking news. that's a separate issue. they're doing a lot of good analysis and research. >> that's not true. >> they focus on a lot of things. >> i can name stories and i think you can all name stories. >> the point is, ann, the conservative and democratic bloggers are often driving the political debate. >> i know people are comfortable saying both sides, but once again i'm saying i don't think it's true. hang up. how many stories were broken by right wing blogs? i'm waiting for you to name but. it turned out they were using a bad pollster and all the polls were fake. >> but it's not about breaking stories. it's about driving the conversation, and he's absolutely right. i mean, i'm sorry. if you watch tv news and you want to know where a lot of stuff bubbles up, it bubbles up from people who are activists and are following it closely and are keeping people informed about it. i think that's an important thing. >> >> the world in terms of the healthy enter play of ideas from the left and right and producing a better synthesis is a result. it's not bad left, good right or vice versa. it's healthy dialogue and debate producing a better country. >> whether or not you like it, bloggers are here to stay. >> america is a country where diversity is celebrated. >> what blogs do you read? you're not reading daily blog. >> i do read it. i don't like it. i celebrate the fact that it exists. >> they're not like the kkk. >> you guys, don't you agree whether we like did or not that bloggers are here to stay? bloggers are here to stay whether we like it or not. >> i will say from a journalistic standpoint, there's a lot of heartburn right now about what's going on in the blogosphere. we saw one this week where it was completely wrong, and some poor woman lost her job as a result of some information that turned out to be completely wrong on one of the blogs. >> okay. the mainstream media does that all the time. the people who have been maligned don't get their jobs back. i've heard enough about that woman. >> because of what goes on in the news cycle, we rush to judgment. a mistake was made. the president and secretary vilsack apologized hopefully we'll all avoid it. the greater good is served by the interplay of ideas and debates. >> let me remind people of what we're doing. we're watching the net roots convention in las vegas. this is the last speaker, we're told, before al franken comes out. we're expecting to hear what is on al franken's mind. we're told it should be a very interesting speech. more or less, it's sort of the last speech of this very interesting conference that's going on. it will set the stage and drive the debate, perhaps, of what the bloggers are thinking as they go back to continue the job of blogging. interesting to me, though, is how the politicans, kiersten, have really come to these events and have made them very important. >> well, i think that's exactly because of all the reasons that doug is saying. i think that you want -- these are people, even though there's only 2000 people, i think it's a lot of people. it's not 10,000, but it's a decent amount. there are a lot of people following it. they have a lot of influence over people who read them. it's how barack obama tapped into the fund raiding network. i think it's an important thing. >> it wasn't long ago there were jokes people being home in their pajamas driving the vote. >> the only people covering this idiotic convention is fox news. >> why is that, ann? >> because you're fair and balanced. >> fair and balanced. thank you very much, ann coulter. >> i've been in the back rooms with politicans. bottom line, they don't go anywhere unless it influences the debate and the dialogue. you wouldn't have had nancy pelosi and harry reid speaking to a net roots convention unless they thought it was important to them and their caucuses. >> harry reid has to go. nancy pelosi is from san francisco. >> did anyone catch harry reid's speech? >> what did you think about nano well'? >> did you catch any of the speech? >> goodness gracious. >> i took a nap. >> it was all he could do to say capitalism is bad and rich people are horrible. it was awful. he is doing so much to promote along with obama class warfare. it was heinous, awful. >> the audience seemed to think so. did you see it? you were covering it then. he had to say because he kept trying to say funny things, and the audience was totally silent, and he said well, this is kind of a quiet audience. why don't you give yourselves a round of applause. >> he had to ask for applause, didn't he, ann. >> since you raidsd it you raise a little clip from harry reid. >> excellent. >> let's take a listen while we're waiting. >> the contrast is here. it couldn't be stronger and the choice couldn't be clearer, but we can't protect people from the powerfulness who win in november in either this state or country can afford candidates like my 0 poabt in the united states senate. >> let's talk about this reid race in the state of nevada. reid, 48% according to one poll, angle 46. the majority leader of the senate is leading in his race by 2 points, in a state that he has been running in and should have contacts in to the nth degree. what do you read into thatting,, doug? >> harry reid has an approval in nevada of under 50%. his negative is over 50, and sharron angle is a right wing republican in a right wing republican caucus, so she is an extremist. she's come out for privatizing social security, getting rid of the department of education. the fact i that she's running en with the majority leader of the u.s. senate tells you how much disaffection there is with the democrats and their leadership. >> all right. we are about 30 seconds away. we're going to restart the show and come back and reintroduce everyone. brian wilson in new york city tonight for a special edition of america's election headquarters. it's turned into a good saturday night bull session. that's what we're having around here. 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