irene. north texas is burning. i m ali velshi, about 30 homes already destroyed bay wildfire. 100 more in harm s way. it s going to get worse before it gets better because officials say this fast-spreading fire is 0% contained. and i m carol costello. new developments out of aruba in the disappearance of american robyn gardener. her traveling companion and the chief suspect may be about to walk on this american morning. good morning, everyone. it is wednesday, august 31st. welcome to american morning. continues to be a busy morning. sure does. we continue to deal with the aftereffects of irene. talk about that. disaster on a delay in some places. several hundred people now evacuated in new jersey as flooding continues three days after hurricane irene tore through. residents say it s the worst they ve ever seen. in vermont, a dozen towns cut off by flooding had supplies air lifted in. more than 250 roadways cut off by high water and the layers of mud it left be
[ laughter ] what about the republican field is a mess, so my heart says yes? [ applause ] welcome to become hardball from los angeles. mike huckabee out of the presidential race. will social conservatives rally around michele bachmann? she thinks so, jan crawford of cbs news reports on sunday, sources close to bachmann told me they really see a real opening for her and they expect her to get into the race as soon as june. that s next month. how far can bachmann go? for that, we turn to ron reagan, aught over my father at 100 and shoshanna walsh, contributory newsweek and co-author of the book sarah from alaska . let me go to both of you now. i have a theory, ron, first of all, michele bachmann has a great grate opening here way, call the western conference, the fact that trump is out of the
[ laughter ] what about the republican field is a mess, so my heart says yes? [ applause ] welcome to become hardball from los angeles. mike huckabee out of the presidential race. will social conservatives rally around michele bachmann? she thinks so, jan crawford of cbs news reports on sunday, sources close to bachmann told me they really see a real opening for her and they expect her to get into the race as soon as june. that s next month. how far can bachmann go? for that, we turn to ron reagan, aught over my father at 100 and shoshanna walsh, contributory newsweek and co-author of the book sarah from alaska . let me go to both of you now. i have a theory, ron, first of all, michele bachmann has a great grate opening here way, call the western conference, the fact that trump is out of the
rallies and kind of use that public anger to help further their ideological agenda to get rid of government, help pad their profits and at the same time, going to be hurting everyone else. i think a perfect storm. you have the tea party coming in, citizens united that lets them spend unlimited money. at the same time, my god this is a better return on investment than i imagined. the republicans giving us everything we wanted, right, put all that together, you think it is winning time, right? exactly. i think if you look at the success they had in the 2010 elections,ing if you look at now the house, energy and commerce committee, the koch industries the single largest oil and gas contributory that committee and that committee is the one that oversees energy policy in this country, also regulates carbon emission, things they have a personal interest in because that is what their business interest s i want to give the audience some facts on that, that it is amazing. they have given
and taking orders almost from them rather than having a clear strategy for the u.s.? eric: don, what about the democrats? some of them, maybe a handful now are beating their chest. it probably won t be because i think libya is an easy target. no one will support qaddafi. if i were there, the larger question is what is our strategy, what is our policy? what are we doing over there. libya is easy. what are you going to do about bahrain and yemen and saudi arabia. those are questions that need to be asked. they re squabbling about not being informed. that s the typical fight between the branches, but i think there s a much larger question here about the leadership. eric: and about that larger question, admiral mullen saying at the end of this, qaddafi could potentially stay in power. it seems there s a contributory and conflicting - dash contradiy