decent, decent man and a good candidate. and now, it s been said over and over again, it s up to herman cain to get the information out and get it out in total. but that s important because we ve got some real issues to discuss in this campaign, and this is taking all of the bandwidth out of the discussion. so we re not able to talk about jobs. we re not able to talk about our position in the world. and that hurts. that hurts the american people. but you think he can t say, end of discussion, until he gets more information out there? no. the information comes out. it s got to come out in total. eleven legitimate questions have en raised and that information has to come forward. what is your bigger concern as a rival, the sexual harassment controversy or lack of foreign policy experience as he s shown? well, i think at some point the substance really does matter. and you ve got to have a commander in chief who actually understands the world in which we live. it s comple it s con
understands the world in which we live. it s complex. it s confusing. it s unpredictable. and it s not going to get any less so as we move forward. the more that we can spend time focused on the issues and plumb out whether the candidates have what it takes on the leadership side and experience side. and in terms of rebuilding trust in the system. the one thing that concerns me most as i look at where we are, there is we re running out of trust in terms of how the american people see our key institutions of power. whether that s washington and congress, whether the executive branch, or whether wall street. and when you start running on empty in terms of trust, that puts our country in a very vulnerable spot. you know china well. herman cain said this week they didn t have nuclear capability. what does that say to you about a level of preparedness to be president on his part that has to be a factor in how he s evaluated? well, think there needs to be a baseline level of knowledge
white. why are you going the raise the nation s debt limit when we are broke. a lot of them do not understand at this level right now what exactly are the financial intricacies to occur for the united states economy if this were to go down, martin. it has not changed. the gop aides will tell you privately from the leadership side that one of the biggest problems is to explain this issue to at love the n t lolot members and a lot of them have not held public office, but on the scale that this is. and mike has been talking about ohow many things have been going on behind the scenes. harry reid on the united states senate floor said that he has been out of the negotiations between the white house and john boehner. saying that he was not in the loop. that is an amazing pronouncement for the senate majority leader to admit publicly. so what you are seeing now is two men, boehner and obama, and they arehe ones who are crafting the deal. i have heard from rank and file members that they belie
and our allies overseas. i would focus on the leadership of senator tom coburn, probably the most fiscally conservative senator of all 100 senators. he supports this plan because he thinks it s the best way to cut spending and we now may have this coburn and democratic leadership alliance surprising agreement on both sides, and i think that s necessary because the rating agencies have said that uncle sam s credit rating is very much at risk. have you felt you know, it s fascinating to watch as an observer yesterday was all of the rank and file, so many rank and file senators coming out yesterday, whether it was a democrat or republican, whether it was you or dan coats, republican side, michael bennett on the democratic side, almost as if there had been pent up frustration that you hadn t been involved in the debate even as you had been taking heat back home. is that fair? i think from the leadership
this coburn and democratic leadership alliance surprising agreement on both sides, and i think that s necessary because the rating agencies have said that uncle sam s credit rating is very much at risk. have you felt you know, it s fascinating to watch as an observer yesterday was all of the rank and file, so many rank and file senators coming out yesterday, whether it was a democrat or republican, whether it was you or dan coats, republican side, michael bennett on the democratic side, almost as if there had been pent up frustration that you hadn t been involved in the debate even as you had been taking heat back home. is that fair? i think from the leadership side, most of the groups, for example, under vice president biden, et cetera, were run by the loyal partisans of both parties. that is a recipe for long term failure. there is a vital center here, and i think senators who are