we, again, nbc news not independently verifyi ining the accusations. however, she has already lawyered up. when you see gloria allred step forward you know it s about to get a bad or at least pretty problematic for rherman cain. what we re going see this afternoon is that for the first time one of cain s accusers will have a name and a face. cain has gotten away for the last week saying he s not going to address anonymous accusers. that might get harder going forward. alex, the new article you have out before this fourth potentially fourth person to put these allegations forth came forward, on politico, fa. you say no, one is willing to flat out say it, but the republican and democratic party establishments have already written off herman cain. alex, how can you be sure they have done that since the scandal
msnbc is the place for politics, and live right now on the campaign trail, jon huntsman is talking about his energy policy in durham, new hampshire, and ron paul is talking with voters at a coffee shop in oskaloosa, iowa. and now to the politico briefing. after stonewalling for ten days, ten days or more, on politico s story on sexual harassment allegations, now herman cain can t seem to stop talking about it in television appearance after television appearance, but is he doing his campaign any favors? we have the national politics editor for politico joining us now. let s review the bidding about what cain is saying now. now he acknowledges that he does remember but he didn t think it was sexual harassment, he didn t think there was a legal settlement, he thought it was just a payment. he did tell his wife back then, but he hadn t remembered it. i mean, i m kind of losing track myself. well, that s part of the problem, andrea.
to legal status for people who are here illegally. good morning, carol. good morning, alex. in your recent article, carol, on politico, you talk about reform this week. has there been any change by the president as arizona reveals their plan for immigration reform? there s been a lot of mixed signals this week on immigration. you saw that this is obviously something that s been on the president s legislative list of things to do for some time. he thought he was going to get it in his first year. he didn t, obviously, it s a very tough issue. so this week you saw senate democrats come out with their proposal, and on the same day, the president is saying that he didn t think congress had the appetite to go through with immigration reform this year. democrats were sort of shocked by that and were scrambling to figure out how to respond, and then once they unveiled the proposal, the president called it a very poimportant step.
vegas bookie. and glenn fry has a great book on this on politico. he s not doing the full bill clinton st. bernard treatment, the lyndon johnson, you know, twist the elbow, but he is talking personally to members, either on the phone or in person at the white house, and the message is unmistakablunmistaka. i need this. it s hard if you re a democrat when the president of the united states, whoever it is, says, i need this. eye got to have your vote. it s hard to say no. we had senator lincoln from arkansas yesterday, we were talking about it earlier today, very surprised the president didn t call her earlier. in fact, she said to talk health care months back, she had to call him. this president by historical standards has been much more reserved lobbying. that s right. fred hyatt at the washington post had a good op-ed on this yesterday, about the obama s personal temperament. one people like him is he s got that cool sense of reserve.
let s get right to strategy session. joining us are our cnn political contributors and the democrat strategist paul begala and the republican strategist mary matalin. let me read to you, paul, from dee dee myers and you worked with her in the clinton white house who has advice for the president on politico. obama is too dependent on the formal speeches and the town halls. his idea of mixing it up is taking off his jacket. instead, this president should go spepd time with small groups of regular america, and go to where they work and live and talk with them about their concerns. you read this? yes, i read this. and i know her and when my children were babies they called her do-do, and i hope president obama reads her piece today and follows it. the risk for most republicans is that they look like rich fat cat