aides this weekend saying don't be afraid of optimism, there is no recession. a lot of economists disagree. >> there is a lot of different factors going on here, but i think the obvious one we need to look at politically is that the president has had a negative approval rating for a long time and it was there on election day when he won and in spite of that he has maintained a great degree of loyalty from the people that susan is talking about who backed him for a number of reasons. does that loyalty maintained in a situation where the economy starts to go in a direction that is much the opposite of what he has experienced? that would be new territory not one i am very confident he can navigate. >> bret: let's talk afghanistan. >> we had a a lot of meetings yesterday on afghanistan. we are having very good discussions with the tele- band. we are having very good discussions with the afghan government. we have been there for 19 years