like as a republican candidate after millions of dollars are spent attacking him, saying he's not a conservative? >> this year you've got the tea party. they are not playing with a full deck. i mean, they could go off the rails here. >> well, msnbc analyst david corn is washington bureau chief for mother jones and matt lewis is senior contributor for the daily collar. hello to both of you. thanks for joining me. >> sure thing, alex. >> so, guys, we have christie out, romney on top at the moment, but is there anyone else waiting in the wings, david? >> oh, i guess there's sarah palin, if you want to really, you know, create another prairie fire. i mean, we're getting very close. as you know, a lot of states are trying to move up their primaries earlier, which is cutting down on the time that candidates need to prepare, and is actually presenting some real deadlines. if you want to run in these prima primaries, you have to file mooa month or two or three ahead of time. so pretty soon, this is going to be a done deal, and this will probably be the republican field that republicans are stuck with. >> not surprisingly, we were just looking at mitt romney, rick perry, herman cain, and let's look at how the poll numbers have changed in the last two weeks relative to these guys. we ary is raising big bucks, cain is doubling, though, double digits, in fact. how does cain build on this momentum and what does rick perry need to do to get some of this back, matt? because is it from rick perry that herman cain is making his significant draw? >> it is. it is. but, look, i think that herman ca cain, what he shouldn't do is go on a book tour. and that's exactly what he is doing. he's doing the opposite of what he ought to be doing. here he is surging, and instead of going to iowa and new hampshire and places that he could maybe, you know, give it a run, especially iowa, he's going to be in like kansas city and other places like that. i think that's a mistake. >> matt, what does that say about his fund-raising? if the guy's got to run some money, book selling -- >> no, it says something about his book promotion. he's running for president to sell books. he's not selling books to become president. he got into this, i think, as a pr stunt. he's doing well because all the other pr stunts have fallen to the wayside, michele bachmann and donald trump. and there is a tea party urge to have somebody up there who's saying anything and just sort of being a kick-ass candidate. >> i think it does speak to cain's sort of organizational ability, his strategy. i mean, he has gotten this far by being exciting. actually, alex, i think that i'm finally starting to sort of get a feel for this race and i'm starting to think that herman cain is mike huckabee. in other words, he's going to do really well, i just don't think he can win. ultimately, i think it's going to be a rick perry/mitt romney campaign. but keep in mind, last time, mike huckabee actually helped john mccain beat mitt romney. it could be the opposite this time, where the herman cain plays the role of blocking perry. >> look, one thing we know that whomever it is is going to be up fwe against the president. let's check out how the top three are faring against president obama. given what we were hearing a few minutes ago from chuck todd and howard dean, how hard is it going to be for mitt romney to hold on to this lead? i'll give that to you, david. >> i think he is going to continue to be the front-runner, and it will probably be a long slog, though. the republicans have changed their rules this year, so that the early primaries are not winner-take-all, as was usually the case in the republican race. it's going to be proportional allotment of delegates. so you're going to have two candidates, mitt romney and rick perry, who both are going to have a lot of money or at least enough money to stay alive and be like, you know, like a rocky fight, going around 10, 12, 20, with them taking punches, maybe coming in first or second and trading off to those races. i think it's going to be a very long, bloody republican primary, which the obama people have to be happy about. >> and what i want to wonder very quickly, matt, with you, is what is it going to take for people to figure out whom they're going to support? if you look at this new quinnipiac poll, you've got romney first, but coming in second is, hmm, i have no idea. >> right. i think mitt romney's problem is, he has a ceiling of around 30%. i just don't know if he can extend nap he's been very consistent, he's been very polished. he consistently gets 25 to 30%. i just don't know if he can get above that. so he benefits, if there are a lot of candidates, if herman cain and rick perry and michele bachmann are splitting up the conservative base, that's how romney wins. but i think if michele bachmann drops out, if mccain commits a gaffe, somehow if conservatives coalesce around a rick perry, that's ultimately how romney loses. >> all right. david corn and matt lewis, guys, thanks so much. >> sure thing, alex. well, the president has turned prize fighter when it comes to defending his jobs bill. during an event outside dallas, the president had a message for the man who earlier this week called the plan dead. >> the republican majority leader in congress, eric cantor, said that right now he won't even let this jobs bill have a vote in the house of representatives. won't even give it a chance to be debated on the floor of the house of representatives. i'd like mr. cantor to come down here to dallas and explain what exactly in this jobs bill does he not believe in. what exactly is he opposed to? >> joining us to talk about that plan, senator jeanne shaheen, democrat of new hampshire, thank you so much for being here. >> nice to be with you. >> we had the congressman cantor tweeting after this event saying that the president is just in full campaign mode. what is the status of the jobs package at this point? is it dead? >> well, the senate is going to be voting on the jobs package. i think it's important for us to have as many options on the table as we can, for how to grow this economy, how to create jobs and put people back to work. and so i do think we will have a vote in the senate on what the president has proposed. >> although, will it be in the fashion in which the president proposed it, or are you rewriting it? >> you know, i haven't seen it, so it's not clear to me exactly what we're going to have, but, obviously, it will contain many of the provisions that the president has proposed, because they're ideas that we've been talking about in the senate, a number of which have strong bipartisan support. the idea that we need to invest in our infrastructure, that we need to rebuild our roads and bridges that are crumbling is a good idea because we've got to invest in the future of this country. but also it's important because it puts people back to work. so i think that's an idea that has some support. i think making sure that there are tax cuts that put more money in middle class people's pockets so they can go out and pay their bills is an important element that we ought to be talking about. >> okay. let's talk about the gridlock there in washington, as the government delayed that shutdown by a valid six weeks. we were worrying about it a couple weeks ago when the house passed its spending bill. now, you've said you want to end these budget showdowns with a two-year budget. how would that work and what kind of opposition would you have to it? >> well, there's actually growing support in the senate for a biannual budget proposal. it had a hearing yesterday before the budget committee and it's got -- had very strong support in that budget committee hearing. you know, the budget process in washington is not working. only twice in the last 30 years has a budget been produced on time given the current process. every president since ronald reagan has said, we ought to go to biannual budgeting. it will give congress a chance in the first year of the budget to put together the budget and the second year, to provide oversight and accountability. it will free up some of our federal agencies so that they can do more oversight and accountability on what their programs are and what they're doing. so i think it's an idea that makes sense. >> but given the contentious nature of this congress right now, given that you'll figure out some sort of a budget deal for, i don't know, six weeks at a time, do you really think you'd be able to get anything passed that would stick for two years? >> well, look, one of the challenges that we have is this short-term budgeting. it's not efficient. it doesn't give businesses and those who depend on federal contracts the opportunity to plan. one of the things that i hear from businesspeople in new hampshire all the time is they need certainty. if they have contracts with the federal government, they want to know how long they can plan for. it's important in order to keep people working and it's important for them as they're thinking about how they're going to add jobs. this is not a good way to run the government. we need to get those people who have been trying to shut government down to recognize that we need to do a better job of providing certainty to people. the biannual budget process would do that. >> all right. ma'am, thank you very much for your time. >> thank you. >> senator shaheen. the fbi has joined the search for a missing 10-month-old in kansas city, missouri. lisa irwin just disappeared from her crib monday night after her mother says she put her to bed. police are investigating whether an intruder may have taken the child. joining me right now on the phone is captain steve young of the kansas city police department. captain young, thank you so much for joining me. i read that you called this situation unique. what's going on? what makes this unique? >> well, we get missing child calls not infrequently. and usually when we respond to the scene, either, you know, a, we're able to punch a hole in the story really quickly and find out it was a parental kidnapping kind of thing or develop information that the kid wond wandered off. obviously, a 10-month-old isn't going to wander off. but here we are 30 hours later, and we haven't been able to develop any suspect information or move the case forward. >> this was a baby that was reported missing at 4:00 in the morning. what are the circumstances around 4:00 a.m.? what was happening? >> well, the information we have is that the mother was home, asleep, and when the father of the child came home from work at 4:00 in the morning, he noticed that the child was missing and called 911 right away. >> any leads whatsoever, particularly, sir, relevant to a report from a neighbor that around 2:00 a.m., a man, a strange man to that neighborhood, was seen holding a baby to his chest? >> that's right. a neighbor notified us early that morning, as soon as she saw the coverage on the local news. we have explored that lead, and unfortunately, it's led to nothing. and we've been getting a lot of phone calls from our tips hotline and we're following up on everything, but nothing is panning out. >> we have a report about investigators going into that home with hazmat suits. what's that about? >> what that is, there's a large wooded area behind the house that we searched with over 100 law enforcement officials yesterday. we sent dogs in there twice yesterday and we're going to send dogs in again, just a new set of dogs, might as well give it a try. and what that is, that's standard procedure to help the dogs get on an original scent and then go from there. that's why the hazmat suit, to prevent the officers and crime scene people from contaminating the scene with their own smell. >> captain young, i know that the first 24 hours in any abduction case is critical. how frustrated are you that you guys don't have a lot of leads at this point? >> well, it is frustrating. our crimes against children unit detectives are very dedicated. they do what most people wouldn't really care to do for a day. it's a tough job. they take on these cases personally. i'm sure they're frustrated. but we have no plans to shut down our command post or stop this investigation anytime soon. >> captain steve young, best of luck, sir. thanks so much. >> thank you, ma'am. after four years in an italian prison, amanda knox woke up today at home in seattle. it was an emotional scene at her homecoming last night where she was moved to tears. >> i'm really overwhelmed right now. i was looking down from the airplane and it seemed like everything wasn't real. what's important for me to say is just thank you to everyone who has believed in me, who has defended me, who has supported my family. >> nbc's stephanie gosk is joining me now live from seattle. with a good morning to you your time there, stephanie. i know you were at that press conference last night. how does amanda seem to be doing, as you watch her from beyond what we see on the cameras? >> reporter: well, alex, she looked shaky last night, for sure, when she walked in front of those cameras. it's worth pointing out, and you don't see it in these shots when you hear her speaking, there was a throng of media waiting for her to come out. dozens of cameras snapping. there were people that had been waiting for her, as well as reporters that were clapping and cheering. and she has had, at that point had had an unbelievable 24 hours. 24 hours before that, she was standing in front of that italian court. they had her life in their hands. she was waiting to hear what their decision was, and then she was whisked away. she was put in cars and trains and airports and then finds herself at home in seattle four years after she left, just a college kid going off for a school year abroad. it's understandable that she is shaky. upon hearing the crowd cheer, she broke down in tears. but i was surprised, quite frankly, that she was able to hold it together as well as she did, to make the statement that she did, given all the circumstances. alex? >> stephanie, where is she now? and what's next for her? >> reporter: we don't know where she is. she's in an undisclosed location, but we know that she's with friends and family and there was something of a celebration last night. you know, her father, curt knox, spoke a bit about what's going to happen with her over the next few weeks or so. she's going to get acclimated, take some time to spend time with her family and her friends. he also mentioned that one of her priorities, you know, she spent four years in that cement prison. she wants grass. she just wants to lie around in the grass. and you can't really blame her. it's a luxury we take for granted, but that's also something she wants to do. we also know from her journals that she wrote in prison that she's thinking about helping convicts that have been wrongly accused. and that she has dreams of being a mother. obviously, those are a little ways down the road. alex? >> all right, stephanie gosk in seattle, many thanks for that. self-described girlfriends of dr. conrad murray testify about their conversations with him right before michael jackson died. we're going to tell you what the jury's going to hear in just a few minutes. plus, new details about the passengers on that helicopter that crashed here in new york. but first, let's take a look at what's happening right now on wall street. that's the way we like it. things looking up right now on the dow. 38 and change, up about 6 1/2 on the s&p 500, a little bit over 32 up on the nasdaq. p ♪ [ female announcer ] there's no right way or wrong way. every baby plays by his own rules. and they need a diaper that lets them do it. new pampers cruisers with 3-way fit adapt at the waist, legs and bottom ♪ with up to 12 hours of protection for all the freedom to play their way. pampers. it's time to play. two of the most important are energy security and economic growth. north america actually has one of the largest oil reserves in the world. a large part of that is oil sands. this resource has the ability to create hundreds of thousands of jobs. at our kearl project in canada, we'll be able to produce these oil sands with the same emissions as many other oils and that's a huge breakthrough. that's good for our country's energy security and our economy. an accident doesn't have to slow you down. with better car replacement, available only from liberty mutual insurance, if your car's totaled, we give you the money to buy a car that's one model-year newer... with 15,000 fewer miles on it. there's no other auto insurance product like it. better car replacement, available only from liberty mutual. it's a better policy that gets you a better car. call... or visit one of our local offices today, and we'll provide the coverage you need at the right price. liberty mutual auto insurance -- responsibility. what's your policy? in los angeles, day seven of the michael jackson death trial. and on the stand right now, sally herschberg, an account rep for a medical supply company. sally is testifying about orders dr. conrad murray made with her company. on tuesday, a bevy of women took the stand. all these ladies here testified to having some form of a relationship with murray. >> that first meeting with conrad murray, did he give you his telephone number? >> yes. >> did the two of you spend time together? >> yes. >> when conrad murray told you that he was michael jackson's physician, were you interested in that information? >> absolutely. >> and why is that? >> it's michael jackson. >> joining me here in studio, former prosecutor, john q. kelly, a attorney who successfully represented the brown family in their case against michael jackson. so the prosecution wanted to show that murray wasn't keeping his eye on the medical ball. instead, he was juggling all these women. how effectively did they do that? >> very effectively. that he was calling girlfriends, ex-girlfriends, texting people about his lucrative monthly contract with michael jackson. he was doing everything but watching his patient. >> so is this more to a character assassination for a guy who has three concurrent relationships, or is this more speaking to his ability to not administer proper medical care to michael -- or both? >> judge pastor has kept a very tight window on this, in limiting it to the circumstances surrounding michael's death and the time immediately before it. it has nothing to do with his character. it has to do with his attention or lack of attention to mj immediately prior to his death. >> but budoesn't character and likability or a sympathetic nature to a defendant, doesn't that carry a lot of wait with the jury? >> sure it does. the jury brings a lot of baggage into the courtroom. they know about michael jackson's molestation trial, they know about his prior drug use, they know about his money problems. and i think that alone is going to make dr. murray a sympathetic figure. that, you know, when you lay down with dogs, you get fleas. michael had chosen this doctor because he was going to administer him, you know, outside the boundaries. and i think the jury's going to realize that too. >> and the fact that he had, what was it, four gallons of this propofol, i mean, sent to one of the three girlfriends, i believe in santa monica, an apartment, and having said to this company, supply company, oh, this is my office address, when it was not. i mean, how does that weigh? >> well, that weighs heavily, that he was getting it surreptitiously. and also, you've got to remember, michael ultimately died from the respiratory failure, and before you go into failure, there's distress. and whether it's light breathing or heavy snoring, there are other signs. and if the doctor had just kept a cursory eye on him, just visually, in the 10, 15 minutes be