>> what do you think of when you see a tree? a treatment for cancer? alternative fuel for our cars? do you think of hope for the environment, or food, clothing, shelter? we do. weyerhaeuser, growing ideas.

>> i don't know how many of you saw the last debate. eyedn't realize that bull's on my back was that big. >> this week on "inside washington," the herman cain phenomenon. >> i am 110% behind gov. kasich. >> mitt romney stumbles into another flip-flop. >> that will affect our ability to create jobs in the united states. >> the european debt crisis. >> it is usually financial aid and things like that. >> the crushing burden of student loans. and as the occupy wall street movement gets rougher, the government reports confirm is that yes, the rich are definitely getting richer. >> the first question that comes to mmind is are we still in

the same boat together? captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- >> rick perry's star seems to be fading and mitt romney is still a favorite to win the nomination, especially when you look at his numbers in the early primary states. but despite herman cain's almost nonexistent campaign structure, republicans keep telling us how much they like him. here he is in texas taking a potshot at mitt romney and the massachusetts health care plan. >> many of my years have been fighting some kind of care -- hillarycare, obamacare, and now i have to fight romneycare to get the nomination. >> get the nomination -- easier said than done. this week pollster peter hart held a focus group of

republicans, democrats, an independents. when he asked which candidate interested than the most, the answer by a wide margin was herman cain. you were there, mark. what is it about him that appeals to republicans? >> he is not a politician, they like the personal story -- up from the bootstraps, father a show for, mother a cleaning lady, a product of morehouse college, the most distinguished all-male traditionally black college in the country -- and his directness and optimism. that is what they like about the guy. >> colby, the cain phenomenon. >> dan balz wrote about this. they saw herman cain as a people person. his likability factor is high. he is a hard-working businessman, someone had people

would like to have as their next-door neighbor. the rest of the candidates do not come through that way. they talked about a perry -- what word comes to mind when you think of a fifth grade kid? bully. >> nina? >> he is a fabulous salesmen did go online and watch a missing in what sounds like a prayer -- watch him as saying what sounds like a prayer song, but it is about pizza. he has a beautiful voice, by the way. there's a certain level of satire, humor, but he is selling, and that is what he is doing now. what is he selling? >> evan? >> he is not going to be president. he is a very appealing guy, but people are not going to vote for him as president. romney is lucky in a way to have him out there because he is not

really a threat. the only one who can beat romney at this stage is romney. . >> didn't peter hart asked about herman cain? >> yes. acknowledging that the focus group is not a scientific sampling, the value is that you get people to express their feelings. there was great resistance, picking up on evan's point, to herman cain. nobody was willing to say they saw him as president, but they find him interesting. before they vote for you, they have got to like you. he has a long way from making the sale. >> what did they say about barack obama? >> understand this about ohio -- no democrat other than john kennedy has been elected president out carrying ohio. -- without carrying ohio. barack obama carried ohio in 2008.

they are disappointed in barack obama. the question that colby mentioned, how'd you feel about a fifth grade kid -- there was no particular perception about obama. some saw him as the smartest kid in the room, others saw him as the teacher's pet, the all- american kid. there was no defined sense of who he is, and that is a problem for him. >> i believe that abortion should be safe and legal in this country. >> mitt romney today. >> i am firmly pro-life. >> here is romney on a ballot initiative supported by ohio gov. john kasich. >> i am not speaking about a particular ballot issue. i am 110% behind a governor kasich. >> romney has been running a

pretty savvy campaign so far, but he stumbled on this ballot question. is that going to come back to haunt him? >> he can get away with this one, but flip-floping is his number one -- he has two big problems. one is the flip flop thing, the other is that he is not that likable. i would not say he has been likable in the debates, but he has been strong, and that counts. >> fifth grade question on romney. >> they said he looks like a rich and privileged kid, and two words came up. one was "chameleon," the other was "pompous." the "chameleon" label sticks to him. he has a record of flip-floping, changing his position based on food he is trying to appeal to. >> george will writes this

weekend, "romney is not only becoming a less electable, he might damage gop chances of getting the senate. republicans may have found their michael dukakis." >> well, george will has a particularly passionate feel about abortion -- a particularly passionate feelings about abortion. romney's flip-flop on that issue cuts deep. that is why this thing in ohio is damaging. i don't know what he was doing there. that was a call the center about the initiative. if he did not want to take a position, don't go there, find a dodge, stay out of it. instead, he looked foolish. >> if not romney, who?

>> there is nobody else. newt gingrich, i don't think so. cain, i don't think so. perry is turning out to be kind of a blowhard bully. >> perry doesn't want to debate? if you are from texas and you don't want to fight -- >> he doehe wants to fight when there is nobody there for a fair fight. >> a congressman said that if he does not debate, he is going to come across as a coward. >> he is a great detail campaigner. he won that election in texas. we are not seeing that. >> you cannot be entirely our retail campaigner. he is not going to win in new hampshire. in the presidential campaign, retail is the minister go part. -- a minscule part.

>> don't write off cain. >> most people i know in college at the same minimum-wage jobs they had before college, and they are stuck there now. they wasted a bunch of money to go nowhere. >> an undergraduate borrowing is up by 57% among college students, and 2/3 of college students on average no more than $28,000. -- owe more than $28,000. millions of people graduating from college, deeply in debt, cannot find work. the president says he will give students a break by executive action. critics say is a drop in the bucket. we are coming on an election year, too. >> compared to what they need to do, it underscores how hopelessly power of this government is. this is the best they can do, -- hopelessly powerless

government is. this is the best they can do, these little nickel-and-dimed things. >> obama this week -- you could see the clear outlines of his campaign in dealing with the idea that people after three years are not sure who he is. he came in with hope and change and compromise. compromise did not work. it took him awhile to realize it, but apparently he is going to campaign as essentially the ."congress, "we can't wait these may not be perfect solutions, they may be small solutions, but they are not bad in terms of the way they will appear. >> let me go back to the cincinnati focus group. what are people looking for in a leader? >> what they what in the next president is two things -- strong leader, a tough negotiator. >> if he says, "i am going to do

this by executive action," that plays into that? >> i think it undoubtedly helps. this is a real problem. what you are talking about, the young man you saw in the clip, representing millions of young people who came out with the equivalent of housing mortgage, an immediate word and they have to deal with. they don't have jobs or the means to deal with it. they cannot pay it back and will put them in an economic position where they will be able to compete in the system. i think the president had to act and the country has to act. >> wasn't something going to relieve this by 2014 anyway? >> you had it newt gingrich actually responding to the president's initiative by saying it is nothing more than a ponzi scheme. that is the state of our politics now. something had to be done because of this crucial issue,

but it is not a matter of solving the problem. everybody can't or shouldn't get a college degree in this country. we have to rethink what education means, what skills we really do need, and maybe change the path that we have been on that the way to success is a a baccalaureate degree. >> colby is really onto something. this four-year education or kids take huge debts so that they can stack beercans -- the germans at the figure this out. they better vocational training, and you learn something other than it just going to the frat house. >> digital age. >> a lot of our colleges don't do that. >> the unemployment rate across the western world, people who

have gone to college and graduated, 4.4%. among those who have not completed college, a 11.5%. you can understand that if you are interested in your job having a job, you want to encourage him or her to go to college and get the four-year degree even though your argument is a plausible one. >> what about the mortgage executive action and a veterans' jobs? will that have an impact? >> yes, but it will not move the needle a great deal. there is only so much you can do from an executive standpoint. unless you have congress it make a substantial legislative changes, he will not have much change. it reflects leadership and determination to do something. the question always is, will he sustained the action and continue this kind of approach between now and next year?

>> that is important about the mortgage thing, because the bankers bought into the mortgage thing, and it would give it a great many people a chance to renegotiate their mortgage and have more money to put into the economy. but it has to be executed well, and if it is not it will not a difference. >> back to romney, what did he say in nevada? just let the market hit bottom, let the market work this thing out, and not talking about relief for a homeowner that is under water. >> europe will do what it takes to bring financial stability. >> it will laid the predicate for long-term economic growth at around and the world. >> european leaders cut a deal to reduce greece's overwhelming debt after german chancellor angela merkel call their bluff

and banks agreed to write off half of what the german government owes. our stock market loves that news. >> i think back to my days as representative of the u.s. at the world bank. we lectured the world about austerity measures, we beat up africa and asia for their failure to step up and make the adjustments necessary. in this country, we cannot address our own deficit and debt problems. look at europe. they may not pull this thing off. political will is lacking in industrialized countries as well. >> i don't think there is any disagreement about the need to, long term, cut back what we spend in government. but in a period of time when we

are coming out of a deep recession, the steepest since the great depression, if you have too much austerity, you shove all of us back into recession. >> growth of 2.5% last quarter. >> that is not enough. it is better than nothing. we are still really on the cusp. when you see the kinds of layoffs have gone on around the country in government, state and local government as well as the federal government, you see exactly what happens. it is a chain reaction. >> evan, time congress, with its 9% approval rating, do something like what they have done in europe? >> no. apparently the super committee is not going to be able to get a solution, which means that these automatic cuts are scheduled to go into effect. but they won't, because they have a year to go into effect.

congress can undo them. the only thing congress can do is undo the automatic cuts brought that basically means that the united states government is going to do nothing for the 2012 elections. the first time anything positive could happen is some time in 2013. >> i am not as sure as evan that they won't, because there is an imperative for both parties, staring at the abyss of the 9%, could see themselves on being swept out in a tidal wave. the hopes of the western world rests on the not-a broad shoulders of a little woman from east germany -- [laughter] merkel, the go-to guy on this whole thing. the united states, because of our own financial problems, does not have the resources to do

anything. we can be a cheerleader and that is about it. i think the end of the war in iraq is going to give an opportunity to start with defense cuts, may be creatively and imaginatively, meeting that obligation. >> but that is bogus! >> i am talking about coming to an agreement. >> where is the agreement? you have the democrats still say and we can solve this with a combination of cuts and tax increases. you have republicans saying we will do it only through cuts. boehner said that as recently as this week. what will happen -- there will be a reaction if we fail to act. you talk about downgrading the credit rating. they have reasons to boost confidence in our ability to address our own problems -- lose confidence in our ability

to address our own problems. >> you can do this until the cows come home. we will come back stronger every time. not only that, it is a direct violation of our first amendment rights to assemble. >> occupy los angeles responding to word that they will be asked to move along. in oakland, it got pretty bloody. the congressional budget office report reveals that yes, there is an increasing gap between the richest and everybody else. the protesters to have something to gripe about. >> and its john boehner and the republicans persist in saying they will not consider tax increases on people who are very rich, even though that may not be able to balance the budget, taking that position is a slap in the face to most people.

3/4 of the people think that the very rich should pay more in taxes. is it reflected in the tolerance of this -- it is reflected in the tolerance of this movement that is pretty anarchistic in some ways in its goals. >> do you think it has legs? >> i think it has some staying power. what it does draw, the cbo report, attention to is the proposals from the republican candidates, all of which are skewed towards the one group of citizens who need it the least. >> absolutely nothing is going to happen meaningful unless -- this is a real possibility -- europe really does have a

meltdown. yes, they dodged a bullet this week, but they still have huge problems to face. it would trigger an american collapse, and trigger a political crisis that might get people to do something. >> cheerful scenario. [laughter] >> doomsday scenarios -- >> 2005 to 2007, the after-tax income of the top 1/5 was greater than all the other income of the other 80%. a rising tide lifts all yachts. the distribution of income, the inequality, is in the final analysis and national security issue, and it has to be examined that way. >> colby, if charles krauthammer were here, he would say that socking it to the rich would not make a difference in the debt

could what we need is honest to god tax reform. >> he would say economic growth as well. it is not a matter of soaking the rich, it is a matter of people paying their fair share. with the earlier estimates of of those earning more than $250,000 a year, a substantial amount of income would come into the treasury debt would address some of the program's they want to support. >> what about the tax plans of the various candidates? >> romney, perry, 9-9-9-, or 9- 0-9, all skewed towards the upper income level. >> huntsman actually has a great plan -- it is charles' plan. out of the tax

code. all economists agree that is the way to go. aid is getting no attention whatsoever. huntsman notns getting attention? >> he missed his great chance, chris wallace's one will question, would you accept $10 of cuts with $1 of increased, and all the republican candidates like robots said no. that was his chance to say, "i am different." >> every campaign has candidates that the press likes. bruce babbit was like that years ago. for some reason, that individual flames out. >> is it too early to say he has flamed out? >> he is spending it all on new hampshire. on the question of closing the loopholes and deductions, rick

perry promised to do that. he comes out with a plan -- >> silly plan. >> it also gives you the option of going under the existing system, which encourages all the deductions and loopholes. >> i have been studying the rick perry plan. i cannot figure it out. it will make the tax code more complicated. >> set aside for just a second- rate west and also for next year -- set that aside for just a second. the question for next year, what will happen with congress, the senate? 33 seatsenate, up for grabs. the republicans could gain a what they needed to take over the senate. >> not if they pick romney, according to george will.

>> there is a connection. >> george will did go on record as saying that the next president of the united states would be tim pawlenty, mitch daniels, or barack obama. he is now in the position of backing barack obama. [laughter] >> i think he would probably argue that. >> none of us are pure in the prediction department. >> pawlenty would have been a good candidate, and he was the first to go. >> huntsman doesn't show up in nevada, explain that. >> he is betting everything on at new hampshire. nevada backed off. >> last word. nevada backs off. see you next week.