this week -- the gingrich surge. >> while i was hoping for a wave, we hit a tsunami. just last night, "the des moines register" poll shows that newt is number one. but can he stay there? curtains for cain. >> i am at peace with my wife. and she is at peace with me. >> defiant but defeated. the pizza mogul calls it quits. so is rick santorum the hero in waiting? >> if voters start kind of shifting gears they want idea logical consistency, they're going to start paying attention to rick santorum. >> senator santorum is right here to discuss his uphill road to the nomination and our

roundtable will rate his chances in this topsy-turvy race. also today, a democrat who has campaigned enough for one lifetime. >> one of the advantages to me of not running for office is, i don't have to pretend to be nice to people i don't like. >> we'll ask the ever-quotable barney frank if washington will ever get back to business. and later -- >> angelina jolie on her new film about the war in bosnia. a conflict i covered first hand. good morning. and welcome to the program. we have lots to get to today, but first, some news since your morning papers. breaking news out of iran today the associated press is reporting that the country's semiofficial news agency said that iran has shot down an

unmanned u.s. spy plane. the plane is now in possession of the military. abc news is now working to confirm to story. mayhem in oklahoma last night. after thousands of overexcited oklahoma state football fans stormed the field and tore down the goalposts after the team's big win. some people were trampled. one person fell 15 feet on to concrete. and 13 people were taken to the hospital, including two with critical injuries. and in the presidential race, new proof that the ground has once again shifted. look at the new "des moines register" poll. newt gingrich is on top with 25%. ron paul is in second place with 18%. in third place, mitt romney at 16%. 11% remain undecided. the other candidates are all in single digits. and the poll marks a new stage in the campaign, just one month before the all-important iowa caucuses and here as always to guide us through the political jungle is our man jon karl, with

"this week in politics." >> reporter: this was the week that it started to look like mitt romney could actually lose. just look at the cover of "time" magazine or ask newt gingrich. >> i'm going to be the nominee. it's very hard not to look at the recent polls and think that the odds are very high that i'm going to be the nominee. >> reporter: maybe. maybe not. but romney's week started with this blast from the dnc. >> the story of two men trapped in one body. mitt versus mitt. >> reporter: on tuesday, he once again brushed off questions from reporters. romney has had only six press availabilities over the past six months. he's refused interviews from "time" magazine. he hasn't done a sunday show in almost two years. he's even spent less time on fox news than any of the others. >> you're wrong.

>> reporter: when he finally sat down on friday, it got ugly. >> your critics charge that you make your decisions on political expediency, what can they trust what you hear from you today if you win the white house? >> your list is not accurate. one, we'll have to be better informed. about my views on issues. >> reporter: romney grew and grew more irritated. >> this is an unusual interview. >> let's do it again. >> reporter: looking much more confident, newt gingrich, feeling like a celebrity. >> i did no lobbying of any kind, period. for practical reason. i was charging $60,000 a speech. and the numbers of speeches were going up not down. normally celebrities leave and they gradually sell fewer speeches. we were selling more. >> reporter: but this week, ron paul said it's newt who's the biggest flip flopper of all. hitting him with a brutal web

video. >> you're an embarrassment to our party. >> hi he's flipped and flopped based on who's paying it. >> reporter: this was the week that the once high-flying herman cain called it quits. >> i'm suspending my presidential campaign. because of the continued distraction. >> reporter: the latest allegations, this time a 13-year affair proved to be too much. but the wheels had already been coming off. cain plummeting from 23 points in iowa in october to single digits. as for president obama, he enjoyed something unusual of late -- good economic news. that brings us to trending. up, retail sales and the stock market. down, the unemployment rate. but in part because more than 200,000 people stopped looking for work. down, rick perry, again. >> oops. >> reporter: doesn't seem to know the voting age or the election day.

>> those of you that will be 21 by november the 12th, i ask for your support and your vote. >> reporter: up, ron paul. gaining ground in iowa and emerging as newt's toughest critic. down and out, herman cain meets with his wife and calls it quits. >> god bless and thank you. >> reporter: with "this week in politics." i'm jonathan karl. >> thank you, jon. a big question this morning, where will all of those herman cain voters go, our headliner today, hope they flop straight to him? he's former pennsylvania senator, rick santorum. he spent more time in iowa than any other candidate. he's joins me now. talking about iowa, you're staking your campaign on that. yo must have seen the latest, "the des moines register" poll. it's not encouraging. 6%, tied for last. >> it's better than it was before. in every poll, we're moving up slowly.

but we're within the margin of error of both rick perry and michele bachmann, both of whom had enormous attention by the media. i'm actually encouraged that the people of iowa, as they go down to the end here, start looking at all of the candidates, we think we're going to do very, very well. we have a very consistent conservative message that matches up better with iowans than anybody else. >> you talk about a strong, consistent, conserve sieve message. lot of people do say, yes, he does, however, we're very concerned, he lost his election in pennsylvania, by a landslide, 20 points, he's not electable, everybody has had a boomlet but not you. >> that's a great thing. we still have a month to go before the election. and, as you know, christiane, that's a lifetime in politics. so if you look at all of these little boomlets, they last about

four to six weeks, newt is in about week three, we feel pretty good that come middle december and end of december, voters are looking for someone who's authentic, and has a record to break up the rhetoric as to what they want to do to change this country, who has been doing that? who's been out there and who's been fighting city hall, if you will, and having success at doing it, we've got the good track record and i think that's going to pay off in the end. >> where do you have to be after january 3rd? what is a good showing for you, a threshold? >> well, given everybody's sitting here predicting me to finish last. or, next to last, obviously -- >> to stay in the race? >> i think we need a surprise. we need to finish ahead of several candidates. look, i think we have a very good chance of winning iowa. i know people -- >> really? >> yes, i do. i believe it. i know, we're doing all sort of phone calls in our office.

what we're hearing is, still 60%, 70% of the people are undecided in iowa. >> the latest poll says 11%. >> yeah, but if you talk to people, are you really committed? they'll say, well, no, we're still opened to other candidates. and again the calls we're making, we're still hearing a high percentage of undecideds. people still trying to find out more about the candidates. remember, this is a caucus, not a primary. you're talking about activists who are going to go out, we have spent time in the state. we talked to the activists. we have people lined up to be our caucus captains at these different locations. we'll have people at those caucuses advocating for us. because i have been in their county. they know my message. it's been a strong message of strong growth, family values, strong national security. i think it's going to do well. >> let me ask you about your family, you're very public about

your seven children, you have been very public and very emotional of course talking about your young daughter, who has basically a life that's measured in days and weeks. >> certainly is, according to medical statistics, but we have been blessed. she's 3 1/2 years old. i was with her last night. she's an absolutely joy. she's really the center of our life. we feel so blessed to have her. >> as a mother, i just wonder how you can keep going and how you justify this with so much personal toll at home? >> yeah, well, as we all know -- >> given the polls. >> i understand. again, i don't worry about the polls. i worry about what i'm trying to do to be the best father and husband i can be. obviously, a big part of that is making sure we have a country that respects her life and a country that's free and safe for all of my children.

i felt like given this, the most critical election in the history of the country. that i had to step up and make sacrifices like everybody does to make our country a better country. >> you're committed to the conservative principals that you talked about, those who are at the top here, they're not the most conservative. the most conservatives are at the bottom in iowa, is there something different about this election cycle? i mean, these consecutive issues aren't gaining the kind of traction that one might expect. >> i think more people are persuaded by people who are getting attention. than specific issues. i think people want someone who can beat barack obama. that's the focus. when you talk about winnability, can beat president obama. you have to look at the other candidates. newt gingrich is running a heavily republican congressional district in atlanta. if you're looking for someone who can pull together people and still be a conservative -- i've got the record to do that. >> let me ask you about newt gingrich.

in terms of social issues, he, you know, has been married three times, he has two divorces, he's admitted to infidelity, should voters hold him against him? is that relevant? >> i think character is definitely an issue. you know, i think they have to make a decision based on the person's entire record. and certainly character counts. i think you look at -- i have been married 21 years, i have 7 children, that's a factor that people are going to look at and should look at when it comes to the person you're going to have to lead the country. this is not somebody -- >> real conservative with the social issues? >> i think newt has consistently put them in the back of the bus. he hasn't been an advocate of pushing those issues. he likes to get issues that are 80%, 90% of the polls. but 80% of the polls are generally not necessarily conservative, strong conservative issues. that's how newt has always tried to govern. i respect that. i tend to take the position that

it's important to lead with what you believe is right for america. and try to bring the america public along. instead of trying to find where everybody is. and do that. >> let me ask you about herman cain, was it inevitable, did he have to drop out? after all of these women came out of the woodwork. >> my heart went out -- my heart goes out to all of the candidates, herman cain has gone through a very difficult time for himself and his family. i think he made the right decision to leave for himself his family and for the country. clearly a distraction that wasn't going away. i feel bad for herman and his family in particular. i hope they can get well. >> mitt romney was the front-runner, certainly in polls, it showed, in a national election, he would have the most electability. but a lot of writers have said that he's moved consistently conservative now. >> there's no question that mitt

has moved. the question is, you know, what's the sincerity of the move and whether he can be trusted? that's one of the reasons i talk so much about looking at the candidate's record in terms of the best indication of what someone is going to do is what they have done in the past. we turn now to our roundtable. george will, arianna huffington, major garrett. and donna brazile. george, rick santorum hoping to get a boost from herman cain's supporter, is that availabviabl him? >> he's playing the iowa game by traditional rules. there's an interesting contrast between herman's fate and rick's fate. we want someone to gain traction if they have time. i think, however, i wonder if

donna agrees, that, between now and 2016, both parties have to do serious thought whether they can develop some filter this proliferation of debating being hijacked entrepreneurs. >> who are you are labeling as one? >> herman cain. who used this as a book tour. fundamentally disrespectful approach to the selection of the president. now, we have a december 27th debate proposed that would moderated by donald trump. surely it's time for these candidates to do something presidential and say we're not going to be hijacked. >> jon huntsman did that. he said that he was not going to participate in the debate. i complete agree with george. the line between the reality show and the campaign process has been getting thinner and thinner. now, i mean, with the brassless

way in which the media outed the news of herman cain suspension of his campaign, were really amazing. basically, right now, should give them the reality show, keeping up the cains. hash tag, winning back mrs. cain and make it a reality show. how do you win back gloria? >> three tickets out of iowa. romney is going to have one. ron paul will have one. ron paul will finish no worse than third in iowa. i guarantee you, his people are ferocious, organized and mean business. so what does santorum need to do to get maybe that third and a half ticket? at least 12%, 13%, that's long journey. he's made very little progress. >> let me put something up that glenn beck has picked up. he has picked up conservative supporters. look at what glenn beck said about santorum. >> if there is one guy out there that's the next george washington the only guy that i could think of is rick santorum,

i asked that you would take a look at him. >> well, characteristically over the top. george washington. >> they're both property owners in virginia. >> rick santorum is obviously perhaps the beneficiary of the right, conservative right, still looking for a candidate. >> yeah, and i think sarah palin's comments about rick santorum indicate that she's still trying to attack the party. for crony capitalism or folks who work both sides of the line. that's what she's saying about newt gingrich. she's sending a signal to her supporters that he's not authentic enough. she's saying that santorum might be. he's traveled all of iowa and he's still gaining no traction. there's a reason for that. >> at this point in the contest, the rank and file of the republican party, they're so upset, they'll back anyone who will stand up and express their anger, anger at washington. dissatisfaction with the

president and they reward their candidate. what i saw in "the des moines register" poll is that two-thirds of republican voters are still shopping. they're not cemented. they're not ready to fall in love yet. they're still looking for that candidate who could excite them. >> the white house has been very aggressive against mitt romney. thinking that he was going to be it. he still may be the nominee. are they happy that newt gingrich is at the top, is that better for them? >> newt, the former speaker of the house, this is the best side show that you could have in politics. three more nationally televised debates. then, you have the huckabee primary, which huckabee is going to try to crown someone. palin primary. donald trump, now has a debate and primary. the white house is happy that mitt romney will likely emerge as the plausible nominee and you know -- >> i wouldn't be so certain of that. because i feel that newt

gingrich's main adversary at the moment is newt gingrich. i think newt's likely to defeat mitt romney. simply because romney addresses the country as an accountant. in conversations with your accountant is one that you're never looking for. celebrate himself. his large attitude. in times of crisis the nation is looking for what is called a hedgehog figure as compared to a fox figure. who slices and dices and tries to find legal loopholes to explain his flip flops. gingrich is embraing all of his flip floppers. >> to that point, it's really being quite frustrating for prominent people in iowa, look at what a prominent iowa pastor said, newt is famous for being all over the board. he's admirable in so many ways,

but i won't back him. i don't trust him. can he turn that around? >> once you get a reputation for being changeable, no one is going to believe that you won't change about your changes. christiane, they think they found their tom dewey in mitt romney. the president is going to run as truman against congress. but that's not how truman got elected. he was running against tom dewey, a republican governor that people didn't take to. >> deeper down in "the des moines register" poll, when it comes to most presidential or most electable in a general election, romney surpasses gingrich. but, when it comes to most experience, most knowledge about the world, best able to bring real change, gingrich by a big margin surpasses romney. is that odd? >> it's weird. the fact is, i would expect that newt gingrich to bring the two

parties together as no one else could. >> that's quite possible. look the thing for speaker gingrich is, everyone around this table and republican voters know that he lacks discipline. he doesn't need to be disciplined for eight months. he needs to be disciplined for eight weeks. that's possible. newt gingrich is factor in iowa. he's gaining in new hampshire. he'll probably win south carolina. he leads by a big margin in florida. newt gingrich has momentum and the momentum is real. the one thing about newt gingrich, when you're in a room with newt gingrich, he creates an idea factory that people like to respond to. i saw in the obama campaign in 2008, because the way they felt about themselves being supportive of that kind of candidate. if you get an idea factory going, people say, you know what i'm an idea person. i like being around ideas. if that takes hold, i'm not predicting it will, but if it does, that's the kind of thing

that could overcome lack of organization. excitement can matter a lot in politics. >> newt gingrich. there are so many newt. if you go to newt gingrich of the '90s, in his third speech as speaker, he said something that something would be impossible to say in the republican primary now, the balanced budget is the right thing to do, but it doesn't have the moral you are general sense of what's coming to grip with the poorest americans. he talked about a moral responsibility. now that newt gingrich is not at all the newt gingrich who is running now, comparing the labor laws for children to -- we have gingrich 1.0. like microsoft, the more he races the worse he gets. >> he said that as being speaker. after having said something

favorable about orphanages the week before. so, that speech was a reaction to something that he said earlier, which isn't all together that dissimilar from what he said about child labor laws. now, oddly, enough, there's a component of consistency. let me turn to rick perry, he also, he had his boomlet, he's now tied for last with rick santorum. he spent a lot of money and put up a new ad in iowa. let's just listen. >> when you run for president, you get a bunch of questions about your faith. people want to know what drives you, how you make decisions. some liberals say that faith is a sign of weakness, they're wrong. i think we all need god's help. i'm rick perry. i'm not ashamed to talk about my faith. and i approved this message. >> not ashamed to talk about his faith. what is he gets at? why is he doing that? >> you're right, my weekly disclaimer, my wife's an adviser to rick perry.

he's getting 60%of the participants who are evangelical christians and elevated mike huckabee. >> despite your wife's working for him, do you think he has a chance? >> i think everyone has a chance, majority of iowans are still shopping. >> i agree with george. as long as they're still shopping and you put all of these debates, forums that are going on, it's still a race to see which candidate can put together the organization. remember, this is a cold, wintry night, and you need people who can go out and get their neighbors, their friends to come into a caucus. >> all right, we'll have more with our roundtable later in the program. and coming up -- the irrepressible barney frank, he announced this week that he's leaving congress but he's still got plenty to say. he joins me next. stay with us. ♪

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parliamentary inquest. >> the gentleman from texas is recognized to yield time for someone who might actually want to debate the bill. >> mr. speaker, does whining come out of my time? >> vintage barney frank, one of most outspoken and distinctive members of congress. this week, congressman frank announced that this term, his 16th, will be his last. he's retiring after more than 30 years in the house of representatives. he joins me now to discuss the washington that he'll leave behind. thank you for joining me,

congressman. just want to ask you, not just the washington you're leaving behind, the washington that you hope will get back to work. you have been a partisan for your team. but so many talk about you as a skilled negotiator. is that going to be possible over the next, let's say, 12 months until the election? >> well, ironically, it will be for the next 12 months, in general the problem is this, people sometimes forget, if you're in england, and they have an election, whoever gets the majority in the house of commons on wednesday is the prime minister on thursday. we have a very different kind of constitution. people seem to forget that. under the american constitution, at any one time, we're governed by people who have run in three elections. 2006, 2008 for the president and 2010. unusually the american people made very different decisions, the people who voted, because there was a drop-off in the electorate. the people who got elected in 2008 have different views from

the people in 2010. here's what's happening, those who are elected in 2010, who generally don't want a government to play a positive role in our lives, felt whether it's the environment or health care, collect action is more damaging than not. i think that's terribly wrong. there's a great conflict. they would be the ones who would say, okay, we're not going to let anything to happen. we're going say no, we're not going to raise the debt limit. we're not going to do this. in general, the people who want to say no, the people who want to do the veto, have a certain leverage. because total inaction, chaos is on their side. unusually in this coming year -- >> sorry -- >> in this coming year -- >> is that what you see gridlock in this coming year? >> no. >> will it happen or not? >> no, that's what i was trying to say is that, unusually, this year, inertia has now become a force of action in an odd way.

if nothing happens this year, congress passes no legislation. two things will happen, all of the bush tax cuts will expire at the end of the year. everybody's taxes will go up. secondly, the sequestration will go into effect, there will be broad cuts a, for the first time in memory, military spending reductions will more. those on the conservative side who control the house, if they continue to say, no deal, unless you do everything we want, and we say, fine, we're ready to compromise, but we're not going to give into you, then taxes go up and military spending is cut hard. therefore, in this unusual circumstance, where bad things from the conservative standpoint will happen if nothing happens. there will have to be a deal. i think there will be a deal. the president has articulated it. we're for extending tax cuts. for most people. but for the not 1% 2%. secondly, i think democrats, i would be ready to live with

military cuts, i think that there would be a majority of democrats saying that we want some military reductions. we don't need to protect germany from stallin. we'll compromise. you're going to see this year, because of the consequences of inaction, an unusual situation where there will be inaction on the amendment to the sequestration and the taxes. >> congressman, turning to the actual general election right now, you probably heard our roundtable discussing the ups and downs of the candidates. with newt most certainly being up right now. you said that newt would be the best thing to happen to the party since barry goldwater. what do you precisely mean there? >> he would be a very weak candidate. he would lose heavily and lot of democrats would win races in which there would be a great falloff. i think newt gingrich is the split between the extremely conservative sector of america

which is the republican presidential primary electorate and the rest of the country is very clear. and i believe that, a man with gingrich's vulnerability, if he wins the nomination it will be because romney is understandably seen as sufficiently -- insufficiently conservative. that will allow gingrich to overcome a lot. for the republican debate, i have been casting "the wizard of oz." mitt romney is the tin woodman without the heart. rick perry is scarecrow, he makes the point, what's scary about people is what they don't know but what they know that it isn't true. his ad, that faith is a sign of weakness. that's delusional. i don't any political liberal who thinks that faith is a sign of weakness. newt is the wizard of oz. >> let me ask you.

>> newt is the one -- >> go ahead. >> newt, there's nothing there. when people focus on him as opposed to him being the not romney, this is a man who served as speaker, he was twice reprimanded by the house. by the way, i was reprimanded by the house. one of the reasons i wouldn't run to president. there's this problem with marriages. and criticizing chris dodd and me over freddie mac. we were in the minority. he was taking money from them to make sure nothing happened. i think he's an obvious weak candidate. >> but let me ask about the democratic campaign message. and the election message. you also said that the problem in politics is this, you don't get any credit for disaster averted. going to the voters, saying, things really suck if it wasn't for me, it would suck worse. that's not a platform on which anyone has gotten elected in the history of the world. so how do you think the obama campaign is going to get

re-elected? >> well, that's true. that's our dilemma. we inherited this terrible economy, president obama did. clearly, the actions taken by president, when the congress when democrats controlled it and by the federal reserve, a very well-performing institution that has been unfairly demonized. things are better than they would have been. you don't win on that. first of all, i think this issue of whether or not you continue to -- whether you cut taxes for the wealthiest people and instead of cut back on social security, that doesn't work. secondly, i think they're misreading the ad. attacking president obama for pulling out of iraq. i think the american people now understand that we're overcommitted internationally. that we don't terrorism threat equivalent to nuclear arms -- i think the insistence of military spending at the expense of domestic spending would be a mistake.

>> congressman, frank, thank you very much indeed. and up next -- unemployment dipped, which is good news for the president. but do the numbers tell the whole story? the roundtable returns to do the math. shocked how much data you usee in a month. e-mail, status updates, finding your way, uploading photos, downloading an app, an app, and another app. kilobytes, megabytes, gigabytes... all stacking up until you reach your limit. and what happens if you go over? with sprint, you don't have to worry. only sprint offers truly unlimited data. trouble hearing on the phone? visit sprintrelay.com. only sprint offers truly unlimited data. i joined the navy when i was nineteen. i was a commissioned officer at twenty-three. i was an avionics... tactical telecommunications... squad leader. i think the hardest transition as you get further into the military is... you know it's going to end one day. chase hired me to be a personal banker. i'm a business analyst... manager. i'm very proud to work for chase. when you hire a veteran, you get... great leadership... decisiveness...

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[ cheering ] i wanna see that again. ♪ people are looking for a glimmer of hope looking for jobs found something to hold on to this week. the economy added 120,000 jobs in month november. and unemployment dipped to 8.6% the lowest level in two years. good news, but the numbers don't tell the whole story. for that, let's bring back our roundtable. george will, arianna huffington, major garrett and donna brazile. donna, it must be great news for your team. >> it's wonderful news. but no one is popping champagne. because republicans and democrats are still trying to get congress to pass the jobs bill. they're still trying to do everything in his executive power to get jobs created all across the country. they're excited about it, yes, but no one is popping the champagne. >> two points.

it's a great headline and very good for the president. but 315,000 americans left the work fork. they got so discouraged about their limited job prospects, they dropped off. one statistic that i'm obsessed about in our economic difficulties, labor participation rate. people working and people looking for work, it dropped to 65.7% to 64%. 1.2% in the entire eight years of the bush presidency. we have a structural problem of unemployment. that's real problem. >> politically it's not an important trend but an important dip. >> i think democrats are fooling themselves if they think this is wonderful news. because that's not what people are experiencing. only 7% of the people who have found jobs since the financial crisis have found jobs at the level of the job they had lost. so, that means the jobs that people are getting are

low-paying jobs, they're not the kind of jobs that we'll keep people in the middle class. wand is happening right now, people are dropping out of the middle class into poverty. that's really a major factor that's going affect the democrats in this election. >> george, one of the main factors is going to effect, it could be angela merkel and the people in europe, it doesn't get talked about much, certainly the people in the white house must be sweating bullets over what's happening in europe. >> yeah. the president has shifted his alibi machine from george w. bush caused my problems to the european central bank. people know who george w. bush is, no one in america know the europe central bank. he's right in a sense, the shock, which would be the default of greece to portugal, spain, italy, somewhere else. is far more important than this.

just one more bit of rain on this parade, 50,000 of those new jobs were retail jobs. i disagree with arianna. if the trend is good in 2012 as it was for ronald reagan where unemployment started under him at 10.8%, ronald reagan rode that raising tide of good news. >> are you better off now than four years ago? barack obama can't ask that question and expect answer now. that's the fundamental problem. >> he can go to america and say, do you want to go back to the policies that led us to this deep recession and do you want to go back to political party that, in the midst of a recession, would not lift a hand to help the middle class? >> the treasury secretary has been back and forth to europe. again to harp on it, because it's america's biggest market, europe, this is where the fear is coming from.

what can the president, if anything, the administration do to mitigate what's happening there? >> sarkozy and merkel will be meeting tomorrow hopefully, they'll come up with a policy that will strengthen the euro. >> they want to rewrite treaties. >> what's left in our tool box? >> there's one mechanism, the european central bank could use the imf as a means by which to push funding through. the imf and its disclipnary focus, not the european central bank meaning germany who are using powers throughout the euro zone. if happens that could be something the united states could do. we are the largest donor nation. there are $390 billion available from imf they could loan to europe. that's not nearly enough. if they add their resources to that, pushes it through the imf that could solve the problem. >> just wait until that gets passed in the debate.

>> which brings us to ron paul, we didn't talk about ron paul. we want to carry on. 18% is number two in "the des moines register" poll. where do you think that's going to take him? >> he has an organization. newt gingrich is full of ideas. he's full of platitudes and sound bites. but ron paul has an organization in all of these key early states. his base is enthusiastic. and they will come out in support. >> low ceiling but an absolutely solid floor. on friday, on fox news, he was asked, might you run as a third-party candidate, he said i'm not thinking about that, i'm doing pretty well. that is study in nondenial. the fact is, he has the infrastructure in place to re-elect mr. obama. >> already newt gingrich has been announcing new precincts in south carolina. the chances that ra herm yaen

cain separation is going to move to newt gingrich, that's the expectation. newt gingrich put together the contract for america. not like he can't organize. the idea of somehow newt gingrich is just full of ideas but can't organize, just listen to all of the members of congress. including john boehner who got into politics because of newt's organization. >> it can take hold. i have seen it before. >> but you know i'm an organizer, not a community organizer, an old-school organizer, you have to get on the ballots in all of these states. newt has missed one deadline in missouri. granted it's not a bind iing ballot. in order to win the nomination, you got to get delegates. therefore, you have to go out and get petitions. can he do it over the next couple of weeks? perhaps. up next -- angelina jolie's labor of love, she opens up about her new film about the war

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tdd# 1-800-345-2550 or come in and pull up a chair. that was a scene from "in the land of blood and honey," a new film written and directed by the academy award winning angelina jolie. it tells the story of innocent people caught in the middle of the bosnia war. they were victims of genocide. although the united states was heavily involved and finally ended the conflict in 1995, the actual war, raging for more than three years in the heart of europe, was considered the greatest collective failure of international diplomacy since world war ii.

i covered it and i sat down with angelina jolie and two of the stars. >> i was thinking and meditating on these international themes of violence against women, lack of intervention and how human beings are changed and warped by war. and how some people come out stronger. and some people are truly broken. >> were you conscious of american foreign policy when you were doing this show? >> it was infuriating how long it took to intervened. it's just being conscious, discussing it, not hiding the issues and figuring out and working towards solutions with the people on the ground. >> when you cast the film, you have an entirely local group of people who lived the war, lived all sides of the ethnic divide. was that deliberate?

>> absolutely. i wouldn't have done the film without them. it belongs to them. it's their story. >> it is a controversial thing to do. to tackle the idea of camps, of ethnic cleansing, of women being raped as a tool of war. >> there's no safe way to tackle these subject matters. but i think the important thing is to discuss thing and attack them. >> our fear is the silence. our fear is the ignorance. our fear is that people won't know what happened. and being ignorant about what happened leads a chance it may happen again. >> do you feel like you were forgotten? do you feel like this film is a way of reminding the world of what happened back then? >> i didn't feel abandoned. especially when i looked at you, i don't feel that we were abandoned. because what we had, when you

were doing those cnn reports, for us, it was the truth. and as you know the truth was on our side. it's a stain. that will always remain. >> a stain? >> a stain. it's a scar. i think that's maybe the best way to describe it. >> i saw the films that we did in bosnia, for some unexplainable reason, people put on gloves when talk about war. >> they treat it with kid gloves, as they say. >> yes. but, angelina, this is what i wanted to say when i read the script, i had a knife in my chest, in stomach, i said, what is this? what is this? it's so strong. >> you're not from there, yet you have thrown yourself into this incredible story, it's incredibly emotional, even all of us talking. >> it's a great photograph. the woman, with the pearls, she has done her hair, you may shoot

at me, but you will not remove my dignity, myself, my person, i'll continue to keep my head up. there's something about this film through the music that shows the warmth and the love of the people from this part of the world. that is special. >> very moving for you, too? >> very moving. i'm very moved. >> and you can see more of my interview with angelina jolie tomorrow on "good morning america." and on "nightline." where she opens up about her humanitarian work and life with brad pitt and their six children. up next -- which republican candidate is kissing the donald's ring. that's ahead on next week in politics.

and now, the sunday funnies. this christmas a number of senators will participate in a secret santa gift exchange that will involve members of both parties. the way it works, the democrats will give the republicans a gift and that's it. it's another case of he said/she said. >> now, technically i believe

we're now up to he said/she said/she said/she said/she said/she was paid not to say. >> today, some good news, it's the holiday season over at the white house. the theme for this year's christmas is shine, give, share. the rumored theme for next year's christmas will be clean, pack, move. it's a rumor. >> and now for a look at what's on tap for next week in politics. monday, the parade of candidates to trump tower continues. as newt gingrich heads to the big apple to meet with businessman and future debate moderator donald trump. tuesday, president obama travels to osawatomie, kansas to road test his new message of economic populism with a speech about fairness. most of his gop challengers will be in nation's capital on wednesday, speaking before the republican jewish coalition, expect to hear a lot of full-throated support for israel on that stage. and saturday, all eyes on iowa and the abc news republican presidential debate moderated by

abc's diane sawyer and george stephanopoulos. it airs live on abc at 9:00 p.m. eastern/6:00 p.m. pacific. we'll be right back. this was the gulf's best tourism season in years. all because so many people wanted to visit us... in louisiana. they came to see us in florida... nice try, they came to hang out with us in alabama... once folks heard mississippi had the welcome sign out, they couldn't wait to get here. this year was great but next year's gonna be even better. and anyone who knows the gulf

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♪ and we remember all of those who died in war this week. the pentagon released the names of three soldiers and marines killed in afghanistan. i joined the navy when i was nineteen. i spent four years in the military and i served a tour in iraq. all the skills that i learned in the military are very transferable into the corporate and real world. chase hired me to be a personal banker. the 100,000 jobs mission has definitely helped me get my foot in the door. chase is giving opportunities to vets who don't think that there's any opportunity out there. chase and these other companies are getting a great deal when they hire veterans. chase is proud to help 100,000 veterans find jobs at home. our machines help identify

early stages of cancer, and it's something that we're extremely proud of. you see someone who is saved because of this technology, you know that the things that you do in your life matter. if i did have an opportunity to meet a cancer survivor, i'm sure i could take something positive away from that. [ jocelyn ] my name is jocelyn. and i'm a cancer survivor. [ woman ] i had cancer. i have no evidence of disease now. [ woman #2 ] i would love to meet the people that made the machines. i had such an amazing group of doctors and nurses, it would just make such a complete picture of why i'm sitting here today. ♪ [ man ] from the moment we walk in the front door, just to see me -- not as a cancer patient, but as a person that had been helped by their work, i was just blown away. life's been good to me. i feel like one of the luckiest guys in the world. ♪

congratulations. congratulations. today, the city of charlotte can use verizon technology to inspire businesses to conserve energy and monitor costs. making communities greener... congratulations. ... and buildings as valuable to the bottom line... whoa ! ... as the people inside them. congratulations. because when you add verizon to your company, you don't just add, you multiply. ♪ discover something new... verizon. that's our program this week. remember, you can always follow us on facebook, twitter, and at abcnews.com. don't forget to join us next saturday at 9:00 p.m. eastern and 6:00 p.m. pacific when diane sawyer and george stephanopoulos moderate the abc news republican presidential debate from des moines, iowa. for all of us here, thank you for watching and we'll see you next week.

in the news this sunday, the chp is investigating a collision that killed a bicyclist in burlingame on the freeway. concord police are searching for a suspect who shot and killed several geese at a popular park. join us next for the news at 9:00.