Cliff Talks News Today

The president held a prep rally in the east room and suggested he was not that flexible. >> i am open to new ideas. i am committed to solving our fiscal challenges. but i refuse to accept any approach that isnt balanced. >> reporter: the confronteddational approach fired up democrats as the president hit the road again again, making his case on the fiscal cliff. >> it is too important for our families to not get it done. >> reporter: the president did have that lunch with romney, which yielded o...

Republicans beyond one-on-ones with speaker john boehner. the presidents team says the g.o.p. dug in on taxes so he did his best. >> he negotiated with and gave republican leaders and he put forward proposals that represented by any measure serious compromise. >> reporter: the strategy seemed to pay off, as the president got a better deal in the cliff talks. and went in to his inaugural riding high. since the "state of the union," though, he has had far less leverage in the sequester fight after...

Right now on "first look," the house approves a budget deal, the fiscal cliff is averted. the deficit expected to grow by $4 trillion, president obama headed back to his hawaiian vacation. contentious cliff talks had one leader telling off another in the crudest of terms. penn state fights back. the mummers are out in full force, and some residents in colorado are enjoying the new legal pot dens. good morning, im bill karins, the house has finally given approval to the bill to undo the effects...

>> yeah, when? it has -- actually, just to ban the magazine, the assault magazine, we could do it right now, and then take dianne feinsteins initiative and others to move to ban assault weapons and the rest. yes. then address mental health issues, violence in our society, in our inner cities, and beyond. >> important points all. well be right back. our exclusive conversation with nancy pelosi continuing next with those cliff talks, including her reaction to john boehners plan b. this is andrea m...

Excerpt from his new book, "because i said so." >> its a must-read. >> i like the cover, why every kid should read. >> mike allen has a look at the "playbook." hello, mike. >> happy friday, willie. >> lets talk immigration because the president has said this is next on deck once we get through this fiscal cliff question and the debt ceiling. will be the next big undertaking for congress sometime in 2013. how does it shake out? >> yeah, well, "politico" has learned that the president plans to rea...

I think the person whos having the issue should try to deal with the in-law that theyre having a problem with first. go and talk to that person. tell them whats bothering you. make sure that you expect that there are always going to be differences and that they may not change. you may disagree or there may be differences between you and your in-laws. and youre not going to change them on one holiday party or at one event. but if you try and you set your boundaries and you cant deal with that par...

In the end theyre going to come to the table like they did last year with the payroll tax cut right at the last minute. but both sides want to sort of hold onto their bargaining power right now. you have both sides doing these kind of events. john boehner came out right after the president spoke in pennsylvania and said were at a stalemate. thats sort of sending the alarm and also trying to hold your cards close. >> so meredith, based on also what david is saying regarding john boehner your late...

But they have eight points more democrats than republicans, and historically theres one point more republican than democrat. thats off by a factor of nine. romney wins ohio -- wins virginia by seven. >> so you are standing by your prediction of a romney landslide? >> absolutely. romney will win this election by five to ten points in the popular vote and will carry more than 300 electoral votes. >> were talking about a real phenomenon here. you have people like neil newhouse, not just right wing ...

Thats off by a factor of nine. romney wins ohio -- wins virginia by seven. >> so you are standing by your prediction of a romney landslide? >> absolutely. romney will win this election by five to ten points in the popular vote and will carry more than 300 electoral votes. >> were talking about a real phenomenon here. you have people like neil newhouse, not just right wing crazy people, who were saying this election was in the bag. it was going to be a glorious victory, overwhelming victory. smar...

Smart people all saying overwhelming. what was their world view that convinced them of that? i think a lot of that leads to this defiance. we still have the house thats a counter mandate. theres something strange going on here and its going to matter as we get into these cliff talks. >> well, its because i dont think the republicans want toed a mity to themselves what the real problems are. there are two as i see it. one is the cultural side. the country keeps changing on issues such as abortion...