christie? yeah, i think this poll is something for hillary clinton partisans to worry about, thomas. it s not just a stand-alone number. i ve seen other polls from purple states, colorado, ohio and so on that show christie competitive with her or ahead of her. there s a little paradox i can t quite put my finger on. she s the most admired woman in america for 17 of the last 20 years. she left the state department with an approval rating in the mid-70s. and yet as a potential presidential candidate, can t quite make the sale with independent voters, among whom christie led her in this poll. so she s got some work to do there with independent voters, despite her high personal standing. okay. so let s look at that specifically, corey, with the independents and the breakdown of this poll because it would suggest chris christie leading clinton by nine points in the independent area. we also see a pretty significant gender gap here. hillary clinton leading with women voters by nearly 20%
they re easy to make fun of on television, the titles of them, but i would imagine something important is learned in a lot of this research, and i think the government probably should fund research into what makes a happy marriage. i don t have difficulty with that. i don t think tom coburn i don t think republicans, conservatives should have an issue with that. can t put a price tag on a happy marriage, michael. you can t put a price tag on a happy marriage. the government does. corey, let me leave it with you. much ado about nothing or is this a great way to display areas of wasteful spending that americans need to know about? and as michael points out, some of these things do make sense but as we look at them collectively, they do leave us scratching our head for some. any research on marriages is money well spent as far as i m concerned, thomas. but this is not necessarily wasteful spending because there are explanations behind a great deal of them. i think it just contin
candidate take a new poll showing her lagging behind possible republican candidate chris christie? and republican senator tom coburn calls out congress and federal agencies for wasteful spending, but how much of his annual waste book report was much ado about nothing? these are the topics for our agenda panel today, corey dade is a contributing editor for the root, sabrina siddiqui and michael tomaski. gang, we re physically all in the same space but we are separated by floors and a little studio distance. separate but equal, thomas. separate but equal. exactly. michael, let me start with you. the new iowa poll conducted by quinnipiac university shows chris christie with a five-point lead. so for those people in a hillary clinton presidential camp, presumably, should worriers in that camp look at this and question the strength of chris
0 it s a good idea to extend benefits for up to 99 weeks. so there s probably going you re probably going to see a fight over that come winter. so as we know, what we ve seen from the house, they have wrapped up their business for the year. but as we talk about the senate and lindsey graham also in that statement yesterday where he went on to say that everybody is just trying to race out of town, what is on the senate s to do list? well, they re trying to cram a few last-minute things in here. we ve got a defense authorization bill that s set to come up today for a cloture vote and that will deal with it will authorize the defense department funding for next year. it will change a little bit the way we handle detainees at guantanamo, make some changes to sexual assault in the military, although it doesn t include senator kirsten gillibrand s amendment that would take sexual assaults out of the chain of command. the senate has to deal with a number of nominations. they have said
thanks so much. viviana, msnbc.com s benji sarlon and theroots corey dade. join our conversation on our website. thomasroberts.msnbc.com. we ll be right back. about trying or adding a biologic. this is humira, adalimumab. this is humira working to help relieve my pain. this is humira helping me through the twists and turns. this is humira helping to protect my joints from further damage. doctors have been prescribing humira for over ten years. humira works by targeting and helping to block a specific source of inflammation that contributes to ra symptoms. for many adults, humira is proven to help relieve pain and stop further joint damage. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal events, such as infections, lymphoma, or other types of cancer, have happened. blood, liver and nervous system problems,