promised to other people. joining me now is e.j. dionne, washington post columnist, also an msnbc political analyst. e.j., what other lands are promised to what other people? where are we going there? well, you know, i mean, it is i couldn t help but think that when president obama was asked about american exceptionalism, he thought other countries felt they were exceptional, too. so romney s going to issue a statement backtracking from that particular statement. but, you know, i do think religion has played a real role in these primaries already. you did a little essay the other night on that polling question about whether the religion of a candidate matters to a voter a great deal? some? not much? or not at all? if you look across the states, the voters who have said the religion of the candidate matters a great deal to them have given very few votes to mitt romney in these republican
shall we? and there is another showdown over a possible shutdown. one week from today, the federal government will are up out of money. so with critical government programs and disaster relief hanging in the balance, congress is taking the weekend off. but they say they have good reason to. they needed to cool off a bit. cnn congressional correspondent indicate baldwin tells us what s holding up a deal. with lawmakers heading for the exits and after a long week of heated debate. that s the danger to this country is the $14 trillion deficit and the $1.6 trillion we add to it every damn year. wake up. wakeup. you can t kill these programs. this is the solution you are killing. reporter: congress leaves washington with no agreement on how to avoid another government shutdown. why the holdup as the september 30th deadline looms? neither side is backing down. top republicans and democrats continue pointing fingers at each other. harry reid is holding a bill up with full
the masses, many people don t think it s necessary. i think that has to do with how the polling question is asked. but here we have the president today saying i will not sign certain versions of a debt ceiling increase. how can he take the position that there s a debt ceiling increase that would pass the senate and house of representatives and come to his desk and he would just stare at it and not sign it? i think he understands the impact if we start limping around month to month or every two or three months extending the debt ceiling what that does to our economy in the eyes of the world. we are serious about our debt and our future. the president is saying let s get serious. that s why he went to john boehnor personally and said we need a big deal, something that is honest and decisive and tells the rest of the world we re tackling our problems head-on. john boehnor came back sorry, i can t sell it. but the president has made it
masses, many of whom don t think it s necessary. they don t like the sound of it. i think that has to do with how the polling question is asked. but here we have the president today saying i will not sign certain versions of a debt ceiling increase. how can he take the position that there s a debt ceiling increase that would pass the senate and house of representatives and come to his desk and he would just stare at it and not sign it? i think he understands the impact if we start limping around month to month or every two or three months extending the debt ceiling what that does to our economy in the eyes of the world. what the people who make these decisions take a look at is we are serious about our debt and our future. the president is saying let s get serious. that s why he went to john boehner personally and said we need a big deal, something that is honest and decisive and tells the rest of the world we re tackling our problems head-on. john boehner came back sorry, i can t se
seems the president is winning the basic argument i never thought we d have to have is do we really have to raise the debt ceiling. you hear john boehnor saying yes, i get it, i know, we really do have to do it. is that the feeling in the room? yes, and the good news is the craziness you re hearing out of the iowa caucuses on the other side is not being repeets ated in the room. the people there are grownups, we know what s going to happen. our credit rating, if you will, in the world will be in question, interest rates will go up. i can t think of a worse thing to happen to the economy. that s a job killer. everybody at the table knows that. given the message which i think the democrats and republicans have given successfully, the importance of raising the debt limit. i don t mean the importance of the masses, many people don t think it s necessary. i think that has to do with how the polling question is asked. but here we have the president