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america? let's go "outfront." >> i'm erin burnett. we're just an hour away. eight republican candidates vying for the party nomination. they are all taking to the stage tonight. the topic, national security. it has been 109 days since america lost its aaa credit rating. that's going to turn the rate on our mortgages and a whole lot more. we're not doing anything about it. we're still mad has hell about the super committee failing yesterday. fitch said the committee's failure would most likely result in negative action. so we're upset about the super committee and they are mad, too. panel member john kerry was watching "outfront" last night. he got mad and he called in. >> i think people are upset. i think nerve the country is upset. they are looking at congress and saying, why can't these guys get something done? but it's not enough for people just to say, oh, it's broken. you got to ask, okay, why. what is the matter that it is broken? >> so what now? we're hoping for a shock and wow moment but it's not looking like we're going to see one soon. the supercommittee telling us they have no plans to meet after the holiday. and some question whether any action will be taken until after the election. in the meantime as we get ready for this big debate on america's national security, the hail mary for some, including senator john mccain is to take away those automatic defense cuts. president obama says he will veto any attempt to do that which makes sense because if they were rolled back, it could mean some big-time downgrades which would make the august market plunge and economic stumble look like the happy days. since this will be a big part of tonight's debate, we did the math. here's the bottom line. the defense department agreed to cuts already of $450 billion. now if you add in the automatic cuts, total cuts rise to just about $1 trillion over the next ten years. now depending how you count, there are a couple of ways to do it. that's a cut of between 11% and 14% of projected defense spending. that's a whole lot less than nixon, eisenhower or george h.w. bush cut while they were in office. eisenhower cut 29%. what would get hit? defense expert todd harrison of cbsa tells us we could see more cuts to the joint strike fighter program. and we could see cuts of 80,000 men and women from the army. the numbers indicate the pentagon has choices. and a lot of room to move. after all, america already spends ten times more than russia on its military, six times more than the next superpower, china. but there's one thing that gives us pause. before you say, hey, it's no problem. go ahead and cut. according to a few sources we've been talking to, the defense industry employs millions of americans. 2 million or more just in the armed services alone. and, if you take away some of those jobs you could see a hit 16% to gdp. if you look at our numbers next year, that's half of projected growth with an economy struggling to grow. you can see that could be a problem. david gergen joins us, senior political analyst here. glo gloria borger is our chief political analyst. they'll be talking about this in cuts, for defense, it's going to be a big issue. it's not an easy issue. >> no oorkts not an easy issue, particularly for republicans. because i think what we're going to see happen is the hawks, like john mccain, are going to come into a big fight with the anti-tax republicans. anti-tax because the money has to come from somewhere. if you are going to roll back these defense cuts, where are you going to -- you know, where are you going to find the money to offset it? well. republicans just might say, you ought to look at the extension of the bush tax cuts for the wealthy. we can't afford to do that anymore. so i think this is going to be a debate within the republican party. >> it's not just the republicans. the president and the democrats have some issues here, too. and the president just went to the pacific. he just talked about projecting more military power into the pacific. we're not going to back down as china flexes its muscles. we're going to go into australia and places like that. how are we going to pay for that without more in the defense budget? you've also got his own secretary of defense, leon panetta, has said these cuts would be unacceptable. they would threaten our national security if these automatic cuts go into place. so what they're going to do? the commander in chief can't simply let that happen. >> and he said he would veto, interesting position. i'll veto your effort to get rid of those sequester cuts. >> i was talking to a senior white house official today who said, look. this puts barack obama in an interesting position. if he gets re-elected, next december, you are going to be kind of up against the wall there. and then if barack obama is re-elected, he's in a position to say to the american congress, okay, guess what, guys. now you are going to have to figure it out. >> it's also -- but this is exactly how you should not construct the defense budget. normally you figure out, what are the threats? what's our strategy to meet the threats. and how much do we have to spend to do that? instead of coming up with sort of an arbitrary number and saying you have to learn to live with this, you don't know how to plan. and i would argue that the pentagon is going to have a very hard time next year because they can't wait until january and how much money they are going to spend in -- >> they are going to plan in advance. >> and the first $400 billion -- >> which is tough. >> which they are in the middle of doing. i would also say leon panetta used to be the budget chief in a different administration in the clinton administration. he was the big budget cutter. now it's interesting to me to he him on the other side of the ax saying, no, no, no. don't cut my budget. >> how are they going to answer -- i finishing the super committee comes up tonight, if wolf will bring it up, this issue of now that we've put this problem off a little bit, you now have unemployment benefits and the payroll tax which is very popular. the two together. estimates $160 billion to $180 billion. it's going to be hard to not pass that. but you got to find spending cuts on the other side. when he puts people on the spot in there, who is going to have a good answer for that question? who would have the nerve to say i would not extend either one of those extremely unpopular benefits. >> it's an argument republicans have an easier time making because we've already gone past the -- you know, 99 weeks. and they say at a certain point they make the argument it keeps people out of work, but the extension of the payroll tax cut affects middle class taxpayers, and i don't know who out there is going to say, we really ought not to extend this. >> as you know if you end the payroll tax cut, it's actually like a tax increase. it's contractionary for the economy. >> i know the white house is saying, citing some numbers sbag $1,000 per family, per year in increased taxes. >> i think what you'll hear tonight is they'll say, look. we ought to extend, but we should not do that by raising taxes on the wealthy. we're not going to go there. we would file tght that. you have to find -- their argument is that the democrats, obama, have loaded the budget with a lot of discretionary spending. >> and herman cain will say 9-9-9. >> one thing i know he will say 1 is 9-9-9. gloria and david will be with us throughout the show. we are less than an hour away from when the candidates will approach their podiums and take wolf blitzer's questions and say why they'll be a better commander in chief. jon huntsman is going to be out there. he is trailing in the polls but thinks he's got a secret weapon, his daughters. the jon 2012 girls come "outfront" with us tonight. remember the bridge to nowhere? who could forget. we're going to look at detroit's sidewalks to nowhere next. seriously. ♪ here's where we deliver steady income - month after month. what's it going to be this month, mr. z? i'm gonna renovate my son's house. baby room. congratulations! 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[ deep breath ] thank you! that's the cold truth! the number tonight is 4.74. that's the degrees of separation between two people on earth. that's right. it's not six anymore. it's 4.74. it means that i, for example, could be linked to someone in belgium through four acquaintances or quote/unquote degrees. why did the number go down? apparently it's social networks like facebook which published this data. they are linking more and more people together and doing it in a way that's easier to study. although i don't know. does it count if you know someone if you've never met them. i'm a little old-fashioned on that. i would say not so much. cnn's national security debate begins within the hour. at this minute, republican candidates are preparing to tout their credentials as commander in chief. they are getting ready. there you see newt gingrich arriving. coming in, they are getting their hair and makeup. that's how it happens. and it's going to be tough for them to make the case against president obama. the reason is, well, he's got really, really high approval ratings when it comes to current policy. the killing oassume ing osama be handling of the libya conflict and the death of moammar gadhafi. 61% of americans support the president's decision to withdraw u.s. troops from iraq. so how will the republicans criticize the president and make it stick? that's going to be a challenging job. bill burton is with us. he was with us last night. we switched seats with these two gentlemen to always make it even. you know, last night he was -- so it's always fair. >> bill complained. >> one less degree of separation. >> all right. well said. so what do you -- what do they need to say tonight? because his guy is really popular and seen as very successful on foreign policy. >> i think oftentimes these debates are a contest whof can be the most presidential. and they are oftentimes when you are doing an introduction to the american electorate about your foreign policy ideas, your vision, your credentials. this is a time to show a command and control of the issues. and to make sure that people know that if they could envision seeing you, in the presidency, but they can envision seeing you getting that 3:00 a.m. call in the oval office as president. so i think that's an important part of how -- what a lot of these candidates want to do tonight when they are trying to reach voters. >> i guess that's true because when president obama took office, right, that was the whole thing. who would want to get the call. and people said, he's not experienced. and now he's stepped in. and look at his track record. >> a lot of successes around the world. lots of success in resetting the american relationships around the globe. and so i think voters are going to be looking at which one of those candidates could actually sit in the oval office. who could be in that iconic photo from "the situation room" when the president put in the order to kill osama bin laden. and i think that the question that people are going to have is, who has got the guts to make the tough calls. and the other thing people are going to look for is who has the guts to take on the other candidates. will newt gingrich stop running for president like he's been doing this entire time. >> the no attacks on mitt romney is a little pathetic. >> he has to stir up controversy within the republican primary. but he does make a good point which is that this is one of the difficulties sometimes in a republican primary. in any primary. many times you agree on a lot of these issues. so the charge is that who can show they are the strongest? who is the one that -- the candidate that can show they are the most articulate or have the greatest, strongest vision for the country. so that is -- that's what these debates offer these candidates the opportunity to do that. >> i want to ask about iran because i think it's important for both sides you represent. i want to really cover this ad which you both are well aware of since you worked with mitt romney and, obviously, you work with the president. let's play the ad that mitt romney's camp put out today. here it is. >> i am confident that we can steer ourselves out of this crisis. we need a rescue plan for the middle class. we need to provide relief for homeowners. it's going to take a new direction. if we keep talking about the economy, we're going to lose. >> okay. but here's what the president actually said. so let's show you that. >> senator mccain's campaign actually said, and i quote, if we keep talking about the economy, we're going to lose. >> all right. clearly taken out of context. >> look. the most important thing. there's two points to this. the first is the message. the second is the process part. the message part is important. in 2008, then candidate obama openly mocked his opposition because they couldn't talk about the economy. and now, given the state of the economy, given his failure of leadership on that particular issue, he's having a very hard time talking about the economy, too. and doesn't want to. the obama campaign in the early part of this year said they want to kill mitt romney and that they weren't going to talk about the issues but instead, they want to go right at him personally. so i think that's the contrast that we see now in this particular debate. and that's the frame. the process part of it is also important. right now the romney campaign got exactly what it wanted. it's a one on one debate with the white house. with the president. and that's what puts him heads and shoulders above the rest of this field. and that's also a message, it's confrontational with the white house. it resonates strongly with republican voters. >> it's not honest. that's my issue with it. why do you so blatantly cut it apart. let me give you a chance to respond and then -- >> a couple of things about what kevin had to say. the romney campaign probably does appreciate how much air time this ad has been getting. however -- >> true, to be fair. we all are playing it and discussing it. so they are getting a lot of airing. >> but it doesn't tell us anything about mitt romney that we didn't already know which is that he can't be concerned. if core conservatives concern is whether he's going to tell the truth, to come out of the box and not tell the truth and then preview the ad with reporters by saying that you are lying so you can get more attention is not helping you get voters to trust you even more. >> will this ad end up serving him well or -- >> when you have a debate between obama and romney on the economy, which is what the debate that this ad looks to force, that is a good place for governor romney. and voters are going to be rendering their decision own who they want to be president based on that question. who is the candidate that best prepared to lead this economy forward and to fix it. president obama has shown he can't. president romney has put forth a vision to show he can. >> the problem here is the debate hasn't been between romney and obama. it's been between romney and reporters who are all saying he's lying. >> i've never met a reporter who doesn't think they can run a better campaign, just like i've never met a press secretary or somebody on a campaign who doesn't think they can write better stories. that's always going to be the case. >> all right. we're going to hit pause there. thanks very much to both of you. good to see you. we do a lot of serious stories on this show. this one is a little more seriously. in detroit, michigan, the city decided to repave grandy street. and while they were at it the city also added wheelchair friendly ramps at every intersection. that's a good idea, right? well, except for there's one big problem. most of the sidewalks don't go anywhere. seriously. we're not kidding about this. despite the fact many of the sidewalks lead to grassy fields or debris and garbage, the city spent over $150,000, $12,000 per intersection to add ramps to curbs along grandy street. now why you ask? because in 1991, the u.s. department of transporation mandated cities make their streets more wheelchair accessible. so now whenever detroit repaves a road it also adds ramps to the curbs. even those that lead to nowhere. no one thinks this is a good idea. not even michael harris, the executive director of a veterans group which challenged the city for better access in 2006. he told the detroit news, we agree it does not make sense to put in curbs where they aren't needed. but still, the city keeps doing it. and even though on the surface it's just a bunch of intersections in detroit and you say it doesn't add up to a lot of money it is part of a bigger problem. politicians plindly enforcing laws while ignoring true spirit of them. as long as elected officials keep behaving like this, we'll still be stuck with the same problems. seriously, super committee. 40 minutes from the start of tonight's debate. our panel makes their last-minute picks and predictions of who might rise and who might fall. tonight, jon huntsman hoping his daughters will be the spark his campaign needs. the jon 2012 girls come out front tonight. and we go to egypt where elections are a totally different story in tahrir square. tear gas and molotov cocktails ahead of the country's ruling military council says it will hand over power. all of that "outfront" next. or ? 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you guys obviously want your dad to win. you are pa