himself. >> she was first to speak out against herman cain. now she's back live. plus the man who always knows which way the winds are blowing, political or otherwise. what you may not know about america's favorite weatherman. this is "piers morgan tonight." good evening. the gop has really been the elephant in the room of american politics as the party's front-runners play a game of political musical chairs, with perry, michele bachmann, herman cain, now newt gingrich's turn. listen to what he said today after a meeting with donald trump. >> i want -- not yet. he's got to do this debate. >> and a trump endorsement isn't the only one in play, even though the cain train has run off the rails, the former candidate's endporsment could come any day. there's only one man who knows what it means for the president's re-election campaign and that's david axelrod who joins me now. welcome. >> good to be with you, piers. >> you're feeling fairly chipper, aren't you? you had an extraordinary week, unemployment dropping below 9% for the first time in the president's reign at the white house and coming at the same time when the resurgent stock market saw its highest week's performance since 2009. you would imagine that there's been a bit of momentum here the right way for you economically. >> well, you know, piers, any good news is welcome. we're not chipper by any means because there are people still struggling all over this country and because we have a longer range goal which is not just to put people back to work but to make sure that work pays, to see the middle class growing again. we have a lot of work to do. but any good news is welcome. and we're going to keep working. the most important thing right now for us is to continue that momentum by extending the payroll tax cut that's been bottled up by the republicans in congress. that's very important. people don't want to face a thousand dollar tax increase on january 1st. there's a million jobs at stake here for the economy. so we're working hard to try and resolve that. >> there's a real kind of ideological split here, isn't there? because the democrats, the president believe fundamentally that in times of economic crisis like this, the rich should pay a little bit more and those who don't earn very much money should be protected. the republicans have been completely intransigent. they do not believe almost to a man or woman that any tax increases at all despite the fact that you have people like warren buffett, one of america's richest men, almost pleading, tax me more. what do you think, when it comes to the election background that you're a pivotal member of the obama campaign, when you see this divide now being so clearly laid out, what do you think the average american is going to think of the debate? >> well, first of all, let me just correct one thing you said. you said the republicans don't believe in any tax increases at all. so far what the republicans have said is that they'd be willing to raise taxes on 160 million working americans in order to avoid raising any kind of tax, not one dollar on millionaires, 300,000 millionaires. it's not that they don't want to raise taxes. they just don't want to raise taxes on the affluent. the you're trying to stimulate the economy, it's putting money in the pockets of people that don't have it and will spend it that's going to make the difference. every economist agrees, giving more tax breaks to the upper income folks or taking a little more from them, that's not going to affect the economy. what's going to affect the economy is put money in the pockets of working people who are struggling in this economy. >> people say to me about president obama that, you know, he is itching to do fundamentally bigger things, but he feels like his hands have been tied behind his back by the republicans, by their refusal to do the proper kind of deals you would expect in washington. you've been around the block a long time in d.c. is that a valid thing to say? is it particularly bad now? or has the president not played his hand very well? >> well, i think that the republican party has made a decision. and senator mcconnell long ago laid it out when he said that their principal mission for the next two years was to defeat the president. i think they've behaved as if that is their principal mission. i think the american people want the principal mission of congress and the president to work together and accelerate the recovery and in the long run build an economy in which hard work pays and responsibility is rewarded. there are specific things we can do to do this. this is where we have a disagreement. we believe that improving education in this country and really setting some big goals in that regard is absolutely essential in that, investing in innovation and research and development, absolutely essential for that. the republican view is the one we've heard before, which is if we cut taxes for the wealthy, roll back the rules on wall street, let them write their own rules that somehow everybody will profit from that. that's how the debate will play out. every single republican candidate for president embraces that way of thinking. >> what do you think, david, has gone wrong with the american business model when you actually analyze it in a sort of overview? what went wrong? clearly successive administrations have all conspired, not deliberately but has happened to create this appalling financial situation that america found itself in, $14 trillion in debt and so on. what went wrong with the way that america used to do business so successfully? >> well, let me say a few things. let's separate out issues. in terms of the deficits, when president clinton left office in 2001, we had a projected $2 trillion surplus for the next ten years. the next president, president bush, decided that he would return that money in the form of tax cuts skewed to the very wealthy. we had two wars that they decided not to pay for. a medicare prescription drug program they decided not to pay for. and it turns out if you do all those things, you're going to create large deficits. so when president obama walked in the door there was a trillion deficit and an economic crisis that added to the -- added to the bill along with the steps we needed to take to try to deal with that. so i mean, that's how it happened. it's not mysterious. the question is what are we going to do about it and are we going to proceed in a responsible way? because 8 million people lost their jobs as a result of the recession. i didn't mention the collapse of wall street around these subprime mortgages and the lack of regulatory oversight there. now we have to -- you know, how are we going to rebuild our economy, how are we going to recover, but also how are we going to deal with that long-term debt to leave us room for the investments we need for innovation and infrastructure? that's the debate we're having. that's why it comes down to are we going to make the right choices? are tax cuts for the very wealthy more valuable in terms of our ability to grow than investing in those things and paying down the debt? the president feels that these other things are more important in terms of our ability to grow. so these problems that took years to develop. they were, as you point out, the result of some bad decisionmaking. we can reverse those things, but we'd like to see cooperation from the other side in doing that. >> very people spend as much time discussing this kind of thing with the president than you do. what is you and him and maybe a few others in the room and you're being critical of your own performance as an administration, where are you most critical on yourselves? >> you know, if i were -- i'm not going to speak for him. i think that since september we've much more aggressively involved the american people in this discussion, and i think that's been a profitable thing. if we were guilty of anything, i think when we took office, we were really an economic triage unit. remember when we arrived, the quarter before we arrived, the economy shrunk by almost 9%. the worst quarter since 190. the month we alived the country was losing jobs. the stock market would soon be at 6500. it would bottom out there in kind of an appalling slide, that's what we faced, a secondary depression. we were trying to deal with trying to save the american auto industry, trying to keep the financial system from collapsinging. and i don't think we did a good a job as we could have in communicating directly with the american people and enlisting the american people in these efforts. talking to the american people i've been eating progresso and now my favorite old jeans...fit. okay is there a woman i can talk to? [ male announcer ] progresso. 40 soups 100 calories or less. and what it doesn't cover can cost you some money. that's why you should consider an aarp... medicare supplement insurance plan... insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. all medicare supplement insurance plans can help pay... some of what medicare doesn't, so you could save... thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket expenses. call now for this free information kit and medicare guide. if you're turning 65 or you're already on medicare... you should know about this card -- it's the only one of its kind endorsed by aarp; see if it's right for you. all medicare supplement plans let you keep your own doctor, or hospital that accepts medicare. there are no networks and no referrals needed. help protect yourself from some of what medicare doesn't pay... and save up to thousands of dollars in potential... out-of-pocket expenses with an aarp... medicare supplement insurance plan... insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. call this toll-free number on your screen now... for this free information kit, including this... medicare guide and customized rate quote. the most amazing thing about yo-yo ma is that everybody likes him. you got give me some tips. that's remarkable. >> from the kennedy center honors last night. the man who is responsible for getting president obama re-elected david axelrod. when you watch the president like that, i always feel he's got so many plus, doesn't he? he's personable, he's handsome, he can be funny. abroad he has this great image for america. but a lot of things are just perfect about barack obama. the frustration that a lot of his supporters have felt is that he hasn't sort of beaten his chest metaphorically enough as leader. is that part of finding your feet as president. it slightly engulfs you buffer -- before you get the pace of it, at the moment he isn't seen for the big idea. >> i think part of it is what i said to you earlier. we were faced both here at home with the economic crisis and abroad with two wars, tremendous challenges when he arrived. there wasn't a lot of time for breast beating. by the way, no matter what he has accomplished, people around the country are going through a difficult time. there's a lot of anxiety. and so i think they're less interested in him claiming credit than they are in him doing the work. and that's what interests him as well. and that's what he's going to continue to do. i believe, piers, that when campaigns are a place in which you have a chance to run through those things, both what you've done and where you're going. and to compare and contrast that with the other side. and i think -- i'm very, very confident that when we make that case, the american people are going to respond to it. >> let's turn to the republicans. there have been lots of front-runners. the steady eddie has been mitt romney, but he's kind of plateaued at 24, 25% in most of the polls you see, suggesting even the republicans aren't that convinced with him. newt gingrich is on a roll at the moment as the new apparent front-runner from all the recent polls. what do you make of what's been going on? how credible is the swing at the moment from, say, romney to gingrich? who do you, when you're planning for campaign, most fear and perhaps are most, you know, looking forward to taking on? >> well, it's hard to read because, as you say, it's been a really volatile situation. i think the problem for governor romney, he's steady eddie except in his positions. that's what's made people in that party nervous and making americans a little bit quizzical. even today he now has endorsed the president's idea of extending the payroll tax cut, even today he now has endorsed the president's idea of extending the payroll tax cut, but he opposed it -- he's opposed it and been for it several times back and forth. this has been a consistent story with governor romney, and it has created disquiet in his own base and among other voters who wonder where he's going to be from day to day. i think there has been a rotating group of non-romneys as his support has begun to sink, really. he's now third place in iowa, well below where he was four years ago when he ran there. as for speaker gingrich, you know, we'll see. now becomes the difficult test for him because he really hasn't been scrutinized since the spring when he was sort of written off in this race. the one thing i'll tell you is that he is running an ad in iowa that talks about how he's going to bring the country together to solve problem. i don't think there's any single person in this country that did more to create the kind of discord in washington that we see today than newt gingrich. he's really the godfather of gridlock. he was the one who really created an environment in which people started treating each other as enemies and not as opponents here in washington. he was the one who shut the government down three times when he was trying to close the department of education and to defund the epa and cut medicare in order to give tax cuts to the wealthy. he was the one who led to the impeachment of a president, and now he's offering himself as someone who can bring the country together. i think that's going to be a hard sell. >> come on, then, cards on the table. if i can give you gingrich or romney to take on the president, who would you prefer? >> you know, i want to watch this because i'm learning things about them every day, and it's a very interesting race. i think it should go on for quite a while so that we can get the measure of the both of them. and i'll come back maybe in late spring and we can talk about it again. >> okay. and by the way, whichever one you would have said, i would have automatically assumed that that's the one that you don't want to be running against you. probably best you don't answer it. >> i was on to you, piers, so i wasn't going to play. the markets never stop moving. of course, neither do i. solution? td ameritrade mobile trader. i can enter trades on the run. even futures and 4x. complex options, done. the market shifts, i get an alert. 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[ male announcer ] trade commission-free for 60 days. plus get up to $600 when you open an account. i am suspending my presidential campaign because of the continued distraction, the continued hurt caused on me and my family. not because we are not fighters. not because i'm not a fighter. >> that's herman cain this weekend making it official. the cain train is off the rail. just weeks ago he was riding high in the polls, then came the sexual harassment claims including the only woman who went public sharon bialek. herman cain denied, you may remember, even knowing her. she came on the show first. and she joins me again tonight, another exclusive appearance with her attorney gloria allred. sharon what was your reaction when you heard that herman cain was suspending his campaign? >> piers, you know me, you might think that i might have been elated at that. it was kind of bittersweet in that, yes, i was happy that he suspended it. but it saddened me because even though he did so, he still has not spoken the truth. he's trying to blame these -- everything that's happened on everyone else except the one person that he should blame it on and that's himself. >> yeah, but it was a fairly extraordinary exit speech and i watched it live like many people did. it was superconfident. it was amuse ing. he had his wife with him. people were chanting his name. the general feeling he's only going because the terrible media reporting all these outrageous lies, but it's not as simple as that, is it? >> no, it's not. not at all. i think there is a part of him that deep down inside knew it wasn't because, you know t lib , the libya thing. i really truly believe that once ms. white came out, ginger white came out and the alleged 13-year affair, i think that was the final straw. and i want to say that i'm very, very pleased that she came out because part of my reason, piers, in doing that, taking this road was to actually get more women to come out. i had no idea ginger white existed, but i'm glad that she did. >> yeah, honestly he tried to chuck a lot of mud in your direction, implying you were doing this for financial motives that even those you said you haven't tried to sell your story. clearly, you know, there is an option to do that, i guess going forward now people know who you are and so on. and there's this story that you've been threatened with eviction, you're in arrears on your rental and that kind of stuff. has any of the motivation for what you've done been driven by the need for money? >> i want to make it really clear, piers, and in the words of fellow brits, it's a bunch of bullocks. i didn't come forward for any kind of financial gain. i came forward because ten years from now had he gone further in the race and perhaps even been elected president, i would have always regretted doing and speaking my mind and telling the truth. and that's why i came forward. for nothing else. i'm not doing a book. i have nothing in the works to do a book. and i have not profited one iota from this. >> were you surprised to see, gloria, herman cain's wife smiling and holding his hand as if nothing happened given the volume of women who came forward with harassment claims or in the case of ginger white, the affair? >> no, piers, i was saddened for her, and i'm sure that she's very hurt in all this. and we all feel blade for her. but the person, of course, that has hurt her is herman cain. and we would hope that he would come forward and be honest and straightforward with the american public. in other words, come clean about what he has done instead of calling all five women who made these allegations liar, which is absolutely outrageous. for him, for example, to say that the woman who alleges that she had a 13-year affair with him and that he paid for certain items for her, which he admits doing, but then he denies that there was an affair. it just doesn't pass the smell test. he needs to give the details of all of what happened in that relationship and he needs to, as far as sharon's concerned, acknowledge what happened with them, that he did, in fact, know her. that he did, in fact, have a relationship with her and what exactly happened during that relationship. unfortunately, he has not decided to come clean. one last thing. he's the one who has the financial motive, not ginger white. not sharon bialek. because he's the one who is out there trying to sell books and make money from that. he's the one who is trying to rake in dollars or did try to rake them in and successfully raked in substantial amounts into his campaign fund by denying these allegations. so let's talk about his financial motive. >> sharon, let me turn back to you. do you accept as some of herman cain's supporters say, interviewed his attorney lin wood about this, that there remains no hard evidence to substantiate what you say and in