>> what do you think of en you see aree? treatment for cancer? alternative fuelor our cars? do y think of hope for the enviroent, orood, clothing, shelr? we do. weyerhaeuser, growing ideas. >> this we on "inside washington," october, the deadliest month the commander-in-chief receives the bodies of americansilled afghanistan. in pakistan, the secretary of state's plain ta ruffles some feathers. >> trust is a two-way stree >> today we are about to deliv on the prose of ming affordable, quality health care availae for all americans. >> now the hou version of health-care reform, inuding a rebrded public tion. republicans, nourprise, remain unconvinced. >> iis time to hit the reset button. >> the lieberman factor. >> i wl join ailibuster. >> electns in virginia, and new york, new jersey give us a snapshot of national tres. public discontent now 's over a shortage of swine flu vcine -- mounts over a shortage of swine flu vaccine. captioned the nationalaptioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- one st at dover air force base inelaware, president obama edsall - state nig at dover aiforce base in daware, presidt obama saw t real ice our armed forces e paying andfghanistan. he witnessed the retn of americans killed in afghastan thiseek, the deadliest month since the beginning of t war. obviously, it was a sobering reminder of the extraordinary sacrifices thaour young m and women in unifo are engaging in every single day -- no only o troop their famili as well. >> as casualties mount, the esident and his national security team continue to deberate on the strategy going forward. >> everyay that goes by without the decision bng made, the moreays there are where ung americans are unnecearily in harm's wa in my view. >> but aighly regarded for his rvice of besser, a marine veteran ofraq, has become the first arican official to resign in ptest again the war in afghanian. >> i bieve the people we are fighting there are fighting this because we are occying them, not because of ideological reasons olinks to al qaeda or a fundamentalatred towards the west. >> in his letter of resignation, matthew hoh says he has lost the undetanding and confidee in the strategic puose of being in afghastan. "it is not how we are fighting the war, but why." an, what do you make of that resignation? >> it idisturbing. one thi it reminds me of is the state department is not a player out there. i do not know what his particular circumstaes, but theyeed every stateepartment peon they can get out there. the military is runng the show and that is and in balance. counterinsurgency isust as much a civilian, state department,ation building thing as it is militar and the miliry is doing all that. >> jonathan, an word on when the president will make a decision? >> he is meeting with his advisers at the whithouse. would you li hearing ineasingly is mcchrystal lite, ich mea that the present will probably answ more troops into afgnistan, but probably not the 40,0 at general chrystal would like to see. >> crles? >> we a having all these detes about troop levels and the matter of the strategy. i think at the heart of this is an issuehat david brooks raed in the friday "new york times," d i think he did very well -- t real question is is the commander-in-chief committed? is his heart in this war? if it is not, you can have the right generals and thright rategy and the right timing and we are goi to lose. that is an iue that i think i t resolve i am not sur obama himself knows. i think he has his heart in his domestic isss and sees thiss a distractn. he has goto have his hrt in it or the mission ll fail. >> i agree wh charl and vid brooks to some extent, but the trouble is that the mcchrystal rommendation says, "did meet these trips, and at least we wilhave a chance of succes." th is not ectly a very rosy picture. out the resignation,r. hoh is a former marine cos officer who has been i iraq, and i respect his views, but as thomas ricks said on npr program this week, he is abouts l law will as u can get he may b rightbut ihink "the washington post" st of erplayed this story. >> richard holbrooke talk him and a loof people talk to him -- >> you do no want to lose eight young pson, but in thomas ricks'st disparaging terms, that means who is goingo run e machines at the embassy >> you seem to be an army of occupation and any time u are the locals don'like you. but moremportant than that is the sense of where they feel fe. this is all about security, and the locals are not goi to feel safe asong as they think w are going to lead. so much trends on that. >> wt are we doing differently from the russians? >> it is complely different. th russians ward in and ashed evething and broke everhing and killed civilians illegally -- killed civians willy-nilly. we learn that ivilian- center strategy all about gettinalong with civilians and protecting civilians andinning their ust. >> we were at th same stage in iraq in 2006 -- a losing war, a wnward spiral, and the recommendation by vid petraeus s that if you change to counterinsurncy stragy and protecthe population, give them confidence thatmerica will protect you andou will not ave in the moing and have your famy slaughtered by al qda, he will get information and be able to succeed in combing the enemy. that is th same proposal that mcchrystal is making in afghanistan. >> i would recommend on that subject a book called "e good soldiers if you want to see the price that one battalion of americasoldiers paid during the search. al qaeda is in pakisn and so was the secrery of ste. she had other song words for the pakistani journalist, who were essentially harassing her, guess,ut she said, "iind it hard belie you do not know where they are and you cannot go out anget them. >> i went with ambasdor holbrooke to pakistan this summer. th pakistani press makesur press seemike the mt dile bunch ofambs. they scream d shout and hecr are full of these wacky conspiracy theories and are incredibly aggravating. she lost herool a little bit. she is paid n toose your cool, but i don't blame her knowing at she is up against. >> i find it hard to believe myself that they don't know wherthey are. >> oneoes wonde she probablyid just se her temper, but one wders that bere she leftf somebody said, it is ok, if you are allowed to lose your temper. >> perhaps not diplomatic, so to spk,ut it certainly reflects the frustration of a lot of folks in this country, of policymakers and everyday folks, like you said yourself, that this is sort of obvious to us and what is goingn, and she voed it. >> am noture how smart it is to say i public in pakistan the leaders pakistan are on our side. the head o the army is on our side, the president, o is weak, isn our side. you do t want to embarrass and weaken them. if you sit, sit private. >> the house comes up with a health care bil >> if, in thend, i do not think is what is best for our country and theeople in our country, i will votegainst cloture and join a filibuster and try to sto the bill from passing. >> joe lierman ithe least of hay reid's problems. >> joe lieberman speak at the republican national convention and campaigns for the reblican candidate and retain his democratic chairmanship and says he may filibustehe democrats' health care bill as well could remember the o days on the hill? if you did not play for the team, they put you othe bench? >> yes, but he is number 60. >> they were trying to play good cop with him at the startf the year a letting him stay in t caucus, butlearly theid gloves trement is not working too well. the latest we hear i that he is going to camign next year in e midterms for some gop candidates. no only is he rsing the specr of deating the health care bill, but he is saying that last year f john mccain is not an exception. he wl stop next year for republicans as well. >> on the subject of the public option, or as nancy pelosi calls a no the consumer option -- >> or the competitivoption. >> that is another o now. there are insurance companies in hartford, connecticut's. is tt a factor? >> insurance cpanies in coecticut --ould that be influence? oh, i cannot imagine tha. to be fair to jo lieberman, but he said at theeginning of the otation was that he wanted to vo for hlth care reform, b would opposehe public option. he woulde oboard for the procedural vote, right? >> lieberman's be buddy is jo mccain. they are mavericks. they enjoy the role of defying atever authority and doing it on moral grounds. they lik to feelorally superi. >> there is also rlity, and th is that the public option is a terrible idea, and joe liebern actually thinks tha. >> t point is, looking at a heth-care bill by now, i wish that i were a grand strategic inker and i could see how a these piecewill play out, but whenever we are seeing this week is not what is going to bin the finalill. we all kw that. mething wil pass the house and th it goes to the senate and there wille votes to strip things out of the bill. there will bcompromises in the back rooms. what 're seeing now ijust the preliminary -- [laughter] >> they e not calling it a public option ymore. listeno this. >> we are not towing them to the wolves of the insurance industry witho an option f them to choose, which is what i would not call the public option but the consumer oion. >> words that were, righ a few yrs ago, the clear opti -- itounded scary, they tried t cnge the phraseoly. it happe in washington all the time. >> it is perfectly in tuneith what thehave in britain where the committee th decides esseially wt treatments are ratied is called theice commission, as in have aice day, it is going to be your last. >> if you are sk in great britain and you are aisitor, you ve better ce than if you are here and cannot pay for health care. >> maybe we should start nice commission in the unitedtates. >> national institut for health and competitive excellce. >> we need a nice comssion. medica would run better -- >> don't you ve t orwellian name? been nice cmission has denied u a kidney transplan >>hey will payor thiby taxing weahy americans, right? e don't know what the fal bill is gog to be. th is ultimately going to b caught between the house and senate negotiators -- in capol hill parlae, the cferees. how exactly it is funded is a very much to b determined. >>oing to break e bank? >> the latest estimates from the cbo says it willctually save ney. >> but half the savin are ese illusory medicarthings which ery year they knocked out to stick to the ctors. half of it is bogus right out of the block. >> the reason it maye cut this time and i was not thr months ago precisely a evan said -- ty sipped out the medicare cut, which erybody ows is going to happen anyway. quarter of a trillion dollars would arbitrarily removed which otherwise would have been over a trillion, an it would have been at in deficit. >> with dicare they could tak out many hundreds of milln dollars th way, to. >> a evan said,o lieberman d john mccain are marked mccain loses the ection and yothink he will walk off quietly into the sunset. no way. >> a year aer the deft and he is lking about simy every issue out there be it swine flu one minute and afghanistan the next. he has kept himself in the spotlight and it is t same old mccain way. this incessant talking to the media,very issue he avaible, sunday show what have you. >> the kind of player he lik to be is in the oppositn. i can reca almost nine mths ago was that t first thing he said w that he was going to work with obama as a brge to get health care done. what happened to that? >> what happeneto that is that obamaent left. thats what happened to that. but what makes mccain so historically interestings that he is rarity in american hiory, a losing presidential candidate who remains song and inflntial. think of hubert humphrey. he was an extremely importan senato before, he ran and lost, after which he was a shadow himself. and mcgovern. >> he got sick. >> i am ju saying -- mcgovern as well. traditnally, if you lose the presidential eleion, the couny says goodbye. >> john kry has come back as an influential person. i ink we all were a little too mean to him sometimes. let me te you a ltle sto about john mccain that i think tells you everythin i was in his office wants interviewing himor something or another. d joe lieberman and he had an envinment built up, and he said -- he got this cked little lk on hisace and he winked and said, " we're n going to win, but we a going to have some fun at." when esident obama was inaugurated, the night before he had to be dinners for a small group of prominenttatesman. john mccain was one of them pit s seen as a olive bnch to john mccain. what has happened since tn? i don't think this presiden has thought he needs john mccn, and becausof that, i think johnccain has gonsoft on him in some ways. has not gotten tha courting may have been expecting from the administrati. >> if you look at the health care bill, it is a budget buster and mccn has historically been a guyho is a hawk o that. it violates his principles very strongly. secondly, it has aublic option. he is not a publ option type guy,ot for expanding new entitlements. he would have been with oma if he h a moderater targeted reform of health care, but he is making 1/6 of the american economy. >> mccn is a waror, and i thk he cares most about afghanistan. he feels very strongl about this. i have no idea if is rht or not, but iave no doubt about his detion to his views and his convictions. he does things that obama is de wrong, i think at th has really moved him awayrom obama. he thinkobama is dead wrong to take his time- thinks h should rush into it? >> he thinks hes taking away too long and suld be very gressive. >> basic mindset is at if you get in these things, you have to be in them to win. his father was head of fces in vietnam and to h dying day but weid not try hard eugh in vietnam and that is why we lost it w shaping influence on the madrid was a tplate on which to measure this. >> what also shaped mccn was the surge in iraq. >> charles, you are like a one- tune violin >> he stuck with it d got a victy out of the. virnia and new jersey gubernatorial electionnext week. >> somebody who focusesot on sht-term polits buthe praccal, long-term visio and that mans creigh deeds. >> that man is creigh deeds president obama cpaign for democrat creigh deedshis week. unle somethings going on none of uan see, creigh deeds is going to lose to republican bob mcdonnell. virginia has two democratic gornors in a row, two democratic senators, white house won the state r the first time sinc 1964, but apparently, for to democrats are napping right w. >> i was at that, and psident obama pt. do somethinghat affects the virginia democrats e now, a sense of apath it is tough for them to get excited about the governor's race, especially one with a candidate who has underelming from t get-go. also, indepdents have a very important influence of recycled in virnia, and right now they are really going south othe democrat >> and republica are angry. >> they are fired up and motivated. you have a republican candidate who has ge to the middle and has avoidedhe social and cultural wars and, b the way, ewp in northern virginia. almost every issue, the stars are aligned for th gop. >> also,he republica have a reasono turn out. the democrats don't feel like ey have a reason,nd the independents, even balance who may for creigh deeds, are less motivated. it is not evenn off-yea election. it mes it very,ery difficult. >> there is anoer terpretation, which is that the great over-reading ofhe mandate la yr, the great idea that this is a new democratic era, the republics are becoming a gional party, the death cservatism, all that rubbish was an over-reading of a one-off event,he 2008 elecon, which was unique- weak republican, at two wars, a popular incumbent, ecomic collapseand the democrats still only won a seven-point victory. >> only? >> only? in tse circumstances? >> another reading othe over- greetings- you always over- read -- >> in new jerse asell, jon corzine, the incumbent, spent over $20 million >> he is ver unpopularhere, butew jersey is the deep blue state. th republican candidate has taken a lot of hs. >> a there is a third-rty candidat >> the former chairman of goldman sachs spt a lot ofis millions targeting the republican. but that is a tight won it, and lls have it within the rgin of error >> i anybody paying attention to that ce? you have the yaees and the illies. >> new jersey politics e so profnd a demoralizing in terms of corruptn. nasty, to. basically, jon corzineaid "my opponent i f." that is what he running on. >> to get back to virginia, the republican candite is not running as a sarah palin-type conservative. i wanted to talk about the new york 23rd, whichas nohad a democr elected to that seat since the 1800's. and now there is this coervative running against the moderate republica and that the democrat who m or may not win, but the conservative cod kekit out. >> sarah palin has not endorsed the republican. >> she endorsed the consvative independen. millions of dollars beg spent. its fascinating, and a real firing squad uthere in a circle. but they may end up with a win they may havthe conservative winning. >> you seehe republican candidate fading and is a two- n race beten the conservative and theemocratic caidate, and you are seeing a prile in courage of sorts. a lotf republicans in the fina days are ming to the consertive candidate a the consvative surges in the polls. >> any predictions for the midterm elections xt year? >> it is ugh to gauge tt a year out if democrats lose in virginia annew jerseand new york, then it wi be meaningful. it is aplit, it will be unimportant. >> i went to the congressional gold medal cerony for and port, when republicans -- under its we 1/3f republicanin the senate. -- moderates were 1 of republicans in the senate. it is a different world. >> we need to act now find out h we will get in of swine flu vacne to te care of the citizens of this country. >> i can assure you that our scientists, dtors, and mafacturing partners are working around the cck. >> in 2004, it was a shortage of the relar swine flu shot. i wen into a gun shop in west virginia and the owner sai but " i am inkingboutoting for john kry, because cannot get the fl shot." i never understood why hn kerry never tried to capitaze on that. >> ithis case, the obama administration understood what you are saying and d everythingt could. its handmaid in not achieving this was the media, beses everythinglse. weak fir panic about swine flu -- >> that is our job >> every kook in theorld we put the a saying, "yo really shoulnot get the shot." now some pple often drefully sick a a few have died --ave gotten dreadfully sick andf you have dd. it turns o thaaking the vaccineakes longer tha the manufacturers thought. the process take longer. we are slow gettg it. >> they can maket from artificial srces, too. whdon't they do that? >>hey did not test that ausalia they will not have itn time, either. >> as you kno iould be inclined to blame all of this on obama, but i rise in his defse because i thinkina is right -- this stuffs extremely hard to do safely. it is a long process i have heard oa cliniwhere a sale was supposed torrive, but it was over-coed at the laratory and it died. do this on a ma scale, to ha 1/3 of billion samples as we would nd in our country, takes a long time, and it is a human endeavor. i wouldive him a pass in terms assigning political blame. >> agree withll that, but ere is a cost here, and it is not jt from the f. peop's faith in gernment is at a low ebb. when you have a perceed governmentailure like this, it is unhlthy. >>his is one of those reall tangible isss that affects people's lives d families -- >> a matter of competence. >> one o those silent killer out there -- perhaps a bad mephor, but as far ashe politics o it, it could really hurt the administ