Obama praised for demeanor

>>> welcome back, everybody. tomorrow president obama meets with congressional leaders at the white house to try to hammer out a deal to avoid the fiscal cliff. today he's on the move to new york city and moving the needle among progressives. the commander in chief came off more commanding than ever, especially on the issues of taxes and entitlement cuts and earned raves in the process.

>> what i'm not going to do is to extend further a tax cut for folk who is don't need it, which would cost close to a trillion dollars.

>> i saw a president with a heightened level of testosterone and maybe a precursor of what he's going to look like the in the next four years. a sort of definite, different kick to his step. a lot of that was missing in the first term, and i found that very interesting, his first public volley eight days later.

>> he spoke quickly in that press conference. did you notice? it was the fastest i've ever heard him speak.

>> so will the president's base be appeased by this throw down demeanor? or could he be be stonewalled into more compromise on the budget? live from the russell rotunda in washington, d.c., the independent bernie sanders of vermont. is this newly reelected president the same commander in chief that you saw in the past four years? we're hearing people like that comment. more testosterone.

>> thomas, time will tell. but it is clear to me that the president must keep the promise that he made too to the american people . and that is not to do deficit deductions on the backs of the elderly and disabled veterans programs, and we are going to ask the wealthiest people in the country to start paying their fair share of taxes. that's what he told the american people . he won on that. many of us said the same thing. democrats won 25 out of 3 # senate races, and he has got to stick to that position. we will be right behind him on that.

>> sir, you've been vocal and an advocate for the progressive agenda. what do you think the president can get done as a liberal? we talked about reducing the deficit, avoiding the fiscal cliff. where will the middle be met?

>> on this issue, i think the american people spoke during the election, and poll after poll shows the same thing. all across the board. regardless of political ideology, the american people are saying do not cut social security . harry reid was right when he said social security has nothing to do with deficit reduction, take it off the table. you do it in a way that's fair. and what that is, the wealthy got to pay their fair share . these are ob surd tax havens in the cayman islands . you take a hard look at military spending.

>> the president as we have been pointing out, the schedule will put him in manhattan to view storm damage from sandy. mayor bloomberg praised the president's stance about his reaction to sandy, about climate change and said d.c. needs to make the climate change issues a priority. do you agree that the president and the administration is willing to do enough?

>> thomas, let me tell you this. there was a report that came out, front page " washington post " last week. scientists who study the issue now believe that the worst case scenario projection may be unfortunately, tragically the right one. they are talking about the possibility of this planet warming by eight degrees by the end of this century. what that means is you're going to see more hurricane sandies, more frequently, and more severe. this is a huge, huge planetary crisis. it should be the top priority of everybody in the united states congress . we have to transform the energy system away from fossil fuel. cut greenhouse gas emissions , move to energy fishtdsy, move to sustainable energy , and when you do that, by the way, not only could we help lead the world in transforming our energy system, you can create millions of jobs.

>> sir, great to see you this morning. thanks for your time.

>> thank you.