'This Week' Transcript: Michele Bachmann and Bill Gates

WASHINGTON, Oct. 30, 2011— -- AMANPOUR (voice-over): This week -- she rose fast.

BACHMANN: Thank you, Iowa.

AMANPOUR: But now she's falling faster. Our headliner, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann. With her presidential campaign at a crossroads, we asked how she plans to get back in the game.

And then -- the flat tax sensation. Rick Perry hopes it will break his losing streak.

GOV. RICK PERRY (R-TEXAS), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The flat tax will unleash growth.

AMANPOUR: Herman Cain is riding his version to the top of the polls.

HERMAN CAIN, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: 9-9-9. 9-9-9.

AMANPOUR: It's a Republican crowd pleaser. But do the numbers add up? Here to do the math on the policy and the politics, our powerhouse roundtable. And Tea Party titan and flat tax fan Dick Armey.

And then, one of the world's richest men on the global obligation to the poor.

GATES: Every dollar makes a huge difference.

AMANPOUR: Microsoft founder Bill Gates on getting government to give in a gloomy economy, and revealing comments about his love/hate relationship with the late Steve Jobs.

Good morning and welcome to the program. Lots to get to today, but first some news since your morning papers. More than 2 million people in the Northeast are without power this morning after a freak snowstorm slammed into the East Coast. The record-breaking nor'easter brought winds of over 60 miles an hour. It was the largest October snowstorm in New York City's history.

In Afghanistan, new details are emerging about yesterday's suicide bombing, which claimed a dozen American lives. The attacks marked a deadly milestone in America's longest war and It cast a pall on a new Pentagon report showing overall security gains in the country. ABC's Jake Tapper has more now from Kabul.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAKE TAPPER, ABC CORRESPONDENT: Christiane, good morning. This was the deadliest attack on coalition forces here in Kabul in the more than 10 years of the Afghanistan war. Thirteen service members and contractors, most of them American, were killed when the armored bus they were in was targeted by a Taliban suicide bomber driving an SUV with a bomb the Taliban later said weighed 1,500 pounds. Four innocent Afghans were killed as well.

The attack came one day after the Pentagon issued a report touting how year-to-year attacks are down for the first time in America's longest war. Those metrics, however, focused on attacks on U.S. service members. The United Nations says attacks overall, including on civilians, are up 40 percent.

U.S. forces here say that this attack is a sign of Taliban desperation, but that seems debatable. Attacks by the Taliban here in Kabul are getting more brazen and more deadly. Christiane?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: Thanks, Jake. And the attack comes as President Obama is trying to draw down troops in that war.

Turning now to the Republican primary and Herman Cain. The pizza impressario muscles his way to No. 1 in the new Des Moines Register poll. Cain inches out Mitt Romney for the top spot by just a hair, 23 percent to 22 percent. And Ron Paul is next with 12 percent.

Michele Bachmann, who tied Romney for first place just two months ago, is now number 4 with 8 percent. Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich are tied for 5th place with 7 percent. And Rick Santorum brings up the rear with just 5 percent.