feet. jeanne moos, cnn, new york. >> hip hop star wyclef jean makes it official later tonight on "larry king live" announcing he's running for president of haiti. i'll be filling in for larry, 9:00 p.m. later on tonight. i'm wolf blitzer in "the situation room." "john king, usa" starts right now. >> thanks, wolf. i'm jessica yellin. john king is off tonight. tonight's big political story, the polls are just about to close in a race where the outcome may be determined by candidate gaffes that were caught on video and went viral on the internet. tennessee does primaries on thursdays, and this year's republican primary for governor features something you'll see in your state soon, candidates with someone trailing them with a video camera catching every embarrassing moment, every answer that should have been thought about a little longer or maybe said a little better. it all gets caught on camera and played over and over. take a look at this. one of the candidates in today's

republican primary for tennessee governor was caught saying this. >> you can even argue whether muslim is actually a religion or is it a nationality, way of life, cult or whatever you want to call it. >> welcome to politics in the age of new media. you may have seen this one, too. north carolina democratic congressman bob et reg publicly apologized for his actions during this ambush interview. it got a little aggressive and it went viral. well, the internet was supposed to make politicians more accessible and accountable, and instead, like in tennessee today, it may actually have them clamming up while the rest of us cast votes based on gotcha moments. here to talk about it is cnn political analyst gloria borger and cnn political correspondent joe johns and eric edison, editor-in-chief of redstate.com and andrew rucher, the founder of a blog of how technology is changing politics. thanks, everyone, for being with us. let me start with this summer

where we have seen one politician after another get caught on tape inserting foot into mouth t.certainly seems li like a summer of gaffs. take a look at highlights. watch this. >> why should you vote for me? because i do not wear high heels. >> the federal government, yes, can do most anything in this country. >>-ins -- this is a war of obama's choosing. this is not something the united states had actively prosecuted or want toned gage in. >> who are you? . >> who are you? >> oh, some of that is painful to watch. to you, andrew. you would think politicians would know better. shouldn't they know that anyone with a cell phone can record their words and move. are you surprised these are getting caught on tape? >> we have a clash between 21st century and 20th century politics. those still living in the 20th

century don't realize people have cell phone cameras and can capture everything and having not figured out how to take advantage of this opportunity to be able to communicate with voters and be authentic to participate -- to increase the amount of participation and engagement between the citizen and the politician. there's still this sort of top-down mentality in 20th century politics that hasn't quite, you know, entered the lexicon or brains of most politicians. >> gloria, you're nodding. >> i think, you know, they are kind of getting used to it is as much as they can, but i think there's a problem for us in the press and for politicians. first of all, there's no off broadway anymore. you know, you used to be able to start out iowa, new hampshire, get your feet wet. >> yeah. >> it's all the big time. >> it's all the big time, and from our point of view, and i don't know if you feel this way, joe or jess, we end up with less access than we used to have because everything is on the record. every -- you can pull out your phone. look at the mcchrystal

interview. >> right. >> and what that did to him, so i think in the end you democratize it, but you also let us -- we have much less access to see politicians as they really are. >> eric, former bush and mccain adviser mark mckinnon said this. it's a quote. candidates find themselves in a technological environment that exploits authenticity so rather than show more of themselves that voters want, candidates are showing less of themselves for fear of revealing too much. are we ending up with politicians who are revealing too little because they are afraid of what they might say wrong? >> i very much think they are. it's the downside of this, and, you know, the democrats were very good in 2006 and were emboldened with the george allen macaca moment and that really struck and the republicans with payback and everybody hires a kid from college to go around and follow someone on the other side, trail them and ask them questions. >> macaca, right. what have you.

i've got my iphone right here. it's got a high def camera and i've got my ipad. not only am i an apple guy but it's that easy and that accessible. the problem becomes when you start taking stuff out of context which is very easy to do in the age of youtube. somebody takes a snippet and puts it on youtube and gets it out there and says oh, my gosh, look what he said. >> the other issue though is the power of it. i mean, we've had gaffes in washington forever. pete stark has been a gaffe machine across, you know, the full span of his career. what's different now is that you can actually see him say it, so in some ways the camera is just keeping people honest. >> and you go instantaneously from a gaffe you make at a campaign appearance to youtube and "the jon stewart show" in just a minute. >> earlier this month the democratic national committee launched a website where anyone

can upload videos and the site says for too long our politics has been poisoned with misinformation and negative attacks. the most powerful way to combat these shadowy tactics is to drag theme into public scrutiny. is this process instead elevating gotcha moments? >> it is actually making politics more accessible to everyone. listen to this statistic. in the 2008 presidential campaign, there were 1.5 billion views of online video that mentioned in the title obama or mccain. only 150 million of those videos were views of videos that were produced by the campaigns themselves so nine out of ten videos watched during the presidential campaign were actually produced by citizens trying to influence each other, and -- and everyone can now use the power of the web to connect to their friends to engage in a conversation in politics, and, in fact, this year, in fact yesterday, a site got launched called tenquestions.com that

citizens to put questions up, vote on the top ten questions they want the candidates to answer. give the candidates four weeks to respond in online video and then gives citizens two weeks to vote on whether the candidates actually answered the question. >> how many people are going to watch that versus watching all the funny gaffs you? sort of wonder is it really advancing our knowledge? >> no. >> for the politicians -- for the politicians who recognize that they have to be a media operation and embrace this technology, it's a huge opportunity to connect with voters and get their message out. for those who will hide and afraid of gaffs, it will continue to be this gotcha moment. >> what would you say -- remember when john edwards was combing his hair. >> right. >> and it was put to music and he seemed to be combing his hair. >> let me go because we have historical footage of gaffes. let's to see if this is all that new. >> my favorite. >> some historical gaffes. >> let's give a welcome to macaca here. welcome to america and the real

world of virginia. >> they get bitter. they cling to their guns or religion. >> in that old -- that old beach boy song "bomb iran, you know, bomb, bomb, bomb. anyway -- >> you cannot go to a 7-eleven or a dunkin' donuts unless you have a slight indian accent. i'm not joking. >> i mean, wow. erick, which one makes you cringe the moment? >> they all do. although you left out my favorite, the reagan one. the bombing starts in five minutes. >> absolutely. >> the dean scream. >> that was an original. >> right. >> the real downside here though is that everyone says they want more authentic grass roots politicians. everyone says we don't want the professional politician. well, the grass rootsy guy, the folksy guy, the average joe who runs for office, he's more likely to make the gaffes than the professional guy, and negative campaigning, whether we like it or not, it works, and when it gets the snot beat out

of him for doing something goofy on cameras, the professional politician wins. >> joe is agreeing. >> television, the lights, the camera, everything we've got here is a very artificial environment, and the candidate who can look authentic and look off the cuff all the while staying on message is -- is the candidate that's going to win more often than not. >> but it may not be the best -- the best person for the job. >> right. >> the max headroom candidate. >> right. >> but this is the reality. >> i had my own personal experience with a video going viral, not to toot a horn but to explain a personal intersection with this. i asked former president bill clinton in south carolina about critics who compared him to lee atwater. take a look at his response. you've probably seen it before. >> the people of south carolina, because of people of south carolina coming to these meetings and asking questions about what they care about, and what they care about is not going to be in the news coverage tonight because you don't care about it. what you care about is this, and

the obama people know that, so they just spin you up on this, and you happily go along. one more story. shame on you. >> well, that's a tired candidate and he wasn't even a candidate. >> no. >> but that's what happens when you get somebody who is exhausted and cranky, and the cameras were out in the open, jess. >> what astonished me about this is within ten minutes of it happening, i started getting phone calls and e-mails from people who were in the west coast, reporters all over the country. >> right. >> and so it sped at the speed of light and everybody characterized it on the evening news that night as bill clinton yelling. it wasn't my experience that he was yelling. it was out of box. they framed it as yelling, and the question here, i guess i'll ask you, andrew, is once one of these moments are spun, is there any way they can get the genie back in the bottle? did bill clinton recapture that as no, i wasn't yelling? >> you know, constant open format and always talking and people are used to seeing him

this way, people will be less likely to pull something out of context. authenticity is the key to all of this, and -- and a politician who recognizes that the video and the network is his friend is going to learn how to take advantage of it. >> but look at what happened to john mccain. it's a perfect example in the last presidential campaign. john mccain when he ran the first time had the bus and talked us all to death, right? we couldn't get him to stop. then in this last campaign, what did he do because of all the flip videos and that? >> very disciplined. >> very disciplined. >> and what happened to his campaign? >> he lost. >> well -- >> for many reasons. >> that may not have been why. >> many reasons he lost but that wasn't it. >> need to get a quick break in, but we want to continue this discussion, and before we take a break in light of our discussion we'll go to our most important person you don't know today. the person in charge of new media at the white house. macon phillips has the 221-year-old executive branch

doing state of the art online tricks. his revamped version of the website ragged out on day one of the administration, and these days there's a video of the president himself using a laptop to introduce you to government's new health care reform website. >> for the first time ever, you can see all your insurance options, public and private, in one place. let me show you how it works. >> the salesman in chief not only gave phillips the new media job, he elevate what had had been a mid-level position in the bush administration to the rank of special assistant to the president. phillips is a 30-something from huntsville, alabama, and joined the web design from blue state digital in 2004 and the obama team in 2008. coming up next, president obama on the campaign trail in his hometown. we'll discuss it.

president obama is doing political fund-raisers in illinois today. he, of course, is not on the ballot, but he seems to be running against republicans in general, and someone else who isn't on the ballot this year either. listen to this. >> they haven't come out with a single solitary idea that is different from the policies that

held sway for eight years before democrats took over. not a single policy difference that's discernible from george w. bush, not one. >> you heard the name, george w. bush. back again with us, andrew rucher, the founder of a blog about how technology is changing politics, cnn contributor erick ericson, editor-in-chief of a conservative blog redstate.com and here in the studio our own gloria borger and joe johns. first to you, erick. are you worried that by starting to name bush again democrats are finding a strategy that's going to work for them in november? >> no, i don't think so. i think a lot of polling is also showing that voters are kind of over blaming bush and hope that the democrats will kind of own some of this. you know, it's easy for polling to pick up that voters like barack obama's alternatives to george bush because george bush still gives people a visceral reaction, even a lot of conservatives, but at the same time they also see what the

results are, and they don't like the results. >> gloria, i mean, bush's name -- >> right, and there's been a lot of internal polling. bush's name, not good. >> right. >> so if you poll people and you say what about -- would you elect this generic republican with these generic republican economic policies, they are like, sure, okay, fine, but when you mention what about a republican who supports george w. bush's economic policies? >> it's toxic. >> they say absolutely not, which is why you're going to hear democrats talk about bush more and more even though lots of folks say, you know, the statute of limitations ran out on bush a while ago. >> which is a lot like something -- just about the only thing this administration can do. if i remember correctly, bill clinton right before that disastrous mid-term that he had was running around the country talking about, you know, the previous policies. >> right. >> it doesn't necessarily works even though that's all you can try. >> andrew, republicans are still

blaming bill clinton today so is it ever too late to blame the past, the past guy? >> it's election season. why should we be supply. our politics is broken and here we go again. >> nothing surprises these days. i want to play some of the sound in the tennessee gubernatorial race, because polls are closing in less than an hour and the republican primary there is particularly interesting. some of the candidates have made controversial comments, to say the least. listen to the lieutenant governor, candidate ron ramsey. >> you can even argue whether being a muslim is actually a religion or is it a nationality, way of life, cult, whatever you want to call it, but certainly we need to protect our religions but at the same time this is something we are going to have to face. >> eke. erick, is that a gaffe, or could it actually help him win votes? >> a republican primary in tennessee will do nothing but help him. probably too little too late >> i love your honesty. >> right, well -- >> gloria, do you have concerns

that there are so many people running who take very controversial points of view, we should say, that when they get into office, are they going to be able to work together, compromise, govern? >> no, but this is a gubernatorial race, and his opponent, to be fair, suggested that tennessee should secede because of health care mandates so, you know, he may be trumped by his opponent, but i guess the problem for republicans is if you elect all of these folks who are against government spending at all, who are against the war in afghanistan, for example, when -- if they win control of the house and they have to govern, are they ever going to vote for a spending bill? >> right. that's one of my questions. we have actually the quote from zach wamp, his primary opponent said, quote, i hope that the american people will go to the ballot box in 2010 and 2012 so that states are not forced to consider separation from this government. secession didn't go over so well last time it came up in this country. he then backtracked, but, joe, i

hear other extreme ideas from candidates when i'm out there. >> sure. >> like we should have an up or down vote on every rule or regulation proposed by any agency or repeal the 17th amendment. are these kinds of notions productive? >> the pendulum swings, and out there in the electorate, when people get angry, people express ang anger, and you get people, a lot of times in the mid terms, not normally involved in the process, and it's a melting pot. i mean, come on. >> okay. >> people in america can say anything and everything. >> and get elected for it. >> and why not talk about it. >> there's a larger issue here as well. the larger issue is that you've got these primaries where every republican real believes the same thing and every democrat really believes the same thing so you're arguing at the fringes and the extremes to prove, for example, here in georgia we're in a runoff between two conservative republicans, so they are fighting over who is going to be more pro-life. >> right. >> and who is going to be more anti-gay. >> thanks to all of you. i'm afraid we have to wrap it

there. erick, such a pleasure to have you on, andrew, thank you, and gloria will stick around. i'll see you, too, joe in a little bit. >> thank you. suppose members of congress can put aside their bickering and actually get some work done when they get back from vacation next week? are there any new ideas? i'll ask members of each party's leadership. everyone who wants to go to college and everyone who started college but never finished... to late bloomers... full-time moms... and everyone who is good at something but wants to be great. welcome to kaplan university. the university that's changing the face of education... to undergraduate degrees, graduate degrees... degrees that can give you a leg up... in a tough job market... in any job market... welcome. welcome to kaplan university. call kaplan university now or visit us on-line to take our free learning assessment.

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welcome back. let's check in now with joe johns for the news you need to know right now. hey, john. >> hey, jess camp a short time ago president obama praised the u.s. senate for confirming elena kagan to the supreme court. the vote was 63-37 with five republicans supporting kagan and one democrat against her. >> today's vote wasn't just an affirmation of elena's intellect and accomplishments. it was also an affirmation of her character and her temperament. >> a couple hours ago, bp announced it's finished pumping cement to further seal its well in the gulf of mexico, and this didn't take long at all, did it? official notice went out today that there will be an appeal to yesterday's court decision throwing out california's ban on same-sex marriage. and jess, you'll love this.

local politics gone awry. a county health department in oregon confirms it closed down an lemondade stand at a northeast art fair because the operator didn't have a $20 license. the operator, 57-year-old girl. >> that's ridiculous. >> you would think that authorities would be chasing other people doing unlicensed retail. >> that's so frustrating. thanks, joe. and coming up, the party-crashing salahis will be there. are you going to watch? "the real housewives of d.c." tonight.

in this corner and in this corner. >> members of the house of representatives will be back here in washington next week to vote on a bill that's supposed to save teachers' jobs and pay for poor people of's medical care, but a final vote, assuming there is one, won't come before we get another dose of partisan name calling, bickering and venting. can't they all just get along. joining me are two members of leadership. democratic congressman javier bacera of california and republican mike pence of indiana. thanks to both of you for being with us. >> thanks, jessica. >> before we get started, congressman pence, would i like to play something that you said in the weekly republican address two weeks ago just before congress went out on resempts listen to this. >> with nearly 15 million people

unemployed and the pelosi-led congress poised to take a six-week paid vacation, the american people deserve better. so, congressman pence, speaker pelosi has cut short what you called congress' paid vacation in favor of a bill that your leader, congressman boehner, says is nothing but special interest money. do you agree that this teacher pay is a special interest bailout? >> i think what we have is more borrowing, more spending, more bailouts from a democrat majority that spent an entire summer failing to do a budget and failing to complete any of the people's business on spending and announcing that they intend to allow taxes to go up on small business owners and family farmers on january 1 of next year, and i -- >> but on the specific issue -- >> if congress is in special. we'll be back and do our job and debate the issues, and we'll vote, but i have to tell you, i think the american people are tired of more spending, more bailouts, and i think they will be frustrated with congress coming back from a recess when

we should be listening to the american people to do more of the same. >> okay. fiscal discipline, congressman bucera, is an issue close to your heart. you're on the president's fiscal commission. so the question is when do you start making those tough choices that politicians like to talk about to trim the deficit because clearly it won't be next week when you vote on this $26 billion bill? >> jessica, it started yesterday, today. it started way before tomorrow because, as you just mentioned in talking to mike, this legislation that will keep a lot of police officers and fire fighters in mike's congressional district employed, as well as mine, and keep a lot of the teachers coming back in september working, is fully paid for. those are tough decisions that paid for that because it's the state that is employing and the counties and cities that are employing these police officers and fire fighters and teachers, not the federal government, but because those states are hurting tremendously, we're stepping in to help out again, fully paid for, no addition to the federal

budget deficits so what we've done is we're acting fiscally responsibly and we're hoping mike is willing to have his republican colleagues come back to work next week to get this done for the american people who want to see us -- >> he said he'll be back there. he'll be back here. >> good. we can put aside the bickering and go back to work. >> congressman pence, i'm looking here at a list of times that you have said you can't support new programs unless they are paid for, whether it's stem cell research, unemployment benefits, even relief for katrina, but now that the house is going to decide if bush era tax cuts should continue, you're in favor of extending them across the board without a plan to offset the impact on the deficit so how do you reconcile that? >> i reconcile that because i think that there's a difference between spending more money in washington, d.c., or rearguing the way government is spending money and allowing the american people to keep more of their hard-earned tax dollars. i know that the accountants in washington, d.c. tend to view them exactly the same way, but,

you know, the unbroken history of tax relief in the past when president kennedy had marginal rate reductions, president reagan, president bush, is that when you -- you can reduce rates of taxes, or in this case, please, we're asking them to preserve the lower tax rates, and in that create an expanded economy and even grow government revenue. >> congressman becerra, here's a new idea. last week new york congressman anthony weiner lost his temper on the house floor over a bill many democrats thought would be a no-brainer, above partisanship. here's what he wrote in an op-ed afterwards. he said democrats make a mistake by pretending there's a bipartisan spirit in congress these days and would be better served by calling out republican shams. do you agree? >> well, remember, anthony weiner has been working along with the new york delegation for a long time to get the relief for those brave men and women -- >> i'm not asking for the specifics, i'm asking about the tone of bipartisanship in

washington. is it so bad that it's -- >> jessica, understand the reason anthony was so upset is what should be a no-brainer bill, should be a bipartisan bill, became a very partisan bill, not because there was anything wrong in providing assistance to those brave people who went in there to save lives and clean up after the terrorist attack, it's because it's just a partisan year, and that's what i think set off man weinor -- >> democrats don't need to change their tone or tact? >> i think we have to put aside, as you said at the beginning, put aside any bickering. we should help police officers, fire fighters and teachers next week. we should also recognize that we can't return to the bush economic policies. mike, those are not new ideas if you're resurrect iing bush economic policy. that's zombie economics. what we need are truly new ideas. the tax cut that president obama put forward gave a tax cut to

98% of americans. the two top 2% of american earners didn't get it. the bush tax cuts gave the tax cuts to the wealthy 2%. we're talking about making a wholesale approach that goes to the middle class and puts america back to work. >> congressman pence, i want to ask you quickly before you go. you've been raising a lot of money for your colleagues, but there's also talk that you might have some interesting in running in 2012. are you going to run? >> well, i'll tell you, jess camp i'm always -- i'm always humbled any time we're mentioned in any category for higher office, but here in indiana at the state fair tomorrow, criss-crossing the state, criss-crossing the country, my focus is entirely on electing a conservative majority to capitol hill in 2010, and we'll let the future take care of itself. >> and your governor mitch daniels is also rumored to be interested in 2012. do you think he has what it takes to be commander in chief? >> let me tell you what, indiana has the best governor in

america. mitch daniels is an outstanding leader. he would succeed in anything he made an effort to do. >> thanks to both of you for being with us. i'm grateful. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> and guess who is filling in for rush limbaugh next week. we'll tell you when we return, and later in the program it's no laughing matter. a '60s sitcom star in the center of a political brouhaha.

welcome back. joining me tonight, don bair, senior adviser to president bill clinton, cnn political analyst gloria borger and a presidential adviser to george bush's '04 campaign. stories on the radar. earlier today the president visited the ford plant touting the administration's effort to save the auto industry even though ford didn't take the bailout money. here's an instance where the white house says they saved endless numbers of jobs, but they are really not giving any credit. let me ask you, don, is there any way to turn this one around and for the president to get traction on the auto bailout? >> repetition, repetition, repetition. they just need to talk about it, and the more concrete they can make it, the more visits to

those plants, if i were helping them, i might put him together with some of the workers and have them talk about the difference that his administration has made, but the only way they are going to get any traction, if they get any in time, is just to keep with it. >> robert, let me ask you, because i hear on the trail a lot republicans and independents using against the president. they say he -- it was a government takeover. >> not only was it a government takeover, as we all know but here's the problem, there are a lot of folks out there that simply cannot afford the cars that ford and gm are making. they can't get the credit in order to buy the actual product. that's part of the problem. >> for him. >> gloria, does he run the risk if he's seen with the auto folks it reminds the people who are angry about the bailout that he did it. >> bailout, bailout, bailout. is that repetition? i would argue that when he did his stimulus package and the bailouts, he should have been out there doing what don is saying all along. >> then. >> then showing how many jobs he has saved, showing the actual people and the actual lives that

he has affected. >> and now it's a little late. >> i don't know that it's late. i don't want to underestimate how much water has gone under the bridge and how difficult the task is now, but we're just coming into the period where people are going to be really paying attention to this for the purposes of the election. >> let's move on to an eyebrow raiser. karl rove is going back to work in a new role for a day. rove, who was as everyone now knows, george w. bush's go-to guy for politics will be the fill-in host for rush limbaugh's radio show next monday. robert, is this a new career for karl rove? >> possibly. he does have a face for radio, no question about if. >> you going to get in trouble to say that. >> karl is a friend. no surprise here. karl rove is a conservative. rush limbaugh is a conservative and what better way to have a former presidential spokesperson/adviser talking about how bad the democrats are doing right now in the context of the rush limbaugh, with his 12 million or so listeners.

it's no-brainer. >> a kinder, gentler risch limbaugh show. >> really. >> it's august, you know. why does this surprise anyone though? you know, karl is out there. he's looking for things to do. it's a perfectly fine thing for him to do. >> absolutely. >> worked for rush. could be a new good career for him. according to the huffington post, senate minority leader mitch mcconnell reaffirmed he won't go to nevada to campaign for sharron angle. she challenging senate majority leader harry reid. angle will also not be getting the help from a mother of the guy she beat in the timery, danny tarkanian's mother who says she will campaign for reid. is this a surprise that mcconnell is not going to go campaign for angle? >> etiquette is the minority leader and majority leader do not campaign against each other. the only person who broke that rule and got a lot of hot water for it was bill frist who did it obviously against tom daschle. this is unusual to a degree for mcconnell to come out so forcefully and say he won't campaign, you know, for angle.

probably he should have said, you know what, harry reid is my friend. >> one side of decorum still exists. >> well, it's shocking, but remember back in 2008, reid did not go into kentucky against mcconnell either. >> right. >> so i think there's a gentleman's agreement there, though, of course, mcconnell, i'm told, is maxed out on his political action committee, contributing to her. he's raised money for her, but he's just not going to set foot in the state. >> okay. let's go on to bill clinton because he is setting foot in a very powerful state. he's going to be in florida a week from this coming monday to campaign for u.s. senate candidate kendrick meek. meek and clinton have known each other since clinton was the governor of arkansas and meek was just a highway patrolman assigned to florida's lieutenant governor then. now polls show that congressman meek is trailing billionaire businessman mark green heading into the august 24th democratic primary, and, don, we have seen clinton go into states and deliver victories. >> makes a difference. >> right. >> is he the winning ticket this

year? >> i don't know about in florida whether he will be. it demonstrates his loyalty. don't forget, kendrick meek was a big supporter of hillary clinton in the primaries and so you can draw a straight line between that and a lot of the candidates that president clinton has been holding this summer. >> but meek needs a lot of help. >> but don't underestimate bill clinton. i think the question is where is barack obama, right, and why isn't the president going down there and we may have answered my question which is he's a hillary clinton supporter. >> and i think there is a focus between charlie crist the governor who is going to run as an independent in the white house too. >> and to gloria's point, it's not that barack obama is going to and some of the other states and the reason why is there are a lot of folks out there very angry with this president, either a, because of the whole raise beat politics they perceive that's going on in the white house or, b, they feel like the president does not understand their pain and, remember, bill clinton always felt other people's pain.

>> what race beat politics. >> a lot of folks make the argument, blacks think that president obama is doing a phenomenal job. certain whites do not believe that way. they believe with the beer summit and with shirley sherrod, you're going down the list, that there are issues there and the president is obviously very, very sensitive to that and this white house. >> are you glad to see that the president is not out campaigning with a lot of democrats. is that a sign to you that he's going to be hurting in 2012. >> well, i think it's a sign of a little bit of fear obviously on the white house's part that they don't want to put the president in an embarrassing situation. he went up to massachusetts a couple months ago and we know what happened there. i think this is also an issue of knowing that bill clinton is really the star this year as it relates to getting some of these candidates to the finish line. >> well, he's been successful so far. we will see what happens in time. >> okay. i want to thank gloria for joining us for so much of the show. >> thank you. >> and gentlemen, they will be back with us on the other side of the break. we also want to follow up on another story from earlier this week. the ceo of target is apologizing for a $150,000 political

donation to a conservative group after employees complained. the company will set up a review process for all political contributions, interesting. next, mayberry gate. sheriff taylor at the center of a new political controversy coming up after the break. stic y to get a great offer on a new cadillac cts sport sedan... ..the most acclaimed vehicle in its class and a car and driver 10 best third year in a row. summer brings out the best in all of us, so now's the perfect time to get behind the wheel of a brand new cadillac. now during cadillac's summer's best sales event... get zero percent apr financing for 72 months or this attractive lease offer on a cts sport sedan. i'm going to own my own restaurant. i want to be a volunteer firefighter. when i grow up, i want to write a novel. i want to go on a road trip. when i grow up, i'm going to go there. i'm going to work with kids.

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time now for the play-by-play. just like in the sports shows, we replay the tape, stop the action and analyze the moves. first up, some republican senators are demanding that the department of health and human services stop running a commercial in which actor andy griffith praises the new health care reform law. it is supposed to educate the public, but republicans say it's government money wasted on democratic talking points. you watch. >> 1965, a lot of good things came out that year, like medicare. this year, like always, we'll have our guaranteed benefits,

and with the new health care law, more good things are coming. >> all right, joining me now to discuss this again don baer a democrat and republican robert trainham. mayberrygate? >> come on, are they going to be upset if aunt bea and opie do something. the sheriff of mayberry is as mainstream as it comes, and if it helps people understand and be educated about what's going on, especially the age demographic because they remember andy from the show. >> is it still democratic talking points if it's become law? >> it's the law of the land, no question about it, but it's still obviously democratic talking points because democrats voted for it and republicans did not. >> right. >> however, if the sheriff wants to go out and campaign on behalf of president obama that's his right. it's also his right to tout something that he believes in. the question becomes philosophically is it right for taxpayer money to go towards this. that's an iffy question. >> wouldn't republicans object no matter what they did to

explain and educate about the health care law because so many peoplelaw? >> back in 2001 when we had the rebate checks coming in the mail, there was a huge letter saying president bush signed this into law. d democrated said that was propaganda. david axelrod was on television trying to thread the needle on president obama's b position on same-sex marriage. >> the president does oppose same sex marriage, but he supports equality for guy and less by an c lesbian couples. >> does the president support states trying to go their own way on same-sex marriage? >> he does believe that marriage is an issue for the states. and he did oppose proposition 8. >> so they're trying to push him

to commit. wiggling a bit. at some point is president obama going to have to come down and say, yes, i support same-sex marriage or, no, i don't? >> this thing starts to go to the supreme court, there's a lot of decisions that have to go into it. so i think at some point, yes, but i think it's also prudent for the time being while still working its way through the courts to let it work its because through. >> is this an issue that democrats can never win on? >> he's uncomfortable answering the question which is unfortunate matt because as a gay american, i'd hope they would say yes or no. but, yes this, will become an issue in 2012. this is exactly what the white house does not want because they thought they had this battle back in 2004 when john kerry was running for president. the real issue is whether or not this is a constitutional right for guys and lesbians to be able to marry and the answer in my opinion is yes and the white house should have said so. >> they'll put off saying it for

a while, right? okay. no signs of remorse today from new york congressman charlie rangel. he was giving a speech today and he talked about why he's fighting accusations of corruption made against himhous. >> if you want to give me a deal, let's give me a deal based on the facts. but don't give me a deal based on what makes you feel comfortable. so you can threaten, but when you know that you have the facts and your people and your community behind you, it means that i don't expect to have another bad day. >> all right. he looks pretty relaxed given what he's facing. but is this -- how bad is this for the democrats? >> it's not good. i don't know how much it's playing out in the country. i don't know that much of anyone is paying attention to it out in the country. it hasn't reached the level of some of the problems that the republicans face in 2006 yet because there was this mounting

sort of drum roll that kept coming. there's not where we are with it this yet. >> but we could be with maxine waters also potentially facing a here. >> and, again, i think if you were to do a poll, i think you'd find very little awareness out in the country. >> is this manna from for republicans? >> let's play nancy pelosi who said she was going to run the most ethical congress in the history of the republic. and what we see with charlie rangel, you've obviously innocent until proven guilty, but the height of arrogance, 13 allegations -- >> and yet a democratic congress going after two of their own might be a sign of draining the swamp. >> you could make that argument, yes. no question about it. but one could also make the argument they should be more forceful by saying the facts are pretty clear especially with rangel. >> i want to move on only because this is my favorite story of the day.

the anticipation over real housewives of d.c. sorry to cut you premieres tonight. >> this is the who's who. >> senator, delegates, congressmen. it's big event. >> okay. first of all, have you ever seen anyone dress that had way in washington? >> all the time. >> i've never seen it. will you watch? >> i must admit, i am looking forward to it. i'm a huge housewives fan. i love new jersey and new york and definitely atlanta. >> we'll be watching. >> i'm really conflicted on this. i know the producer of the show, so i wish her well. but i would much rather watch mad men. >> we'll be watching cnn in, but we'll tivo that. thanks for being with us. washington gets battered in political ads across the country, so why would anyone want to come here? kid on the street finds out next.

rick's list is coming up next. what you got? >> we've seen a lot of tapes and a lot of unbelievable moments coming out of the situation in manchester, connecticut, but this one really takes the cake. tonight we are going to let you

hear what the killer was saying to police right after he was done with this unbelievable incident. back to you. millions of tourists are expected to visit washington this summer, but if you want political ads like we do, you know this city might as well be haiti. so our question, if its see bad, why come here? pete? >> reporter: that's right, all these national political ads trashing this town all day. why would anybody want to come and visit washington, d.c.? i'm going to go find out. why are you in d.c.? >> because i wanted to come to the smithsonian. >> reporter: has anyone tried to give you any money under the table? >> not yet. gr i'm going to see the first lady's dresses. >> now, that, i could get into. >> i came to seat national museum of american history. >> reporter: sir, you're lie to

go me. you're a corrupt lobbyist lobbying on behalf of big cheese. >> oh, yeah, that's true. >> reporter: you're having a terrible time, aren't you? >> yes. >> no. >> reporter: are you lobbying on behalf of the big lollipop lobby? stop, don't company to washington. money's changing hands. nothing is what it seems here, miss. i'm a woman. >> yeah, you look like one. >> reporter: you know what's in the fountains. congressmen are meeting in there and they're meeting there, their special interest cohorts. you keep your eyes peeled. >> kre. >> reporter: thank you. >> i didn't see any corruption. >> reporter: you at any time see any corruption in the smith sonia? what on earth are you doing in this corrupt lobbyist-ridden, crime-ridden special interest terrible town? what are you thinking? >> i'm thinking it's really hot. >> reporter: well, i know it's hot, sir. i'm a m