[captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] >> florida voters shows mitt romney with a nine-point lead over newt gingrich. in 45 minutes we will have a discussion about the upcoming florida primary. you can see mitt romney live from panama city, florida, newt gingrich and allen west of florida will also appear in palm beach county. you can see that live at 8:00. you should go to our c-span site for all the latest

information on campaign 2012 in our first 45 minutes president obama laid out his details of helping college students. we're interesting of hearing from you about the best way to make college affordable. if you are a college student, going to, in, or just left. starntse. and if you are a member of a faculty or administrator. all other ks give us a call. you can reach out to us on e-mail and you can also reach us on twitter as well. to talk about the details of the plans which he unveiled in part at the state of the union event and an event in michigan as well. here's some of the highlights from the white house about the president's plans to make

college affordable. it would first and foremost start with reforming student aid programs. it would go to adding new incentives for states and colleges to keep costs under control. it would invest $55 million in competitions much like his race to the top initiative. and it would provide better data for families to choose the right college for them as well as increase federal support to keep students loans' manageable. some writeups today from the plan.

so that's some of the perspectives. we have gone through some of the details. here's a little of the context from michigan, the president addressing college students.

>> we are putting colleges on notice, you can't keep -- you can't assume that you'll just jack up tuition every single year. if you can't stop tuition from going up, then the funding you get from taxpayers each year will go down. we should push colleges to do better. we should hold them accountable if they don't. now, states also have to do their part. i was talking to your president and this is true all across the country. states have to do their part by making higher education a higher priority in their budgets. last year, over 40 states cut their higher education spending. 40 states cut their higher

education budget. and we know that these state budget cuts have been the largest factor in tuition increases in public colleges over the past decade. >> and that's the president from the university of michigan yesterday. again, if you want to talk to us about the best way to make college affordable and give your perspective, comment on the the president's proposals as well, here's how you can do so. also, we have set up a line for all others to chime in this morning. leave the numbers out there so they can pick the best line possible for you. go ahead and call or you can also tweet us, facebook us.

we started a facebook conversation on this yesterday. we have about 112 plus comments on it already. north carolina, west is on our student line. go ahead. he's left. let's move on to ohio. a parent, brenda, good morning. caller: good morning. i just wanted to comment. i have two children in college right now. one just graduated and the cost of the student loans is astronomical. they have not gone up with the regular rate of businesses and that. for them, a lot of these children are coming back home just to be able to make their payments because they can't move out on their own but one of the problems -- i look at the books. we've got technology here. there's no reason why kids have to purchase books any more. that's an expense for kids. they can take advantage of technology today. i also think that the schools themselves should run more like

a business. they should be cutting budgets. i think that the professors do not have to put in eight-hour days. i think that they can -- they should just cut across the schools and administration and funds and run it more like a business today and not expect to get government aid all the time and not expect to raise their tuitions every year whether or not it's necessary. host: so if i hear you do you generally agree with what the president's proposing as far as what he wants to do? caller: i agree is with a some of what he is saying, yes. i think that their budgets should be cut. i think they should be cut all across the board. i think that they can look at it from a business standpoint and put a lot more efficient measures in the place. we're running colleges the same way i did when i went 25 years ago. >> host: what kind of money were you getting from the federal government to help you with college costs? caller: unfortunately very little and my children have had to work and pay a lot of their

college and now they are paying back their loans. they worked all the way through with part-time jobs. i don't think there's anything wrong with that but i think that the payments that they're coming out with, it's ridiculous. it's almost mortgage payments. host: we hear from parent off of facebook. host: louisiana, a faculty member. good morning. do you want to say what school you work at? caller: i'm a retired adjunct

faculty member. actually, i did not know which phone to call under the student, parent, or faculty because i have served as all three. host: ok. caller: my comment is that there are a lot of folks in the community such as myself that are retired but have time that could help faculty members or could help as adjunct faculty members and if there would be encouragement, perhaps a tax credit -- not a direct tax credit but for every dollar earned, there would be a tax deduction for that equivalent amount of dollars. i don't know what incentives it would be required but some small incentive could be given to retired folks to help in the universities, both as aides to

professors and as adjunct professors themselves. i think this would work both for retired folks and for folks who are currently employed. there are a lot of people in the community that have talents that could be available in the universities, could make the job of the professors less, and there bi be able to attract better people. i disagree with the former caller that was concerned about how many hours that the faculty teach. at many universities the faculties spend a lot of time in research and preparation, and i think we need to do what we can to let the actual faculty have more time to prepare and to use their

talents in a broad way and in a way that we can do this is to have a -- to have folks who are equally prepared. host: ok. miami, florida. we'll hear from a parent. good morning. caller: good morning. i have two sons. my oldest son finished -- he went to due paul and he went to yale. he was fortunate because he got scholarships. but my youngest son, i'm having to pay an enormous amount for him to go to school. and i think it's so unfair that they don't want to invest in our kids' future here. they're taking money overseas and everywhere and helping build schools to educate those kids but they're having a problem to make sure that our kids have a good education, also having these kids are coming out of school now with all this debt. host: does he go to private or public school?

caller: he goes to public school. he goes to the local college. host: how much is tuition for you? caller: he's paying $1600 per semester. host: and does he work at all to help with the cost? caller: he's going to school. i take on that amount of money. i take on that charge. and also, in order for him -- he can't even go independent under his own name because as a parent he has to go under my income as a parent until he's i believe 26. he couldn't get -- he can't get financial aid because he's under my income. host: so the president's proposal for helping those going to college, what do you make of it? caller: i think it would be a good thing for him to help these kids. these kids deserve to have a free mind when they come out of

school. they're going to have to search for the things that they went to school for. the job market is already messed up. so they're going to have to be worried about debt, paying back the loans, and also trying to live. host: springfield, illinois on our student line. mike. go ahead. caller: good morning. a quick idea for you. i attended the state university. i'm a returning adult student. about ten years ago, i walked out of a university with a degree in journalism. basically, couldn't get a job and no one wanted to hire me. back in school now, and i'm seeing what's -- what happened to me ten years ago, everyone is walking out with history degrees, journalism degrees. if you eliminate those degrees that aren't needed in the workforce in 2012, two things

happen. people will get degrees that are needed and schools will save on all those outdated programs. eliminate it. host: what are you studying now? caller: i'm studying engineering. host: what's the cost for you to go back? caller: it is $14,000 a year in tuition. host: do you get any assistance federal aidwise? caller: i take out student loans. host: what about the idea that the president said colleges can do their part? what do you make of that as far as the ability for a college to tamper down on those costs? caller: well, i see a lot of refundable fees. there's beautiful gymnasiums, beautiful health centers. lots of employees. host: off of twitter.

a parent. good morning. caller: good morning. i think i agree with some of the callers that are talking about the tuition and the easy availability of student loans. back when i was in college, i graduated after four years with about $10,000 in student loan debt. and now that same education the kid would come out with probably $40,000 in student loan debt because the banks have gotten involved in the education business. and the loans are what's driving up the costs. i've got a daughter will be going to school probably next year to college, and there's two schools that she likes, the state school here, the tuition is $8,000 a year and they have the number two program in the country that she's interested in. the number one program is $50,000 a year. it doesn't make sense.

host: do you get any federal assistance? caller: i'm sure the student loans will be there. but i make a good income so i don't know that she will be able to qualify for any student loans. but academically she's doing well. so we may get lucky there. but i think the president's proposal didn't have any teeth to it. i mean, i support barack but i think he's -- it's just posturing because there's no way that you can measure how to make colleges do better. it's just not measurable. host: why do you think that is? caller: everybody's got their cost structure in place and they are building new buildings and things like that. so there's a cost to that. it's tough to figure out how much is enough and how much is too much. host: that's on our parent line from atlanta, georgia. allen weighing in. you can weigh in on the lines that best represent you. about half hour we'll talk about politics specifically

looking at florida voters. susan man nist from florida university down there who follows political science issues and particularly presidential politics will be our guest but to give you a sense, when it comes to florida voters. this is what it shows among the two top contenders there. mitt romney with 38% of those polled who plan to participate in the primary followed by newt gingrich at 29%. and those -- that's how it breaks down. when you look at the other two, ron paul not concentrating in florida to focus on states with caucuses, 14%. and rick santorum as of yesterday was planning back to pennsylvania today to take care of some tax issues, filling out tax forms. then he says he is going to ba back in the state comes in at 12%. our 2012 site is where you can find the latest information about what we're covering on the campaign trail.

events today with mitt romney, you can see that live on c-span. and newt gingrich and allen west appearing tonight, 7:00 or 8:00. i'll find the details. but both of those you can find more information at c-span.org. minneapolis, minnesota. michelle on our earths line. hi. -- others line. caller: hi. two callers ago you mention add gentleman who went back to school a few years ago. i did the same about ten years ago and i was kind of shocked that the first two years of college are basically your general ed. basic math, basic english. i had to take a swimming class of all things, basically. these are classes that need to be -- should be focused on in high school. i think people have the wrong thing here. we're worried about the cost. the whole thing is you don't need four years of college. you don't need four years of career specific in college you

only get -- if everybody thinks back, you've only got two years of career specific business or whatever, chemistry or whatever you're getting into. the first two years were wasted basically teaching you things that you should have learned in high school. my personal opinion is we're leaving kids get out of high school with no skills. so let's restructure things. let's add as a taxpayer i have no problem paying for one more year of high school. you have 13 years of high school, that 12th and that 13th year should be focused on somewhat like the europeans did years ago where you get out of high school and you have -- you're ready to walk into an apprenticeship. take the is theth and 13th year. you want to be a carpenter, car mechanic, elictsrigs, whatever it is you want to focus on. if you want to walk out of it, you have a two-year training already, you're ready to walk into an apprenticeship.

by the time you're 21 you have a job and you're making good money. or if you don't want to do vocational, you take that 12th and 13th year you take your pre-college classes there so when you walk out you're ready to go into a two-year college, focus on your career. yesterday, i was watching c-span when i got home and there were two professors talking about cost. and one of the professors was from california -- in fact, he used to be the president of the university of minnesota -- and kind of whining about i don't think we can go down in cost. well, that's because -- and they were talking about how research is going to suffer. let's separate, you know, the -- when i went back to college, i didn't go to the university of minnesota. i went to st. cloud state. they said st. cloud state doesn't have a lot of -- they don't do a lot of research. guess what, we actually have professors teaching us.

we didn't have these guys in their last year of college or whatever there pre-professors, they weren't really professors. they were like kids teaching the classes while they quote/unquote -- the college professors were doing research. why are we mixing research with the college? let's have college teach people and let's if we want to fund research, let's separate the two and not -- and not let basically the taxpayers are paying for the research. host: that's michelle on our others line. lines will be on the screen. pick the best one that represents you. the college board has estimated the average undergraduate budget for 2001-2012, factors in fees, room and board, other expenses breaks down for this. for public two-year commuter,

the total cost is about $15,000. for public four-year on campus, $21,147. for public four year out-of-state, $33,973. for a private nonprofit four-year on campus, $42,000 224. those done by the college board. michigan, a parent, kathy. hi. caller: good morning. first, we're looking at that little bit of film with president obama. the backdrop, everybody was white. i did see a person with darker skin there. that bothers me. host: the event at michigan? caller: right. what i see as a parent and i'm working as a substitute teacher again. but as a parent of a teacher with my two oldest boys, many

students are cherry picked in terms of who will receive a scholarship. and the full rides, i've seen friends' children receive -- and they have plenty of money -- to pay for that education, yet the student oftentimes very seldom you see someone very poor get a full ride to a major university. i think we're overlooking community colleges that do a fine job, most of them. and the woman that called i think from minnesota, many of the classes in my experience as a student -- and i'll be returning in the fall -- are redundant. things i've already had. i don't need them again and most students don't. i can tell you what i'm seeing particularly in these rural schools. i'm seeing desperation on the part of parents trying to get their children educated, resources that are so lopsided, and i'm not feeling hopeless

but it is very frightening when you see children whose parents don't have work and there's no hope of getting work. host: so for the president's proposals, do you agree or disagree with what he is trying to do? caller: i don't get a newspaper so i'm not familiar with his proposals other than what i know is that a country like denmark can educate its population for a bachelor's degree for free. and i think anything beyond that is a lot of work study involved and i don't know why we can't do that. host: just to break it down. that's jaste broad breakdown of what the president is trying to do. caller: then i think he's got

some good ideas there. but you can't expect a student, my son, -- the middle son took a semester off. the student loans are frightening him. the pell grant doesn't begin to address the cost of college. it shouldn't cost -- and one person made that point, you know. we have these grandiose buildings. we don't need that. host: we'll leave it there. this is eddie saying there's no incentive to reduce tuition. politico has a story that the president met last night with former governor of florida jeb bush and the former president george h.w. bush.

you'll notice that jeb push and president obama is seated in seats, president bush is seated in some type of wheel chair device just to note. and that's on the politico web site if you want to read the whole story for yourself. new york, jane on our line that we set live for faculty members. caller: hi there. i just want to say i do support president obama's proposal. but i think it could go even further and bring back consumer protection force student loans and that would definitely help lower the cost. there's no incentive force colleges to keep loans cheaper if there's no consumer protection. there's a great web sithe

student loans that talk about that. host: where do you work? kiveraget i'd like to keep that private . host: what do you do? kifrpblt i teach. host: as far as the ability to keep costs down on the college side, is that doable? caller: i think it would be if students had an opportunity to claim -- if there were more consumer protections, i think it would be possible. host: what do you teach? caller: as someone who is a faculty member at a college, i would like to keep myself as anonymous as possible. i just don't want -- host: how do you think the president's proposals will fly with your colleagues in general? caller: i think most people don't realize there are very many consumer protections for student loans. but most people don't realize that student loans are the only one that you can't claim -- i

forget -- they have few, none, of any loan or debt that you can have. they have the fewest protections. host: mariam, a student. hello. caller: i am a lifetime student. my parents, -- sorry about the way i'm going about this. i agreed with a lot of the lady that was talking about the school system and how it's set up and some of the classes you have to take just seem so ridiculous. and that was my advice to people, is that as a student i would take all those classes at a jc where these thing that is have nothing to do with the field that you want to go into. and as far as people mentioning

about treating colleges like a business, i don't think there's anything you're going to be able to do about that so you had better change your mentality to think about going to college as a business. i personally did tons of things to save money that most people probably would not do. host: such as? caller: well, like books. they are outrageous. as far as a book industry, it has changed. i mean, i started going to college back in the 80's and have continued my whole life. but i just love going to school. host: what are you studying currently? caller: well, i'm way into tess la and free energy and stuff like that. but i would like to not get sidetracked by that. but the books, like i would go to the library and literally only use those books at different points. as far as the one lady saying

that people have money. well, there's a lot of us who don't have money. and like my parents, my whole college education, they're contributing to it with a battery for a vehicle. so there are students out there whose parents don't have that ability . host: let's leave it there. off of twitter. some others. political stories. talking about house democrats meeting in maryland.

to give you an idea of some of the talk yesterday talking about the g.o.p. leadership and particularly as they have aimed their plans to defeat the president. >> banor, canter, mcconnell, they've made it clear, it's about obstructing the president's agenda, it's about defeating barack obama. but i can't -- i'm not trying to be funny, i'm being honest. i think they're slightly different. i think it's more than about obstructionist. i think they actually believe what they're saying. i think they actually believe when these guys out there

saying let detroit go bankrupt, that's the front end of the quote, it gets worse. let foreclosures process run its course and hit bottom or poor people have no habit of working and nobody around them works. or that barack obama is the food stamp president. i think it's not just political fear and tactic. i really think they believe it. i think they're committed to it. host: again, that's vice president joe biden yesterday. if you want to see those speeches i would invite you to go to that website. you can see those speeches in total. on your screen we have about 15 minutes before we change gears and talk about the florida primary. the now, the best way to make that college affordable.

some including, and we've shown them to you, changes in student aid programs, incentives to colleges. there are others as well and we're getting your thoughts. as you look at some proposals we'll take some calls. new mexico, robert who lists himself as an administrator. go ahead. caller: i think americans are being a little bit my optic on this thing. we keep forgetting what the idea is. one of the things that just kept up is like the h1n1 virus that's got everybody scared to death. colleges made an effort to increase the disinfecting rate of all the thing that is people use throughout the college. it costs money to put people in those areas to disinfect those just to make sure that students have an opportunity not to be sick and to come to school and earn an edication. many of these things take

people, costs. and when you're talking about cuts in costs in college education, who is going to take the big hit first is the people who work for colleges. my staff is reduce bid one/eighth already. host: are you a chief administrator? guest: no. just a supervisor . host: do you mind telling us what school? caller: i work for a local community college in new mexico. host: tell us a little bit then -- and talk a little bit about the community colleges' role in college education. have you seen more students come to you because of the economic downturn? caller: i probably have seen an increase in about 5,000 students over the last five years. i think this is a great thing. i love seeing people come to school. i believe it's an important part of our duty at the college to make sure that our colleges is capable of giving students an education and one of the things is an infrastructure. if we don't have a toilet paper and a toilet, nobody's going to

class. host: long island, new york. anthony, parent, hello. caller: please bring back brian lamb. i miss him. when you look at my congressman, representative tim bishop, his former position prior to becoming a congressman was running the university, and he basically drove it into the ground. and you had him on c-span the time when there was a huge scanned wrl by all the universities were steering loans, students towards specific loan lending companies. they were getting kickbacks and that whole scandal was squelched and went by the wayside. and that's one of the examples where you see the waste and fraud. or at least the complicity at an administrative level. i mean, the universities have become dumping grounds for politicians and their families and their friends. and until you can fix that, i mean, my former county executive was caught in a mortgage fraud scandal here on

long island. robert gaff ni. and after he left office, he became a president of dowling college. so you see a -- rather than being able to fix the problem, they are so much a part of the problem that that's why the costs are so high. and all their children go to the university for free. they're allowed to educate their children at no cost. so i mean, if they're not having to live the same problems that they're there to fix, they're not going to fix them. so -- host: so aside from there, what about the universities themselves? what can they do to make college more affordable? kiveraget i don't know. i think it's a big mess because the people that are hired to fix it are -- that's their cash cow. i mean, it's just -- look at the -- look at the evidence as it is. i mean, none of these people, it's just one big regurgetation of the pol bureau reering its

ugly head where by the beast can't quell the problems it's created. i mean south hampton university was driven into the ground. host: we should look at -- off of twitter this morning. georgia, good morning. jack, parents' line. caller: i go to augusta technical college. and the major problem is the for-profit in any of the universities. i go to a technical community college and the incentive is to pack as many students in every quarter so they can get all the government money so they can tax -- not tax but get half of their money. and then once the students are

in school, then they're not really taught anything. then they fail as many students or not teach as many students so they have to come back and reapply next quarter. i think the problem is the for-profit for any of the schools and everything. there's no need for the mrs. to pack as many students in. host: do you think you're getting a value for the education you're currently getting? caller: no. the dean of my particular department, which is internet networking, she doesn't have any qualifications to be a dean for networking. she's never worked in the field. she doesn't know anything about internet protocol. the only thing she has a job is

because she knows one of the persons of the heads of the administration. host: why do you continue on then? caller: well, i'm leaving. i'm going to someplace in california. i'm getting a check and i'm leaving. host: south carolina, good morning to jack. parents' line. caller: good morning. i coach little league and i'm also an art broker. one thing that they should get involved with, whoever, is to involve the kids. these kids, 6-12-year-old boys, when you involve them in art specifically davivenie and dallie, they go crazeie in the libraries in south carolina and in florida they have found artwork for ridiculously cheap price that is museums buy.

the kids found it. not me. i just try to educate them . host: so to the point about college affordability? caller: yes. because when you own a dahli artwork of any kind, his inexpensive signed and numbered prints start at $5,000 each and they're all over south carolina for $20 apiece. host: michigan. andy on our administrator's line. good morning. caller: good morning. i appreciate this topic. host: where are you an administrator, if i may ask? caller: i've been retired now. in a couple of state colleges, one was union run and another in a different state in arizona that was not union run. host: go ahead. caller: one thing i think would help is to get more parents involvement in higher ed and not expect the students to borrow the money or earn it all in college.

about 25 years ago the state of michigan set up a plan where parents could pre-pay for tuition. the deal was if you bought tuition for a year of college at prices of 25 years ago, they would guarantee when you're a student and went to college 20 years later, that that payment would cover the tuition cost. in other words, it guaranteed it would not cost you more because of inflation. i think it was a democratic governor that set that up, governor blancherd of michigan. however, now it would sound like a republican proposal because now it would say to parents when their kids are one or two or three, set aside, $25, $75 a month and you can guarantee your child could afford tuition. that gets parents involved throughout the education of their child and because they have money on the line and want their kids to do better. i did this with my son and it has worked out fine. however, i must admit the way i

squirled the money away at first was not to subscribe to cable television so that was like $50 a month i saved and i put it in the pre-paid tuition program. host: so for the colleges that you've been affiliated with, generally do you think there are way that is colleges can conserve costs, whether it be as far as the price of facilities or the teacher pay or other ways that a college can cut costs and make it more affordable for a student attending? caller: yes. i think it's kind of an avocation in college for faculty and administrators to look at all other pay groups in the country and try to find one that is paying more than they're getting paid as faculty. so one year it might be the public sanitation workers of new york city. next year it might be the long shoreman in california. they're very good at structuring an argument to say we're more valuable to society

than this other group and so they kind of leverage over the past 15 years the salaries paid to faculty. and the faculty certainly deserve a fair and adequate compensation. as the previous caller pointed out the inflation rate at college has far exceed it had normal rate. host: this was brought up by a viewer on twitter who asked about the time the professors spend in class or having office student hours over doing research projects for outside of the classroom. do you think too much outside of the class room research goes on rather than day-to-day teaching of students? caller: i support research if it's true research and there are faculty that really do that on their own free time. that's good. but there are also faculty that hold down second jobs or teach at another university and game the system. and each college needs to address those issues. i think as a country we need to

look at the money that we're putting toward higher ed and try to spend it more wisely, try not to just throw more money at the problem, and involve parents in funding a portion of their kids' education and telling their kids from day one i expect you to go to college, i expect you to get good grades to go to college. i'm putting money aside now for you to go to college. and to keep an eye on the whole program. host: some other details from the college board.

one more call, gainesville, georgia. this is bill on our parents' line. good morning. caller: good morning. i'm a parent of a student at a private college in new york city. and the whole college situation drives me crazy. the federal government gets involved with something, they have no reason to be involved with, and then obama comes along and says we're going to fix the problem we caused, host: keep going. caller: the federal government

isn't smart nouf solve the problem that they've created all right. all they have to do is step away from it and let the economic market control. on the other side, my daughter's mother is a college professor at penn state. nine months a year, she spends three day as week on campus. and i really don't believe those are more than five hour days on campus. four day as week, she spends feeding chickens and horses at her boyfriend's farm. during the summer she's off completely so she gets to spend seven day as week taking care of pets. and of course in her complicated school schedule she usually squeezes in a three-week trip to rome as part of their students' studies. host: so you're saying teachers

should do more. caller: i think that would be a good start. yes. host: again, if you want to see the president's speech at the university of michigan, go to our c-span.org site. you can watch it in total as far as all other things we've done when it comes to the topic of higher edication, our video library can help you out with those processes. later on in the program we'll talk about the cuts this week, or at least the planned cuts to the military budgets and the press conference that took place where the defense secretary talked about his plab and we'll have an expert to talk about those plans and how they will affect the future work of the military. up next we're going to talk with the political science professor at the university of south florida to talk about the florida primary next tuesday, of course ads being a big deal when it comes to politics in florida. to give you a sense of what's going on, the televisions

there, here are political ads by both mitt romney and newt gingrich. >> florida families lost everything in the housing crisis. newt gingrich cashed in. gingrich was paid over $1.6 million by the agency that helped create the crisis. >> and my advice -- >> a historian? really? sanctions, gingrich resigned from congress and then cashed in as a d.c. insider. if newt wins, this guy would be very happy. host: >> he'll be dishonest on the job. what kind of man would mislead, distort and deceive just to win an election? this man would. mitt romney. romney said he has always voted republican when he had the opportunity. but in the 1992 massachusetts primary, romney had the chance to vote for george h.w. bush or pat buchanan but he voted for a

liberal democrat instead. romney said his investments in fannie or freddie were in a blind trust but as reported in the national journal, romney erneds tens of thousands not in a blind trust. romney decide seeing a false ad his campaign used to attack newt gingrich but romney's own campaign paid for the ad and romney's own voice is on the add adproving its false content. if we can't trust what mitt romney says about his own record, how can we trust him on anything? >> april 15, 2010 i had arrived in paris, walked into the hotel lobby, met general mcchrystal for the time and he looked at me and said, so you're the rolling stone guy. i don't care about the article. i just want to be on the cover. >> michael hastings wrote about the commander in the june 2010

issue of rolling stone. >> i said, well, sir, i think it's between you and lady gaga. i was just making some joke not knowing lady gaga was going to be on the cover. he replied just put me and lady gaga in a heart-shaped tub. and i thought this is going to be a different kind of story. >> several months later as a result of the article, general mcchrystal had been fired. michael continues the story and talks about his new book, the operators. sunday night at 8:00 eastern. >> "washington journal" continues. joining us from florida, susan, the university of south florida political science professor. thanks for joining us. guest: my pleasure. host: so in the days leading up to next week's primary, what particularly are you looking at as far as signs about who will win and who will be victors?

guest: a lot of people don't like to talk about polls as being meaningful burks they are and we have seen a shift in momentum since the campaign came to florida and romney as little bit on the up right now. gingrich lost a little bit of ground. this weekend will be critical for those undecided voters. and of course the candidates are combing this state as fast as furesly as they can. and the ads are running 24/7. news coverage is at all-time peak. so there's plenty of opportunities for floridians to be wayed in these last few days. host: does typical retail politics work in florida? guest: it certainly does because our electorates going to be primarily over 45 on election day and it's often the case that if you go to an event there's a candidate in person and you shake their hand and you get a picture, the chance that is you are going to turn

out go up markedly and so are the chances you'll vote for that person. they're trying to get this great photo op, stop at this restaurant, stop in this housing area, whatever, trying to get that perfect place that ways a certain demographic. campaigning in florida requires a lot of focus group work and figuring out the slices that you have to campaign towards. and this is a state where there's many, many slices and they're all kind of different . host: give us a snapshot of what a republican or conservative voter in florida is. and what things factor into who they will pull levers for. guest: there's quite diversity. i think what people don't understand between florida and south carolina, for example, just our racial and ethnic makeup. we have a percent are hispanic, some are cubans, some puerto

reekens. and other countries of origin in the mix. but the politics even within those communities can be very different depending upon the time of arrival in this country, generational divides, and so even campaigning among the hispanic republicans is quite challenging. but then of course you have a religious mix. south carolina largely evan jellkls. here, you have a sizeable republican jewish community, a higher percentage of catholic republicans than in south carolina. and even within the protestant mix, fewer evan jellkls and more other more liberal -- i wouldn't say liberal, but moderate protestants. so even there it's very different. then you have the three geographies of politics. parts of florida are extremely rural tend to be more of the social conservatives. then you have your large urban

areas, the tampas, and orlandos and miamis but the key is going to be the suburban counties which have experience it had highest incidents of home foreclosures and unemployment rates. so it's -- florida is the microcosm of america. campaigning among florida republicans is as challenging as campaigning among the entire electorate at large including drabblingts and independents. host: our guest with us to talk about the florida primary. if you want to ask her questions about what's going on in florida espeerblely leading up to it, our numbers are object bottom of your screen. we have a florida residents line. if you live in florida, you want to call in. and twitter and e-mail, you can also participate, too.

the "washington journal" this morning to talk about some of the geography shows a little bit of the strong section that is mitt romney had back in 2008. they highlight jacksonville, fort myers, and panama city, amongst others, big strength around orlando as well. do you indicate that those areas are just as strong for mr. momry in time around? or is mr. gingrich managed to steal some away from those sections? guest: well, there's in roads to be made and you can't quite compare. there's a lot of difference because the economy is so much worse in florida than it was in 2008 even though there we had seen the beginnings of the recession. but the truth of the matter here is that florida is a state that is used to leading the country out of the recession. now we've been lagging behind in recovery. so what you see in some of those years is tremendous amount of anger at washington.

so for some people, they like gingrich because he basically screams at washington, he's kind of like their mega phone. but in other places they prefer romney because he's more of a businessperson. and if you look at florida senior vote which certainly in the southwest area that you were mentioning, seniors are more likely to be invested in the market, a little bit better educated here than in some other places and more cognizant of the economy in general, invested, follow the world economy, and i think those voters are very much attracted to romney because of his private sector experience and the fact that he is not a member of congress. but let's be realistic. the florida republicans are going to vote in this primary care about one thing and that's picking the candidate that can carry florida in november. because republicans across the country understand that if your

candidate can't win florida, they're not going to be winning the white house. host: and as soon asen you are our guest until 8:30. let's go first to ohio. we'll hear from a republican. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for c-span and the opportunity to speak. i have a question for you, professor. i remember once in the house when all of the democrats were kicked out because of the fight between an ex-state patrolman. do you remember that? guest: i'm sorry, i'm not hearing you well. caller: that's all right. my other question is the gridlock we're having now, it would seem we would want someone who could pass bills and have some influence. and i remember speaker gingrich having that.

host: so the ability for a candidate to work on both sides of the house and avoid gridlock. guest: well, believe me, americans are looking for that person because they are very distraught with congress. that's why congress has record low ratings right now. and certainly as your caller points out, it is the case that gingrich is making much of the fact that he was able to do that. that's one of his loudest claims that he is making on this stop. of course, on the other side, opponents are pointing out that there's a lot of people who served with him, republicans, that thought that he was not the best of leaders. so there yo go. that's exactly why you're seeing the split vote among republicans over these two front runners is people have different per spect yevs of the power of each of them to actually get something done in washington. but i can tell you that people across the country are clamoring for somebody to put this country together and get

the economy moving. host: the unemployment rate in florida is 9.9% compared to 8.5% on the national average. columbus, ohio, democrat's line. go ahead. caller: hi, professor. on those psa's that need to be aired, i'm going to call the federal communications commission because what's happening is all this money rolling in because of that one bill that was passed or supreme court et cetera, i'm sure you can comment on that, so that unfortunately the public service announcements aren't put into those rolls on the daily basis, and these communications stations are cashing in on all this money running in. one of the problems with the

endowment funds was the crash for the colleges. you teach there at south florida in tampa. caller: yes, i do. caller: well, number one, for all these colleges is football money maker and then the next one is teaching hospitals. and there's a major problem with -- host: why don't we leave it there. to the first point of the caller there's some figures out about ads. . .

guest: paid look at this and many people tell me look at all of the good that money could do. the truth of the matter is that to get your message out to people, you have to use television. that said, the bulk of the ads have the by the -- have been by the super pacs. so far, most of the super pac ads have had a very negative tone, because they have been contrasts, and most of the

candidate ads have been more positive. you could hardly turn on the television around any news cycle where any programs which have large senior listeners and not be bombarded. you get when gingrich-related deaths, the next one is romney, -- ad, the next one is romney, and back and forth. >> for the super pac -- host: for the super pac ads, what stands out? guest: a lot of it has to do with their backgrounds. florida voters have a little bit longer memory of some of these things. they are calculating all of the time when they see these ads,

which one of these candidates can carry florida. not only that, if they are thinking which one of the candidates can't win over independence? -- can win over the independents. in past elections, the independent vote has been selected in 2008, obama handily won that vote. s know you must win that independent vote. they are putting the two together, and measuring carefully which one seems to be the one and done overcome this -- can overcome this negativity. host: a cure from e-mail says florida could be the national benchmark. that alone makes it the most

interesting primary so far. guest: absolutely. we're the biggest, largest, most diverse state. with 29 electoral college votes, the same as the state of new york, two more than we had in the 2008 election, and we are diverse in terms of religion, race and ethnicity, ideology, geology, and the most competitive in terms of the democrats against republicans. this is the first primary that only republicans can vote intered the caucuses and -- and vote in. the caucuses ahead of us could have been dependent roads. here, you have to be registered 29 days ahead of the election. host: surely on our republican line. good morning. caller: i am a proud alumni of

usf. i'm where you were down at tampa for the debate last monday night. from some friends, we understand that maybe a couple of thousand friends showed up for dr. ron paul. to what do you attribute this amazing spirit, and the people willing to come out and shot for dr. ron paul? we think it does more to do for liberty and constitution. guest: ron paul has a tremendous following on college campuses. i was outside broadcasting with the local nbc affiliate, and i heard shots where ron paul supporters were banging drums

and colin l. professor macmanus the excitement is very much -- calling out professor macmanus. the excitement is very much related to the intrusion of government, and the concern about privacy. that is one reason ron paul has a lot of following. i attended a debate at the university of north florida, and it was the same thing there. to put things in perspective, one of the reasons he is by passing florida, besides the cost of television, frankly was that he was humorous in the debate -- that was quite needed, but also, in 2008, ron paul only received 3% of the republican vote. he would prefer to go to states

where they have caucuses because his supporters are so passionate they will show up in great numbers, then he feels that he could secure enough delegates that he will have a lot of influence on the platform and pushed the candidates toward some of his ideals. host: professor macmanus, off of twitter, and john in north caros -- guest: excellent question. that is one of the things that has pushed around me a little bit in the plus column since the south carolina primary, because the polls in magic's between the president and both gingrich and romney show that romney does better in the matchup against obama, but not surprisingly, it is a dead heat here in florida.

we are bright purple. where are not red or blue. we are really very competitive. >> lettuce across the state -- host: that is across the state, or an overall state? guest: statewide polls show romney polls better against obama than does gingrich, and that is on the mind of florida republicans. i keep coming back to the point, and i cannot stress enough, electability is on the minds of republicans because they know the importance of florida on the national map, and in recent years, no one has won the white house without winning florida, if you are a republican. host: we hear consistently the i-4 corridor.

what is it? guest: we call it the highway to heaven for republicans. this is where you win or lose, between the tampa, saint peter's big -- saint petersburg area, to dayton area. in a general election it is the most competitive part of the state, with an almost equal divided between republicans and democrats. the me give you a sample of the tampa bay market. as we speak, 30% are registered democrats, -- 38% are registered democrats, 38% are registered republicans and the rest are independent. it is a slice of everything.

every kind of race, religion, geography, rural, urban, suburban all along this highway, which is why it is canada's come to florida they have to go to one -- candidates come to florida, they have to go to one end of this corridor. if you hit those areas, you have the bulk of the republicans. host: florida, troy. caller: i've been noticing that dr. ron paul keeps distancing himself from the pack. i'm wondering how his platform of abolishing the federal reserve and the irs is really going to appeal to republican

constituents, and how that has to be, and if florida is not a matter, is that a situation he will have to deal with in many other states? guest: dr. ron paul has already said he is not going db competitive in florida rather than appealing in the debates -- appearing in the debates. he does not feel that he will do well here. a lot of it is his views on some things like the federal reserve do not resonate with florida as much as other places. certainly, his stances on security are really out of sync with a lot of republicans here, because we have a lot of military retirees and active duty military. he realizes his message, i yield him a lot of votes, but -- will

not yield him a lot of votes, but certain portions, like opening up to the, that is a popular stance, because flights have just begun from tampa to cuba. sometimes he does resonate with florida, but to win florida, and we are a winner-takes-all state, he has simply not got the support to do that. he recognizes that, and as for -- focusing elsewhere. it chilled in louisville, kentucky, bill, republican line -- host: louisville, kentucky, bill, republican line. caller: good morning, susan. [unintelligible] i have called about this to%

social security rate out of my pay check. this is 2%. the hundred billion dollars has now for the first time in history been transferred from the general fund to pay 44 million unemployed [unintelligible] if anybody remembers, when bush was in office, he wanted to do the same thing, and everybody said they would eliminate social security. i want someone to tell me why this is not eliminating our social security. this cannot be extended more. host: we will leave it there. to the point about social security, one of those issues of concern among florida voters,

particularly among senior citizens? guest: it is interesting to point out that when people look at florida they think seniors are the ones most interested in social security and medicare, but the truth of the matter here is the group really focused on these issues most are the baby boomers nearing retirement, and that is the glut of the electorate. they have had to think about the retirement they were going to take -- working a few more years, worrying about medicare and the health-care system -- there is anxiety about these issues. the gentleman's comments have received attention here among groups that are focused on that, concerned that reducing taxes simply takes away from social security. it is a fairly sophisticated

argument that a lot of people, frankly, do not get, but one that a lot of senior groups are articulating. host: off of twitter, a hypothe- guest: well, of course, jeb bush is extremely popular among for the republicans and he has been outspoken lately, cautioning for the republicans and candidates about two things -- one is the taliban, the belligerents, and the fierceness the state are going -- that home, the belligerence and the fierceness they are going after each other. that is not a pill -- that does not appeal with older

floridians. i believe that as one of the reasons the debate here in canada it had the rhetoric toned down. -- candidates had their rhetoric tone down. bush has thingje jeb cautioned about is a hard line in immigration. he is fluent in spanish and has warned the party not to get too far down the line on this one because we want to be a welcoming party. you saw the candidates in the thursday debate tone down the rhetoric on immigration. in each case, you can see the hand of jeb bush cautioning the candidates. host: almost every paper mentions marco rubio this morning. guest: he is also almost

universally loved among for the republicans because he is seen as the young generation, the one that can force the party to move in the right direction on immigration. he is seen as a rising star. i can tell you truthfully the most common conversational game at any get the rain is rubio as a vice-presidential candidate. there is one school of thought that says why would he settled for number 2? the other school of thought is the party will appeal to his concern about representation of latinos on a national ticket, and the opportunity for republicans to show a more diverse face. at any gathering you will see about half and half on the question. only marco rubio.

-- knows. host: he gave the republican response to it. here is a bit of it. [video clip] >> this president inherited the biggest national debt, but he has made it worse. for the first time since world war two, our national debt is larger than our country's economy. yes, this president inherited an economy where unemployment was too high, but he has made it worse. today, our unemployment rate is higher than the day he took office, and since he took over it has been stuck at over 8% every single month. the president did not talk about his record for one simple reason, he does not want you to know about it, but you do know about it because you feel the failure of his leadership. he inherited a country with serious problems. he asked the congress to give him stimulus and obama-care to

fix it. the democrats in congress gave it to him, and not only did it not work, it made everything worse. president obama has a year left in the white house. what does he plan to do now that he did not do before? we got our answer. he plans to divide us against each other, pitting americans against other americans, in the hopes of generating enough roads to get reelected. host: a bit from marco rubio. talk a lot the fact that he has not endorsed anyone, nor hasjeb bush. guest: very pragmatic politicians. it is a rule of thumb some have forgotten. marco rubio was mentored a lot by governor jeb bush at the time he was coming up in politics, and i am not surprised that

neither endorsed anyone. host: chicago, ill., steve, democrats line. go ahead. caller: good morning, miss mcmanus, i'm enjoying c-span. my question is about your reliance and belief on the polls. in light of the last year or so, the media has been telling us that mitt romney is the prohibitive favorite tenet he has the money, the personality, and the looks, and we heard that in every state primary poll, and here again in florida. the professional pundits, and i would include you in that, are again focusing on a reliance on the polls. the reality is the polls and the votes are coming in very different way. he lost iowa.

what mitt romney has won his one small state that allows democrats to vote in the primary. the thing people are missing with newt gingrich is he not only defied the polls in south carolina, which i understand were getting tighter up until the primary, but he got 60% more votes than mitt romney in south carolina. host: we will leave it there. guest: i understand people's apprehension about polls. there are those that are right, and those that are wrong, but i think the polls in florida have been pretty accurate over the last few years, and the trend line you see -- and you kind of feel the momentum towards rodney -- but as your caller points out, the one thing polls cannot predict is turnout. that is why this last weekend before the election is so

important. you have to get people to engage and ensues about going to the polls. there is a huge difference between florida and south carolina. if this state is much more diverse in every way. south carolina is much more homogenous when it comes to the proportion of people that describe themselves as very conservative. florida republicans are a little more diverse, and the seniors here, the bulk of the electorate, are much more inclined to vote for mitt romney than the seniors were in south carolina. some of that is because for the seniors are, as we say, younger, healthier, wealthier, and a little bit better educated, and more informed on the economy. they like the rodney business experience, as opposed to -- the

romney business experience as opposed to gingrich pointed congressional appearance. could there be an upset? you never say anything -- never in florida. the polls at this moment have accurately projected the direction of the election. host: ocala, florida, william, republican line. caller: professor macmanus, thank you for your participation. i want to ask you, as a member of the liberal organization such as south florida university, to you feel that this new class of students coming in since the 2008 election is in favor of obama and will help him carry the youth vote, or are they looking at the deficit and thinking in another direction? guest: excellent question. i have a diverse group of

students. i teach florida politics. i always ask for a show of hands as to their political leanings, and i point out that one -- my mother was one party, and by father was -- my father was another. if i make them comfortable. truthfully, in 2008, there was tremendously larger numbers of democrats, but i am seeing an upswing in campus republicans, and i think that is driven a lot by the economic situation. i think the youth vote in florida will go to obama, but the question the obama campaign has is will this critical cohort that his support of of all, be able to put the time into volunteering -- 4 obama, be able to put the time into

volunteering? college students are very strapped. they're parents and grandparents can not help them financially. they are taking any part-time job they can find. they are trying to get through school fester now because of the economic crunch. many of them have pointed out that they still like the president but they cannot put the time into the volunteering that they did in 2008. host: florida, richard, independent line. guest: good morning, pedro, good morning, ma'am. i am and 80-year-old independent voter. i watched all of the primaries, and after listening to what gingrich and romney had to say about each other, who in their right mind would vote for either

one of them? i voted for george bush sr. the first time, but not the second time, and i voted for his son the first time, but not the second time. host: why not vote for mr. romney or mr. gingrich? caller: i do not like either one of them. if you listen to what they bring out in either one of them, i do not think they should be there. maybe rick santorum. i would even settle for paul. host: the caller mentioned rick santorum, who is in pennsylvania, but will come back to florida. guest: santorum had a good debate tuesday night. a lot of people appreciated his comment where he said let's stop

this dissecting of these front runners experiences and financials, and talk about the bigger issues of concern to a lot of people in this state whose economy is not doing very well right now. i think santorum really resonated. that message really resonated with a lot of people, but he is not going to win this state, and he will get a lot of the voters that our social conservatives, and the votes of people like your caller who have simply been fed up with the front runners dissecting each other, which is exactly the message that both governors jeb bush and rick scott have made. republicans are making it easy for obama to use the sound bites. host: newport news, virginia.

republican line. caller: thank you for taking my call. i enjoy your comments. hello? host: go ahead. caller: what i wanted to comment on is yes, i am a republican, and i have decided who i am going to vote for. it is going to be obama. i think the gentleman is doing a fine job and with the country. he has a hard job, and we have to give him credit for the job he's doing. just as the previous caller said, newt gingrich and mitt romney are not showing anything. who is in the republican party to take this country forward? host: susan macmanus, support

for the president in florida. go ahead. guest: this republican caller also reflects what republicans in florida are worried about, and some republicans look at the field, and think i really do not like either of them, and they like obama because they like him personally and think he has the concern of the country at heart. if they're willing to give him more time to get his agenda through. so, i think this simply reflects the divisiveness within the republican ranks, and that is a concern to republican leaders because any erosion of support among republicans who are not the majority party in the country, and are dependent upon making inroads into conservative democrats, and independent ranks becomes a bigger challenges.

host: do you think the forum's the gop have had really qualify as debates? not really policy talk. guest: that is really frustrating, and whose fault is that? it is the host of the debates, and the questions that have been asked. that is why santorum, with his "let's bring it back to issues commentary" really resonated. host: next call, new mexico. bob, democrats line. caller: i think republicans have forgotten that the party was a party oftwins -- 1 wingy been the -- one wing being the

party of big business, and the other of the progressive. this is unfortunate because a lot of republicans have been affiliated with the more progressive wing, and i think a lot of republicans have reached the conclusion that really there is no choice. host: professor macmanus? guest: well, each party has its challenge with and perceptions about the washington wings of their party as opposed to the common folks. that is what a lot of polls are good at, highlighting the perceptions of washington, as opposed to the laypeople, worthy

citizenry. i do not think either party is without criticism of distance between leadership and the average person. host: because you attended one of these debates, another follow-up question about the format. guest: we have a clear contrast on that. the camp the debate test the audience not to get rowdy, and to let the candidates speak. it was not the kind of audience noise in the background. there was the contrast in jacksonville, where they could. i was that both debates, and gingrich was very hopeful going into the jacksonville debate, which did allow audience participation, that that would help him, because in the previous debates where that has

been the pattern, he has gotten energy out of the crowds, but it shows that ford is different than south carolina. -- florida is different than south carolina. obviously, in jacksonville, romney is the one that benefited from the applause, and some analysts say that was a little bit of setting to gingrich, and explained his disappointing performance. host: the primary is january 31. the polls opened at 7:00. 50 delegates are up for grabs. comment about the early voting, which is currently under way. guest: it is two forms. it could be through absentee ballots. one-fourth of the people that have requested an absentee ballots have returned those. the other forum is where a

person reform goes -- is where a person goes to the polling place. we have a lot of people with mobility issues, and some floridians set i have made up my mind, i do not want to hear any more of these ads , and they cast their ballots in tune it out. it is a growing form. early voting. we are not the first state to have it. it reflects today's society with busy people. it reflects disability communities to feel more comfortable going when it is not a crowded polling place. the real advantage, and why both parties like it is because you can't track who has returned

their absentee ballot, and who has voted. you can focus your last-minute, get-out-to-vote effort. host: will they be tabulated early, or not until tuesday? guest: they are not released were tabulated until tuesday. i believe a loss says they cannot start physically opening the absentee ballots until election day. host: as far as the tabulating process, how has that changed since 2000? guest: in 2000 we did not have the optical scanning ballots. we have the punch cards, which require different machinery, but there are a lot of people that always watch machinery in

florida, and that is why you have early voting. if you have the equipment issues, and face it, computers do not work, but then you do not disenfranchise someone because they will still have an opportunity to vote. florida's equipment has definitely improved since 2000. we have no more hanging chads. host: as we head into tuesday, talk about later this year when the republicans need in tampa, florida -- need in tampa, florida. there was some talk to you could still see an open seat between the candidates? do you see that happening? guest: the idea of a brokered

convention, where it is not settled, and the one hand it sounds exciting, but for others it sounds kay added. a lot of people think it might happen. i am not of that school. if no candidate gets a really large slice of the delicates -- delegates and that magic number, it could go to a brokered convention, and that is why ron paul has that strategy, amassing enough delegates, and he would have a major influence over the selection of a nominee and the platform as well. host: this is dr. susan -- this is professor susan macmanus. thank you for your time today. guest: have a great weekend. thank you for having me.

host: later on we will talk about the 2013 budget for the pentagon, but to continue our discussions looking at the primary, next saturday, nevada holds their primary, and to get an idea, anjeanette damon, of the "las vegas sun" joins us on the phone. . early. thank you for having us. guest: -- phone very early. thank you for joining us. guest: thank you for having me. the republicans are giving a lot of attention right now, but in the meantime, here in nevada, which is expected to be a battleground state once again this year, president obama and his campaign have spent a lot of time quietly organizing the

state. the democrats had their caucus last saturday, and although there was not a contest going on, they were able to get 12,000 people out across the state in the first step of trying to energize the base and recruit volunteers. they are pleased with their 12,000 people. i attended one in the northern part of the state, and the atmosphere was not entirely energetic, definitely not like it was four years ago, so the president does have some work to fire up his base. meanwhile, the nevada caucuses -- there was a question about whether or not we would be relevant to the process. we were supposed to go number 3. florida made an issue, and no data stood down, and florida get that coveted third -- nv stood

down, and for the debt that coveted third stop. it looks like we will some ads here. the candidates will make their way out west. that being said, two candidates have spent a lot of time making sure they have organization in place -- mitt romney and ron paul. newt gingrich is trying to ride his wave of momentum of south carolina out to nevada, so he is starting to get some people on the ground. he has the financial backing of one of the wealthiest casino moguls, one of the wealthiest people in the world, sheldon l. dawson, who was given a tremendous amount of money to newt gingrich. he has connections to the state party.

host: is there a sense of polling, and who is on top leading up to the caucuses? guest: there has not been a tremendous amount of polling, and what polling has been done, the numbers are fairly unreliable. nobody knows how many people will turn out. that being said, there has been some. the conventional wisdom is mitt romney is the front runner here. he won the state four years ago with more than 50% of the vote, and only ron paul competed against mitt romney four years ago. he has lost the ball lot of the establishment support from elected republican -- walked up a lot of the establishment report. in spent time keeping supporters engaged, talking to people in the state. when polling is done, he is usually at the top of it. some of that reflects what you

see nationally. weber has been the alternative to romney that blooms in nationally, you have seen that bubble in nevada as well. that newt some town gingrich is within striking distance. host: talk about the tone of some of the ads on television. guest: ron paul en rick santorum have had a positive message. romney has a positive end, and is going after newt gingrich and another on the foreclosure crisis. you see mitt romney going after newt gingrich for his time spent advising fannie mae and freddie mac, the accusing him of cashing in on the housing crisis. guest: as far as the process for

next saturday, walk us through it. will it just be the four canada, or the original nine? -- candidates, were the original nine? guest: i did not as the party. we will definitely see ron paul, mitt romney, newt gingrich, and we will see what happens to rick santorum 10th as far as the process is concerned, it has been -- santorum. as far as the process is concerned, it has been an interesting story. the state party has not been well funded. they have elected to the counties. they have given leeway to the counties to this -- beside their caucus processes. we will have different start times. there was a concern in clark county, where las vegas is, that orthodox jews, and other

people that observe the sabbath on saturdays would not be able to participate in the 9:00 a.m. caucuses, so they have established a second evening caucus. that will begin at 7:00 p.m. at night. there will be a fair amount of responsibility on the part of the voters to call their party and figure out where the location is and what time it will start. those of you on the east coast will have to wait a long time before we see results. host: you give us a lot of information. is there something else our viewers might be interested in knowing that you find interesting? guest: it will be interesting to see how the candidates deal with western voters. nevada has some unique issues. florida has some similarities

with the foreclosure crisis. we are at the top of the list when it comes to unemployment. it will be interesting to hear about jobs, benefits, and the economy. there is the issue of nuclear waste storage that usually comes up. we are home to yucca mountain, the place congress wants to send nuclear waste, and president obama have scuttled that with the help of senator harry reid. immigration -- we have a strong contingent of hispanic voters, similar to florida, so we will hear talk on immigration. we are excited to have the campaign come out west. host: anjeanette damon, up very early with us. we appreciate your time. guest: thank you. host: next, we will look at the pentagon budget for 2013 with

cuts announced this week. our guest will talk about the details, and how the branches will be effected. we will have that discussion when we come back. ♪ [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] ♪ >> april 15, 2010, directed the end paris, met general mcchrystal for the first time, then he looked at me and said i did tell, you are the "rolling stone" guy.

i just care about the cover. i said well, sir, it is between you and lady gaga. i was just trying to make a joke, not knowing lady gaga was going to be on the cover, and he replied just put me and lady gaga ag in a heart-shaped tub. i thought this would be a different story. host: as a result of the article -- >> as a result of the article, general mcchrystal had been fired. michael hastings talks about his new book called the operators -- "the operators." >> i believe the west, for all of his short -- all of its shortcomings, and i'm skating in my book because they have to be admitted, for all of these shortcomings the west still represents the most workable

political culture. >> in 1991, the united states was the only global superpower. how to restore its status from former national security adviser is a big new prisons, tonight, -- from the former national security adviser at 10:00 p.m. tonight. then, later at 11. sunday night, the new privacy is no privacy. lori andrews and how your rights are being covered by social networks. >> i did tell washington journal" continues -- "washington journal" continues. host: we are joined by cedric leighton. the secretary of defense until

details on cutting the pentagon's budget. it sounds like a lot, but secretary leon panetta is starting the effort with $525 billion, a proposal veterans about 1% off of last year. put this in context. guest: 1% does not sound like a lot to a lot of people, but when you look at how resources are actually spend, they are over a bunch of different areas. basically, this leon panetta's budget is looking at a very different military, and they're trying to write such as the military for a new strategy. what we are dealing with is the -- right size the military for a new strategy. host: joined by colonel cedric leighton, u.s. air force retired. we will to phones a little

different. if you are on the democratic line, -- since this segment if you are active or retired military, 202 -628-0184. before we die into the details, put into context historically where we were ranked -- rank. guest: in recent memory, it compares to the so-called peace dividend we thought we would get in the wake of the cold war. what we are looking at is the way to really diminish the number of people in the ground forces, keep the navy and the air force relatively stable, although they have had losses

and i will be happy to talk about those. then, we are looking at, in essence, a way to reduce the military footprint without hollowing out the force. that seems to have been the primary goal as they put this together. they did not want to repeat the mistakes of the post-vietnam era. in that time, we have such a major reduction in force -- the stopping of the draft, the rise of the all volunteer military, and what we have in that situation was a very bad transition. eventually, we got a great military force out of it, but that was because of a lot of work done inside the military, particularly the army, the air force, navy, and the marine corps. those events were kind of the guideposts for this budget

submission. because of that, you have to look at the way they're doing this budget right now, and john, i would say, in many respects they're trying to let the deliberations be guided by the strategy. on the fifth of january day on the of the new strategic guidance. the president went to the pentagon, and in a fairly unprecedented move, he outlined the new way we want to use military forces in the next few years. host: this talks about the threats for the future -- technological, geopolitical -- quickly run through what we think the wars of the future will be. guest: we have never predicted future wars accurately. secretary dates when he was secretary of defense said we have basically done 0-for-9.

we do not know what is going to happen, but we could have a force for different requirements. when you book the technological requirements we expect to see in terms of -- look at the technological requirements we expect to see, you know the cyber realm will be a big deal. the intelligence area will require a lot of effort and a continued sustained presence. that doesn't necessarily mean boots on the ground, but it does mean the technical capability to duty intelligence collection that we need to insure the security of the country. that is the kind of thing we are looking at. from a geopolitical standpoint, the big shift was to the asia pacific realm. there was a clear message that we are paying attention to

china's efforts to increase military power. not that we will necessarily prevent what they are doing, but we have an eye and with the chinese are looking at doing. we do not know exactly what that is, but we know they're competing with india, vietnam, the philippines, taiwan, and even countries as small as malaysia. that area, because of its suppose it rich oil reserves will be a serious area of contention, and the united states position is to secure freedom of the sea, freedom of what they call the commons. the commons is everything that is common among various international nation's -- see, air, cyber, space. that is basically what the strategy is designed to do, protect our ability to work in that realm, and allow others to

work unfettered in the ground as long as they do not threaten us. host: again, talking to cedric leighton. let's get folks a few details. here was a fact sheet released by the pentagon. the target is $487 billion in cuts over 10 years. over the next five years, that amounts to 259 billion dollars in cuts. next year, we're looking at $525 billion. that goes up to $534 billion in 2014, and eventually comes up to $575 billion in 2017. explain how this is a. will it be more than last year? guest: this is washington math. we are dealing with less of an increase in the defense budget.

there is a cut in the initial year, like you pointed out earlier, of 1%, but as you moved into the out years, that becomes an area in which you look get away in which we think -- we sustain what we think we need, accounting for inflation, where perhaps the rise in raw materials like petroleum and lubricants, and making sure that from a personnel standpoint we can sustain the cost of maintaining the military. there will be significant issues even with this factual increase in terms of raw numbers. it will be one of the situations where you are looking at what kind of capability are you getting for the money you are spending? if the effort is being made to take a look at the kinds of forces we present as part of our military structure.

part of the strategy is looking at creating a more operations centric capability, as opposed to focusing on the middle east and asia pacific, the special operations also require a special investment up front. host: this question on twitter. guest: yes. that is very good insight. each of the services has some aspects of winning and prevailing in their doctrine. for example, you have to fight and win in the air force. you have the army's efforts to prevail in any kind of conflict. the military's tool is to win as decisively as they can. when you look at iraq and afghanistan, that was not a

decisive victory, but we are looking at keeping people from threatening the homeland. in order to do that, what you end up doing is taking out osama bin laden and future osama bin there. out you need that capability. >> a you confident in your -- host: are you confident in your 26 years of experience -- we is have a graphic that the army is cutting troops, down to for the 90,000 in the next six years. that is a cut of 80,000 troops. are you confident we will be able to win future wars with that kind of reduction? guest: john, i am not, and here is why. you want the military to be leaner, tougher, and more lethal. in that aspect, the strategy is

very good, and the budget seems to mesh with that. the line items have not been released. when it comes to the conventional forces, and you need a capability from which to draw the kind of people that go into special operations and the ability to provide boots on the ground. the idea that we will not be engaged in a land war, and that we are not going to have a long- term presence in a foreign area at some point in the future might be a mistake. i know there are fiscal constraints, but the problem you run into is if you do not have the capability, where advertise they need not have the capability, it will be tougher in the future. let's take iraqi freedom. in 2003, when we started off, from a pure military standpoint, you had an extremely successful

air campaign that pave the way for the ground forces to do what they needed to do in iraq. they were able to reach baghdad in practically record time, in part of what air was able to do, and what the navy was able to do. then, when they got there, it became a war of, in essence, attrition. it became a counter-insurgency efforts, and that required a significant presence. the reason we were as successful as we were in iraq is because we were able to surge our troops at a later date. if you lose the ability to surge, you might have problems. can it be done? yes, but you have to be careful how you do it. you have to make sure that details focus solely on

providing the combat support that it needs to provide to those elements. >host: among the five times the crow was deployed to the middle east, one of those was leading the tactical team in saudi arabia in support of the shock and awe campaign. first of the democratic line is tracey from pennsylvania. caller: tax for taking my call. i just want to say -- host: we will move on. sorry about that. matt is retired military personnel from mesa, arizona. are you there? let's try matt again. caller: yes, i'm here. question and a comment very

graphically illustrated by your first graphic that i saw. we are taking a number of dollars and designing the force to the predetermined number of dollars. that is exactly backwards. first, you determine what your strategy is going to be. then you determine what portions are necessary to execute that strategy properly. then you go to congress and make your case to have funding. then, you use the resources available to you to develop the necessary assets to make the contingency plans required by the strategy actually doable. we are inventing the strategy to justify the blind crashes, and what we're really doing is

designing our military for the last war, except that it is a misunderstanding of the last war, and we are giving new emphasis on the need for a cadre -- host: had usurped? retired military? caller: correct, u.s. navy, three years. -- have you served? guest: i spent 30 days on the blue ridge one time, so i definitely understand maritime efforts. the issue you are talking about is a well taken issue because the administration was basically in a quandary. what they were looking at was, ok, we have this budget requirement, the whole sequestration but that we have in terms of the entire budget and the pentagon possibly having to double the post we were looking at now. they wanted to develop a

strategy that reflected a much leaner military, a much more lethal military, but at the same time, though, all of the budget deliberations that you referred to were taking place as well. what you end up doing is having a little bit of both. the administration advertises that as we did the strategy first and then developed from this budget outline, after we had developed the budget strategy -- there is some truth to that, but at the same time, we all know that the other aspects were going on in terms of budget negotiations. you had the committee of both house and senate members that tried to reach a budget agreement. that effort failed, and that also put the pentagon at great risk of losing a great deal of their resources. what you end up having the situation like that is a very

difficult area in which to not only develop a strategy, but also, you have a difficult area in which to develop your budget for the next few years. so what they are doing is basically walking a tightrope between the two requirements. you are right that you should develop a strategy first and then develop the budget to reflect the strategy, but sometimes, reality intercedes and you cannot quite do it that way, but they did try to make that work. host: sharon on the independent line from nebraska. good morning. caller: good morning. i have i guess what i would think might be a naive question, but i do recall that there was a budget cut that secretary gates put into place. i guess that was last year to around $500 billion. so this is a new budget we are implementing at this point that is a little bit less than that.

guest: basically, secretary gates did provide a budget, at least a budget outline, that was designed to really get ahead of these budget efforts, these budget negotiations and all the other pieces that you see, so you are right in looking at it from that standpoint. it was actually a bit less than what is currently being looked at, but they are very similar in their goals. if secretary gates had continued in office, it would have basically been the same kind of result, the same kind of effort that you see right now with secretary panetta. the same basic idea to cut over a five-year and then eventually 10-years. in terms of cuts, what we are talking about a slowing the rate of increase in most of the out years.

you are looking at a sustained smaller military, but did you have to look at the military. i hope that explains it a bit, but that is basically what we're looking at. host: 25 minutes left with the colonel here. let's dive into some of the specifics. matt, who called in earlier, was retired navy. let's talk about the navy. there are always winners and losers in the sorts of cuts. the christian science monitor has a story listing the navy as one of their big winners, but at the same time, there are several ships being cut out of the navy budget. explain to us how the navy made out. >> the navy made out very well in the aggregate, but you're talking about ships that are not quite in the same modern category. they want to continue to modernize the navy and they want

to keep the 11 carriers. host: there are some calls to trim that back. guest: there were. there were calls to go as low as eight. tennis was the number you heard before the outline was released. but they have stayed with 11. part of that is to send a signal. you are sending a message to areas in the pacific, especially china, even north korea, where you are saying, "ok, we will have a presence." in order to do that, it is important not to take down some of the major surface combatants that the navy has. smaller ships are going to be taken out, those that have not lived up to their modernized versions. they have several older ships they are taking down, but in the aggregate, the navy actually made out quite well. host: the other winners are

special operations forces and unmanned aerial vehicles. we go to ohio. a democrat.s good morning. caller: good morning. i am retired on social security, and we cannot retire until we are 67, eight months. could you tell me at what age a person in the military could retire and receive benefits? there is a young gentleman across the street from me who is younger than my children, and he is retired with full benefits. i do not mind a person putting in 20 years with a company and then going on and working someplace else, but to think that the american taxpayer can financially afford to pay a man at 38 years old full pension and

full health care from the age of 38 when you tell people like myself who have worked her entire life that it will not be there when you retire, you are wrong. if a person wants to retire, fine, but to be a double dipper and to be a triple dipper by getting a military pension and going on and working someplace else for the government and expecting we the taxpayers to continue to pay it, you are wrong, sir, because that is the reason we are in the financial straits that we are in. guest: i am not the guy who invented the personnel policy, but basically, under normal circumstances with the exception of medical retirements, a person has to stay in the military for 20 years. the jet man that lives across the street from you who is 38, he probably into the military at about the age of 18, served 20 years, and then retired from

military service. what they also get, of course, are they have the option of having health care benefits. they do get va benefits if they want or need them, and there are other benefits to include the gi bill, which gives everybody who serve in the military during 9/11 tuition assistance that is pretty substantial. as you go up in rank, obviously, the benefits are much greater. the way the system works -- i mean, ideally, it should be a self-financed system. the premise was that military pay, as it started out, was actually less on an average basis than comparable civilian pay. that is not necessarily true any more, depending on the profession and the specialty, but that was the original premise. when they developed the 20-year retirement option, it gave

people 50% of their basic pay. some states tax that. the federal government taxes that. there are other benefits that accrue -- everything from veterans' preferences for business formation to other types of things. in the old days, basically, before the late 1990's, it was if a retired military person went into civilian government service, they could not double that, but that law was changed in order to attract talent. just like in the private sector, the types of things you do in terms of military pay and personnel policies are designed to attract talent. i noted to do the things we do to attract the kind of people we attract -- the basic idea is we need to attract folks that would get much higher pay often in the civilian sector as opposed to the military sector, and that is one of the ways to it, to have a generous retirement system. >> -- host: one of the

statistics brought up in the press conference on thursday was the pay and benefits account for roughly 1/3 of spending. let's listen to the chairman of the joints chiefs of staff talk about cuts in military pay from that conference. "washington journal -- [video clip] i wanted to make clear that there is no change to the care our active duty warriors received, but we cannot ignore some hard realities -- pay and benefits are now roughly 1/3 of the defense spending, so pay will need to grow more slowly in the future. as the secretary mentioned, the budget proposes modest increases in health-care fees, copays, and deductibles for retirees. we also need to look at retirement, but we will take the time to determine how to enact any retirement reforms over the next year. last is risk. the primary risks lie not in

what we can do, but in how much we can do and how fast we can do it. the risks, therefore, are in terms of timing capacity. we fully considered these risks. i am convinced we can properly manage them by ensuring we keep the force in balance, investing in new capabilities and preserving a strong reserve component. as i have said before, we will face greater risks if we do not change the way we have been doing things. host: that was the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff talking about pay and benefits. let's go now to chris, retired military -- served in military from queens creek, arizona. caller: i am and retired naval aviator, and i have about three dozen hours, and i have three real quick points. first, if we are going to go ahead and change the force structure, which we are obviously doing, then we

definitely have to change missions assigned. if we do not, then the reality is we will get some people hurt when the votes really hit the ground. the second thing -- training. the amount of money that is going to go ahead and possibly be taken from training -- i am sure you remember the jimmy carter years and things like that. i was aboard the uss saratoga, and the captain went up to see and two days later, he had to bring the ship in, and he declared it c4. basically cannot do his mission. how many of these things are we really going to see, with honesty and everything else? and the lady talking about her social security and everything else -- i guess she needs to walk a mile in some of these folks shoes that are out there serving and everything else. she was not in the back of the plane when we had a dual engine flameout on a landing and almost crashed into the sea. how i earned my retirement? the answer is of course i have.

i have been on the pointy end of the spear, as you have, and many of our military members. they have risked their lives and things like that. the civilian world is a totally different environment. those are my three real quick points. thank you for your service. again, i am really concerned about what is going on, and knowing what your note -- here is a question directly to you -- would you go in to the united states air force and knowing what you know now with the in?cept of win, fight, whe guest: your point is well taken. would i go into the air force right now where any of the other services? the answer is i would, but i would definitely be paying attention to what would be happening in the pay and benefits the arena. i agree that walking a mile in our shoes is something that everybody should at least try to

do mentally if they can because it is different. when you are at the pointy end of the spear, there are so many different things that happen, so many risks you take, and even people who are assigned to missions that cannot seem to have a direct combat roles -- many of them were affected by enemy fire in all of our conflicts. i have a friend who was wounded in iraq because he happened to be at the wrong place, wrong time. other people that i know who were killed. those are the kinds of things that are the significant risks that military members have. to your point about training, i served as a training squadron commander in the intelligence field. you are absolutely right that that is one area we need to take a very close look at. training was not -- it is mentioned in the aggregate in a lot of the budget papers that are out. one of the things i did notice

is that the air force is actually eliminating a training squadron, but i do not know in what particular area that training squadron is going to be eliminated in, but it is something that we really do need to take a look at. once you have a training situation, the training is key. . bc4, on a big ship like that carrier, that is unacceptable, and military readiness becomes a very key point. the missions assigned, absolutely. you have to develop a strategy and have the mission reflect the strategy and have the budget support that. that is hopefully with the budget deliberations will take us, but we will see. >> question from them on twitter host: question from emma on twitter -- >> there is actually a reduction in the contractor workforce.

for example, the pentagon, when i was on the joint staff, there was a considerable body of contractors that provided us a lot of support. many of them did a lot of great work, but to mesh the contractor culture and military culture and dod civilian culture was sometimes challenging. other part is there are a lot of things the military can and should do that a lot of the contractor force does. that kind of situation is one where the military should use its most efficient mechanisms in place, develop processes, for example, in the acquisition arena, that allow for fairly clear and straightforward decisions. i will not say simple because none of this is really simple, but those are the kinds of things we have to look at in that respect. host: another comment from twitter, with regard to young military retirees --

let's go to jeff and the independent line. often indiana. caller: thanks for c-span. my son is a navy seal. since his induction, there have been some noteworthy enterprises, probably most noteworthy the taking of some of the lot and end this recent event just a week back. i read all i can, books, articles about the seals. try to learn as much as i can. i read a very good article. i think it came out in december about an ex-seal in "men's journal" and i think he was in his 50's. it did not give his name in the article, but he was directly advising general petraeus, and i

think that is a fantastic idea. i did not know how much that has been done in the past, but i hope all of the special services are able to provide people that have direct votes on the ground operation experience to the higher of generals and people in government and in military because i think that will eliminate a lot of the -- all the middle range decisions that get trickle-down and kind of create some inaccuracies, if you know what i mean. host: leighton, former u.s. air force, had its special operations make out in this budget? guest: very well. thank your son for his service because it is a significantly demanding enterprise, with special operations forces in general. in this budget, one of the key

areas of emphasis is special operations forces. they do a lot of things. the ones that get headlines are going to be areas like the osama bin laden takedown, the somalia event that just happened. those kinds of things get headlines, but on a daily basis, what a lot of the seals do -- they will advise senior leaders. some special operations experience, some without, and those without hopefully get the idea that special operations forces are a value-added peace to the arsenal. some very famous generals did not appreciate special operations forces. host: any in particular you would care to mention? guest: one could safely say that general schwarzkopf was pretty notorious for it in a while. there are friends of mine in special operations community that really had a problem dealing with him at the time. he did not in those particular situations, at least, always respect the special operations

capabilities, but we have matured since that time. of the general schwarzkopf was in the church. he had his thing, and it was very successful, but in terms of the fact that we had a special operations background commander in afghanistan showed that we were willing to give special operations a big chance to do certain things. in the real cases, the special operations community does a lot of things also to influence our allies, our partners, and help indigenous forces carry their mission forward, and it drains them in a way that allows them to fight for believes that are hopefully congruent with our national interest, but that is a huge capability. the special operations forces are a magnificent piece in our military quiver, and it becomes a very important part of our

budget, which they correctly recognized. host: 10 minutes left with colonel cedric leighton. let's go to our retired military line. jerry is from henderson, nevada. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you very much for c-span. i am retired air force. i retired in 1994. i know what it is like to try to run a shop as a sharp hand. when you get your junior nco staff just decimated. i understand that perspective. host: do you think the cut we have outlined so far in this segment will decimate the military?

caller: know, and i will tell you why. i am in a building inspector, and there are two disconnect. the lady touched on it earlier about not understanding -- i mean, i retired at 37, even younger than the guy she is complaining about. i understand that perspective, and people in the civilian community really do not understand what it is like. i was in it when pay was, like, garbage. host: do you think this sequestration cut is talking about another $500 billion if congress cannot come to a conclusion -- do you think there's $500 billion more that can be cut on top of this? caller: you are going to have to. i will tell you why -- here's the disconnect with the military. if i could take the colonel and the generals out and take them to a school, 40-year-old school -- outside, the building looks ok. the building is just garbage inside. the electrical system, the hvac

system, the plumbing system is just garbage, and we are trying to put band-aids on the schools, and when i see we spend $800 billion in iraq and build soccer stadiums and schools and stuff -- which is fine. i understand that part and the dynamics of it, but i am out here, and we are trying to fix these schools with bandits, okay? when we build new schools, it is fine and dandy, but the old schools are garbage, structurally. host: jerry from henderson, nevada. we move on to the republican line, norman, oklahoma, karen. are you there? caller: good morning. thank you for c-span. what i want to say is it is all funny ideas coming from a democrat republican that is going to hopefully work just four years and retire with $200,000 a year with everything paid for. if you close up these bases, a lot of these little towns will just dry up.

they will be empty houses. restaurant owners will go down, the busboys, the car dealerships. where are these people going to work when the town's dry up? we do not ever talk about the babies born on crack, and then it cost $1 million for them to be born. back to the first point about base closures. in this budget, the secretary of defense call for a base realignment. guest: the army is talking about two rounds of base realignment and closure. i think they are looking at, from an army perspective, no major installations are being looked at in terms of -- that is what they say, at least.

now it is up to the folks behind us to look at this. the base realignment and closure commission involves congressional oversight. it involves an up or down vote once the commission actually decide which bases to hit. karen's point about small towns being affected by base closures is very well taken. i was a commander in a small west texas town, and it is incredibly important. the military base is incredibly important to the local economy. one of the things that the base realignment and closure commission is supposed to do is it supposed to take into account the local economy, the types of things that are affected by a potential base closure. sometimes they do it well. sometimes a local community where a base is closed does not think they have done it that well, but we are probably talking on the order of -- four smaller installations, i would not be surprised if there were somewhere between five which had

closed in the first round. second round, if they do go that far, who knows? that is anybody's guess. host: we will try to squeeze in a few more calls. mary from north carolina, go ahead. caller: i wondered if i could orally read a poem about disabled veterans, and maybe the lady who called in about her taxes going in to the gentleman across the street -- host: we do not have a whole lot of time, but you could read us a small section. caller: i will do is -- as fast as i can. forget me not, when you are lost in thought, as you walk through the day forget-me-nots, for the freedom fought with the lives you cannot repay forget me not when your child is taught to remember yesterday forget me not when the day is hot and the danger needs to pray forget me not yes, i had the shot

but i did not run away and forget me not i am a patriot and i need your help today host: who wrote that? caller: it was a disabled veteran. i give to the disabled veterans every month. i am 80 years old, still working, very productive, and i will support my disabled veterans because they fought for me, and my husband was one of them. i must say to the lady -- just look at your children. at least you do have them. some of these young men are laying in a grave, and some of them have not yet been found. i hope this lady will feel better about her taxes. thank you so much. host: thank you. john is an independent from massachusetts. caller: this is the reason why our media has been consolidated -- we are not getting the truth from anybody. how about the soldiers that will come back from plutonium

poisoning from the ordinance you guys have been firing over there? children are dying over there in afghanistan and iraq, 200 a day because of the uranium poisoning going on? when these soldiers come back, they are getting denied their health care. they are saying, "it is in your mind." when these people start dropping from uranium poisoning, tell me how you guys are patriots about american soldiers that have been spilling the blood over there over a live. host: the colonel is retired military, but if there's anything you want to add about plutonium poisoning? guest: that is something that really has not been looked at at all, and i do not believe that there is a significant incidence of that. i do not believe it is an agent- orange-like situation like we had in the vietnam and post- vietnam era, but it becomes very important to say that if there is any medical issue, any type of issue that is part and parcel

of someone service, it is critical that the nation take care of its veterans, all the way going back to abraham lincoln, the federal government, and even before that to the revolution. the federal government has made it a policy to take care of its veterans, and i do not see that changing. we better not change it because these folks have made significant sacrifices, and it is in our interests to protect them. host: your thoughts on whether this budget that is laid out will make it through congress without being torn apart or molested as it goes along the way? guest: it is a great start, but every time they meet with folks on the street, there will be changed. i suspect they will try to meet in the middle. it is very hard to achieve compromise here, obviously, especially in a heated election

year, and this could very well have already become a heated campaign issue. the only thing i would ask people to remember is that because of infrastructure issues within the country, because of budgetary issues within the country, we need to make sure we have a clearly defined path forward that takes into account all the things the federal government is obligated to, but also make sure we protect our country and do what we need to do to establish a leaner, more defined, more definitive force and is able to actually perform a mission as efficiently as possible. the pentagon is working parts of that, but there needs to be a conservative effort in both of those areas. host: colonel cedric leighton, retired now.

thanks for joining us. we will be right back with open phones. guest: thanks for having me. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] >> april 15, 2010, i had arrived in paris, walked into the hotel lobby, and that general mcchrystal for the first time, and he looked at me and said, you are the "rolling stone" died -- i did not care about the article. i just want to be on the cover -- you are the "rolling stone" guy. general mcchrystal said, "just put me and lady gaga in a heart-

shaped tub." >> michael hastings continues the story and talks about his new books and then added 8:00 eastern on c-span's "q&a." >> i do believe i analyst for all of its shortcomings, and i am is gaining in my book in discussing the shortcomings because they have to be admitted. for all of these shortcomings, the west still today represents the most acceptable and workable -- universally workable political culture. >> in 1991, the united states was the only global superpower. today, how to restore its status in the world, from a former national security adviser on his strategic vision, tonight at 10:00 eastern. also this weekend, did fdr used world war ii as a cover to create a more powerful executive

branch? and son and that it 10:00, the new privacy is no privacy. lori andrews on how your rights are being eroded by social networks. >> "washington journal" continues. host: the last half-hour or about 25 minutes, we will open up the phones to any public policy issues, comments you want to make, maybe about some of the earlier guests and subjects were discussed today. give us a call now if you want to comment. we're doing the standard phone lines here democratic line -- 202-737-001 -- 0001. republican 9, 202-737-a 0002. independent line 202-628-0205. as always, a lively conversation going on on twitter, and we will work in the tweeted as well.

we will start by going over some of the stories of the day. we will start with obama's weekly address today. he has been on the road ever since the state of the union on tuesday, talking about the different plans he presented to congress on tuesday. in his weekly address this week, the president says, "i took that blueprint across the country, and what i saw was people who work hard and believe in each other. they believe in the america that is within our reach, but they are not sure that the right thing will get done in washington this year or next year and year after that, and finally, when you look at some of the things that go on in this town, who could blame them for being a little cynical?

we were not sent here to wage political campaigns against each other. we were sent here to serve the american people, and they deserve better than the political games. that is president obama in his weekly address this week. moving back to some of the issues we talked about earlier, this is from the "new york times" today on the president's education initiative that he presented when he was on the road this week. the headline is mixed reviews of obama plan to keep down college costs.

the article goes on to note that generally in academia, there was strong support for the president's plan to double work steady jobs and expand the amount of money available for loans, but others said they felt that private education will suffer from tuition increases that were an inevitable result of state budget cuts and while they appreciated the president's advocacy for affordable higher education, many were wary of his plan. that again is the "new york times" today. the same issue comes up in the "baltimore sun." the headline there -- this is the "new york post" take on it.

a few articles about the president's educational initiatives. let's go to open bones. first of its carroll, a democrat from st. louis, missouri. -- let's go to open phones. first up is carol. caller: i was calling about the the the the the political analysis. she had said that the people were so upset with president obama and how bad it was in florida, but i was wondering -- how come they are not upset with their republican governor and legislature? one more thing was i noticed you rebuttal address but

not the president's address. host: we could look around for that. we will probably have clips of that later. we have several other events coming up later today, just to tell you about. live at 1:45 on c-span, we will have mitt romney for president, a campaign rally in panama city. at 8:00 p.m., the palm beach county republican party lincoln day dinner. speakers there will be newt gingrich, congressman alan west, and the palm beach county republican party chairman. a few things coming up later on c-span. let's go to gregg on the independent line from north carolina. your comment today. caller: i think teachers are doing their jobs or at least trying to. they need to leave the military alone, let them do what they

need to do. we need the military. what we do not need is no police guards and rundown schools. if we are going to do any cutting, fireplace, division of motor vehicles, especially near the national state registry, homeland security, the patriot act. that is a lot of that. we do not need it. host: while i have you here, do you agree with the budget cuts we were talking about for the military? do you think they are too steep? caller: no, i think they ought to concentrate on useless stuff like the national state registry. that is part of reason why we have higher unemployment. people have to be able to get to work, right? thank you. host: thank you. next, we have michael on the republican line from wisconsin. caller: know, from california. you had a call earlier about a fellow talking about the

depleted uranium as if it is contaminating everybody. i know for a fact that this is used on the ground attack airplanes against tanks. you might be familiar with the warthog that has a 30 millimeter rotary can and underneath the nose that is used to attack tanks, all right? your average person is not going to be running into contact with this sort of thing. and it is depleted uranium, not back there. and on the second point, i would say thank god for america, you know? you were able to have any political belief that you can think of, down from, i guess, stone age utopianism, and it turns out we have an active communist in the white house right now, but, you know what? that is cool, too, because america gets a chance to see what this is and how it works and come november, people, you

will have your chance to speak your mind in a way that means something to these politicians. thank you, c-span, and god bless america. host: thanks for your call. going back to the campaign, this headline comes from the "washington post." might note the later in the article, it mentions that a new

poll released friday shows did gingrich is leading nationally, 30% to 20%, but underscoring the topsy-turvy nature of the race, the same poll showed monday doing so typically better than gingrich against president obama -- the same poll showed mitt romney doing typically better than newt gingrich against president obama. caller: thank you for the opportunity to talk about something that could be very interesting for the listening audience. my concern is c-span and generally the media has not fared much up on the american legislative exchange council. highly conservative, vetted, republican organization that has been in existence for about 27 years. they have about 300 special

interest groups, and if you look at the state of the nation and what they have been able to do -- they were very, very successful in the last election cycle, particularly here in wisconsin and the issue with our governor, scott walker, and many of the senators. alec is comprised of about 2000 legislators in all 50 states. they pay not only $50 a year to join. the corporate and special interest people that do the model legislation that these representatives bring back to their states -- things like -- they call it voter fraud. i tend to call it voter suppression, which is a big issue. that is just one of them. i would suggest that c-span

bring in somebody like john nichols or anybody listening, if they have a computer, they can look up alec expos or -- exposed or alec watch. host: going back to our discussion earlier about veterans and whether they should be taken care of by the government, sld on twitter rights -- another comment on twitter from jim -- back to the campaign, this is from today's "wall street

journal" -- a few stories about that. another story from abc news -- actually from the ap last night, rights, cassette and gingrich under fire from conservative media. forget about the so-called liberal media. but now, newt gingrich opposing most ardent critics are conservative pundits and columnists, many of whom have launched aggressive campaigns to discredit him and took up his run. the crew has largely been lukewarm about chief rival mitt romney, considering him to moderate, but they're open criticism of newt gingrich is evidence that for all their misgivings about the former massachusetts governor, they see him as a much stronger contender

against president barack obama." a couple stories coming out about the backlash and some of the wall that newt gingrich is running into these days in florida. going back to the bones, mike is an independent in germantown, maryland. caller: thanks for taking my call. i hope you do not cut me off to sit and let me explain one of talking up because it is not an easy issue that most people do not understand. united nations is confiscating land under phony environmental treaties and laws. eat you go to be publicbroadcasting.org, you can learn how stacey linn in fort collins, colorado -- she was given seminars and speeches about it. the city council and attorney general there took her child away under false pretences as a punishment because she was

ringing the alarm about the international council of local environmental initiatives, and she is being framed and set up by the fort collins government because she is speaking out against the corruption and colonialism involved in land confiscation coming to communities all over america. her name is stacy lynne. you can see her videos on youtube. great station for news and talk radio. host: thanks. good morning, philip. caller: good morning. i will make it quick.

there is an army training facility just to the west of us, and it is called for rucker, alabama, home of army aviation. i do not think or believe that the centers of excellence for initial flight training, whether it be in pensacola, florida, for several other places should be shut down. a lot of times, there are hurricanes along the florida coast, and they bring their aircraft up to fort rucker. host: does all the talk about another round of base realignment and closure closures were you? -- concern you? >caller: yes, it does. host: do you think there is room in the military budget for some bases to close?

is it that your base is particularly important, or do you think any should be closed? caller: i think fort rucker should not be close, but there is -- you know, let me give an example like fort hood, texas, which has about 50,000 military -- army military people and civilians. they are mostly boots on the ground and tanks, things of that nature. maybe they could cut back on some of the bigger posts instead of the smaller posts. host: recommendations for the next possible round of base realignment and closures. let's go to cindy on the end of the net line from mesquite, texas. good morning caller: what upsets me about the military as i

understand from 2004 to 2008, american soldiers came back -- the body parts were thrown in landfills. why did they not spend money on dna to identify these soldiers? they put them into landfills. host: you are talking about arlington cemetery caller: -- arlington cemetery? caller: it has been on the news. host: you think more money should be spent on investigation into this? caller: yes, they should have done dna. i cannot imagine what the families must feel about this. host: thank you for that call. going out to reuben on the democratic line from california. good morning. caller: good morning.

i would like to talk about contracting. i am from california. i used to be a contractor, but i got put out of business. it seems to me that these high requirements for bonded make the rich contractors and the guys that do not do any work make tons of money, and they turn around and not pay the contractors that cannot afford bonding to do the actual work. i think there should be more oversight to see that these big contractors do not stop paying the little guys and put them out of business on purpose. i did a little whistle blowing to hud to talk about some corrupt situations, and wound up losing my contract, losing my license, and i think there should be more oversight and maybe give smaller businesses, you know, a better -- an easier

way to get bonding said that they can compete with the big, giant corporations that make all the money. host: appreciate the call. thanks very much. news yesterday evening out of arizona, concerning now former congress member difference -- giffords. back one republican candidate states senator official declared his candidacy yesterday, and jesse kelly, who has run for the seat before, will announce his candidacy.

and speaking up jan brewer, a tip on the tarmac with barack obama, a heated conversation with the president regarding some comments she made about him in a meeting they had in a book she wrote. politico has a response from the president. he said to abc news yesterday, "what i have discovered is it is always good publicity for a republican if they are in an argument with me." billing back to the phones, we go to tampa, florida. john is on the independent line. good morning, john. caller: good morning. i wanted to comment on a couple of things. first, the military. you asked earlier if the cuts were too steep -- i think the military should be like the third rail.

without the military, that person would not even have the right to talk on the phone, as we do today. i am a veteran, obviously host: where did you serve? caller: 101st airborne, army. i am just saying it is unfortunate in this country, we have so many people, they have no skin in the game, and yet, they want to speak of it. it even gets to the point of the taxes. we want to tax the rich, but yet, there's 49% that paid no taxes in this country. i think it is ridiculous. you have to have some skin in the game, or you just do not know where you're going. but i appreciate c-span. i want these discussions, but again, the military is the only one in the constitution that we have to have come department of defense. we can get rid of the department of energy, department of education, those things, epa,

but the military is what the constitution says this country has if we want to maintain sovereignty, which i know obama doesn't. host: talking about cuts to the military, which we featured in our last segment. experts divided on pentagon as a proposed cuts. some military experts friday called defense secretary leon panetta's proposed cuts much ado about nothing, but others expressed concern about the potential of a shrinking u.s. military in the strategic mideast and asia. you can read more about that on cnn if you want to see that. let's go to susan on the republican line from clifton, virginia. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i think it is unconscionable of president obama to make empty promises to college students, knowing full well that the federal government is broke and

that they are the ones who are going to have to pay back the $15 trillion plus in federal debt. host: thanks for the call. want to feature one or two more stories in the time we have left. this from the back page of the "washington post" this morning. a new report by a washington watchdog group because has several lawmakers went on to allow the lawmakers. citizens for responsibility and ethics in washington of former lawmakers have received $1.9 million in revenue from lobbying clients that they fund it with taxpayer dollars when they were serving in congress. earmarks were recently banned by congressional leaders, as you well know, after years of controversy, scandal, and some federal prosecution.