and state issues. we will also take your calls, e- mails, and ♪ host: good morning in what is being described as a specific and incredible threat, a global travel alert for americans has been issued. this is the first time it has been issued since the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attack. security has been heightened this weekend. authorities do not have a date, timing, or part of, which is why these warnings have been issued. we are going to begin on the latest with this story.

and you can join the conversation by giving us a call, 202, 585, 3881 -- for republicans, 202-585-3881. for democrats, 202-585-3880. for independents, 202-585-3882. facebook or us on send us an e-mail. journal@c-span.org or twitter.com/c-spanwj to send us a tweet. action prompted at embassies, that is the headline. "based on unspecified information, the warning comes after the state department ordered the closing of 2100 embassies in the arabian peninsula." let me read to a portion of this. "the part in the state warned citizens to the continued potential for terrorist attacks, particularly in the middle east or north africa."

host: that is from the state department. matt lee, who follows the state department for the associated press, is with us on the phone. what news can you tell us? caller: there is not much new that we know since thursday or friday, when we receive the notice of the embassy closures. the alert came out on friday. right now we are kind of in a wait and see mode to see what, if anything is actually going to occur today, obviously clearly a day of great concern. also to the rest of this week, as you just mentioned, the alert

expires on the 31st of august. is on athat everyone heightened sense of security. people are redoubling their efforts to see if they can get any more specificity in terms of the threat. unfortunately in a situation like this, it is kind of just wait and see if anything happens. host: this is the star of the workweek in muslim countries? >> correct. -- caller: correct. most embassies are open in much of the muslim world on sundays, this is the beginning of their work week. they worked sunday through thursday. there have been some reports that this has been too much information provided by the obama administration. how have officials you have spoken to responded to that charge?

theer: is difficult, criticism. i think it is hard to find merit with a lot of this criticism. the state department, since the lockerbie bombing, the pan am bombing in 1988, has been operating under a no double standards rule, meaning that goes tonformation that official american employees and diplomats serving abroad needs to be or has to be shared with the american public. if they have a specifically credible threat that can close an embassy, they are required to share it with the public. meritot really see much in the criticism. i know that some people have been complaining that the amount of specificity and the location identification of the closed

embassies may have tipped off or did tipoff potential attackers and may have alerted them to how their communications were intercepted or compromised, but i think that in the interest of safety in, official americans and private americans were traveling, the state department is operating with an abundance of caution, as they said and they are required to do that. host: with nearly two dozen 2000 embassies closed this sunday, give us a sense of what has been happening behind the scenes. we know that the former ambassador to the united nations, susan rice, has been holding a series of closed door meetings. the president, we assume, will be brief again this morning.

today is the president's birthday, by the way. what else is happening, from your vantage point? hope -- caller: and increase and interagency discussion is going on. are 21mentioned, there embassies usually open on sundays that are closed. ,hese waves from north africa from the western coast of africa all the way through the middle east, but there are some interesting omissions from the less. there are several countries where embassies are open on sundays that have been targets of terrorist attacks that are not on the list. it, morocco,t tunisia, lebanon, turkey, and

the big one, pakistan. not closed.ies are what i think we can infer from this is that the source of the threat is specific enough and well known enough in terms of their area of operation that these facilities have not been closed. i also noticed that a country like indonesia, a moslem country that has been the site of numerous terrorist attacks, it is also anomalous. so, i think that what we will see is the national security officials, the state department, the pentagon, the intelligence agencies, really doubling down and taking a close look at what is going on throughout this

broad swath of the year for the discovered by this. host: the president this past week, meeting with the president of yemen in the oval office. that seems to be the key target at the moment, or the key source of questions from intelligence officials? >> that is correct. this the u.s. has closed broad array of embassies, some european countries, the british, the french, the germans, notably have identified yemen as not only the possible source of the attack, but also the possible location. broader not issued a warning to their people. for getting up early on this sunday for the latest on this story. we appreciate your time. caller: thank you. host: in 17 countries, more

than 20 embassies have been closed. 202-585--- for republicans, 202-585-3881. for democrats, 202-585-3880. for independents, 202-585-3882. if you are watching from outside the united states the number to call is 202-585-3883. times" is writing that interval is asking for help in tracking these suspects. interval issued a global alert yesterday asking for member countries to help to track hundreds of terror suspects that escaped in a wave of prison breaks over the last month, they are requesting assistance and determining if any of the operations are coordinated. the alert comes just after the state department ordered nearly two dozen diplomatic facilities

closed in the middle east, north africa, and south asia. nick is joining us from fairview, tennessee. good morning. caller: what is the big deal? president obama can take another trip at the taxpayers' expense, he can grovel in front of the king, apologize to everyone again, promise more military and financial aid that they used to kill us. if he can take the attitude of hillary, what does it matter if a few more ambassadors are murdered? it is kumbayah time for him. he can lock of the children out of the white house and turn it into a mosque. he can sit there and anyone who opposes him can irs.

host: we w the next call from orlando, florida. caller: thank you for taking my call, thank you for c-span. i find it kind of ironic that when presidential transport -- president transparency was campaigning, did he not claim that al qaeda was decimated and on the run? that theronic embassies that were closed over the weekend because of this al qaeda threats, it is kind of just like everything else this guy talks about. the affordable health care act, it will not be affordable. he is just running a shell game here. host: we will go to martin next on the democrat line. makes me mad as they will take a terrorist threat when it comes to their own intelligent people, but not

when it comes from the private sector. personally i met the zachariah [indiscernible] in a convenience store in pennsylvania before a world trade bombing. i contacted c-span, i talked to brian, i talked to pedro. i talked to the secret service in lancaster, the fbi in philadelphia, i contacted arlen --cter, santorum, former sorry, getting all worked up. this makes me so mad. host: that is ok. caller: the former chief of the homeland security.

and then and now governor of pennsylvania, corbett. he was on a local talk show where you could call in and he was just attorney general of the time. i contacted so many people. i am a former department of defense employee with 20 years in experience. i used to work in security and then i moved on up in the department of defense. host: we have to move on, but when was this? caller: before the world trade bombing occurred. they were in a convenience store in pennsylvania. host: the first one in the 1990's, not the one in 2001? caller: the world trade bombing. host: thank you for the call. jim has this on our security page.

birmingham,t, alabama, we are talking about the u.s. closing embassies over security concerns fell. -- concerns. caller: as a precautionary measure i think it is a good thing to close the embassies in light of the fact that we might lose more american lives. as we become more of a polarized nation with so many local social issues in this country, we have to realize the we are fighting someone who's on ultimate goal is to bring down our nation. what does it take for the people of this world to understand that these are the same people who bomb that our nation in september of 2001? host: thank you for the call. jonathan has a similar story

"the whitenline, house laced -- late yesterday hadn't briefed by susan rice earlier in the day. the former ambassador announced a meeting with officials, including the secretaries of state, defense, homeland security, the directors of the fbi, cia, and an essay. the president had instructed his national security team to take every appropriate step to protect americans and yesterday they said that fresh intelligence with peaking chatter among al qaeda in the arabian peninsula tipped off officials that they were in the final stages of planning attacks against a handful of u.s. and western targets across the middle east and northern africa. that story is avail online ad thehill.com.

missouri, good morning. am retired navy. i do not understand what you are theing about when they say embassy is closed on sunday. what does the sunday have to do with it? how about the other six days of the week? maybe you can enlighten me. host: well, they are closed today because of the threat. one can assume that if the threat continues, they will remain closed. that is only speculation. we know that they are closed today based on the state department statement was issued. the friday travel warning is in effect through the end of august. tim, texas, democratic line, good morning.

caller: the president and his administration of doing the prudent thing to protect american lives. the ericts go back to snowden issue and those people who are concerned about their right to privacy, they should take a moment to think about their safety concerns in this case and look at what the president has done, he is responsible for killing osama bin laden, using ground strikes to decimate al qaeda, building on the policies of the bush administration regarding torture. host: judy is next, idaho, good morning. appreciate the call. caller: i have two things to say. the first is quick and for your producers. you read almost all twitter tweets these days and hardly any e-mails. it is very hard to express a complicated idea in less than 200 characters. i wish you would pay more

attention to the e-mail. host: ok. caller: to the subject at hand, i take the present threat seriously. but not as seriously as they wouldn't if these agencies had not been a exaggerating and combing length the effectiveness of their programs and the thoroughness -- i think they have undermined their own credibility by doing so. i wish they would stop it so that we would know when something should be taken seriously and when it should not. host: judy, thank you for the call from idaho. at can join the conversation facebook as well. george says -- host: christopher says this --

host: on friday nancy pelosi was asked about the warning from the state department and these latest developments. here's what she had to say. [video clip] was at that briefing and the brief us on the basis of it. now that it is in the public domain that the embassies will be closed and there is a travel alert for americans traveling is somethere understanding of the seriousness of the threat. host: that statement yesterday after being asked about this, lawmakers, of course, had left town for the august recess and are back after labor day. a five week break. by the way, at the end of the program we will be talking about a congressional recess.

but right now we are focusing on the u.s. embassy, more than 20 have been closed this sunday because of security concerns. chalk, phenix city, alabama. caller: this is nothing more go out andescreen to cover for all the bad publicity we have connected to the nsa to create an image that these people are suddenly intent on doing something good when they go around violating the rights of every citizen in america. all the badrs things happening in this a administration that obama calls a hoax. i am sure the mainstream media will jump all over this, but they do not tell us anything else. you see the same headlines for 10 days in a row on the computer. host: thank you for the call. this is a story from "

washington times" web site. unnamed u.s. officials told media outlets that intelligence agencies in yemen alerted washington to the threats as the yemeni president came to the u.s. to meet members of congress last thursday." michael is joining us next from philadelphia, democratic line, good morning. caller: thank you for covering this important topic. i was wondering if you have any insight or sources that revealed why it is such a general area being covered as opposed to, say, 36 -- 3 specific countries?

that is one question. the other is a common about how unstable these places are these days. pakistan has never been stable in recent memory. a contributing factor. of course then there is the benghazi issue where the administration sensibly, seemingly, are concerned that they're not be a repeat. host: to give back your first question, let me just share what martin dempsey, who was just confirmed after a blocked by john mccain to be the chair of the joint chiefs of staff, is sitting down today with abc, and they have released excerpts from the program. he said that there had been significant threat from al qaeda forces that resulted in these embassy closings, writing --

host: of course we will air the interview and all of the sunday morning programs beginning and noon on c-span radio. russell, va., independent line. caller: everyone is complaining about benghazi. we reacted to a situation and, you know, president obama connected any credit from anyone. i hope obama care has something to do with mental health, because the gentleman that call claiming they would turn the white house into a mosque obviously needs mental health medication. let's get together as americans and get the job done.

all of these people had this problem with our own country? come on, people, get on board. host: joseph ramirez, on our twitter page -- host: a related story on all of this from the front page of "the new york times." "other agencies clamor for data ." let me read to you a few portions .

host: that story this one is on the front page of "the new york times." a list of the embassies closed, they have a list on foxnews.com, egypt,ng jordan, iraq, saudi arabia, bangladesh, afghanistan, the sudan, and libya. the complete list in 17 countries overall, 20 embassies shut down in the arabian peninsula. caller, concern was that i continue to hear that the united

states embassies are closing and it seems to be being put out there in a way that is a negative. are there other embassies closing? the answer is there are, so it is not just the united states, that answered my question. host: your take on all of this? caller: based on what happened in benghazi, in the stand the need to go ahead and make this kind of decision. you lose if you do and you lose if you do not. i find it all very interesting. i think it was the right thing to do, the president and his staff are doing what they did and it is better safe and sorry. host: front page of "the washington post's" this morning, harsh words from the u.s. to the u.s. from an egyptian leader in

cairo. i will read just a couple of paragraphs from the peace. "they provided insufficient support in the civil war according to one of the strongest leaders within egypt." host: her daughter and her granddaughter are the subject of a story inside the style section of "the washington post." chance to join the ."nks of formidable women

neck, n.y., good morning. caller: relative to this particular issue of the closing of the embassies, very significantly and highlights the need for as much surveillance as possible. i think that those people who complain about too much surveillance are rather naive in the realities of the world today and it does not sink in until some tragedy happens and they say? -- how was it allowed to happen? and u.s. government is not terribly interested in people's day-to-day activities beyond what they monitor for security. i feel that it you have -- if you have nothing to hide in particular, why should you worry about it? people are complaining for two reasons. one, they have nothing better to

do and they are always looking to criticize the obama administration in any way possible. keep up the good surveillance, protect us. that is what they're there for. the more, the better. that is my comment. host: thank you very much for the call. this is from our twitter page -- host: anthony is joining us from west orange, new jersey. caller: i do not think that the american public is getting the full and straight story regarding what is going on. the man that they blame for the video, which was a false claim, is still in jail. where is the news story about that? what about this man? how come he is still in jail?

i would also like to call attention to the fort hood of violence. that is still being classified by the administration and the government as workplace violence. clearw that that was terrorism. i think that the news people are a bunch of sheep who let this administration get away with what they want to hide the truth from the american public. host: thank you for the call. we welcome your calls and comments during the course of the morning. the numbers continue on the bottom of the screen. for republicans, 202-585-3881. for democrats, 202-585-3880. writing about our interview with 10:00 a.m.hy, eastern time, "in the nuclear

option when it comes to the confirmation of judges -- eying the nuclear option when it comes to the confirmation of judges. democrats should consider the idea of changing the rules to simple majority. i think rules change will come back on the table if it is filibuster because it is the one time to have someone who is not qualified, but another to read someone waiting in the wings to be in those positions. of egyptk to the issue this morning on the front page "youhe washington post," turned your back on the egyptians, they will not forget that." harsh words for the u.s. from egypt. more on this from our twitter page.

also asked the senator about a bill that he put in that would restrict aid to egypt and whether or not the events of coup.ast summer were a [video clip] >> did a to take place in egypt? >> yes. is that to which she washy? [laughter] >> coup. legislation, the white house said it was not one? >> i disagree. you have a democratically elected president, even someone doing a lousy job, and you replace him by the military? i am just a small town lawyer from vermont, but i would call .hat a coup

now in the foreign operations dealing with it, beginning of a october 1, some money provided certain steps of being taken to restore democracy. the next part will be allowed if those steps are taken. legislation, the the reality is the military are in charge of security. but it does not mean we have to say that congress who are important, here is a blank check. we are saying that you have got topull some specific steps the extent you have freedom of the press in that part of the world with restoration a hot of democracy.

host: senator patrick leahy, that is the exchange on the situation in egypt, talking about the potential filibuster of judges and what to expect after the return from august recess. "newsmakers" 10:00 a.m. -- 10:00 a.m. eastern time. republican not -- line, good morning. caller: there have been several stories about egypt, libya, iraq, afghanistan, and yemen. host: that was the story from "the new york times" from earlier. it basically says that intelligence officials are trying to find out where some of these officials are and whether or not there prison escape is linked or coordinated with this. caller: when the muslim brotherhood came to power, they

let everyone including terrorists out of prison. ok, thank you for the call. we should point out that this week marks the anniversary of the terrorist attacks in north africa in 1998. bill clinton was in the white house. anniversary is coming up on august 2. next is cody from marietta, georgia. thank you for waiting. caller: i wanted to comment on the war on terror and our role in the movies. we wonder why there are so many terrorist attacks around the world. host: thank you for the call. thomas is next.

zanesville, ohio, good morning. caller: thank you for c-span. i would like to say that the drone strike, ron paul and republicans, they want to take away security and everything and complain about the leaks and privacy. when you have privacy without proper nsa control, this is what will happen. benghazi, the whole line york -- whole 9 yards. they're making this issue out of benghazi. i tell you, i am a political junkie. these guys to do what they do,

these republicans, they take away our security big time. do not worry about revenue. we need to put our savings bonds and invest in america. host: there is this twitter comment -- host: a couple of media notes ,hat we want to share with you "the boston globe, sold at a 97% loss. a profile of john henry, the buyer of "the boston globe." "the new york times" is reporting on newsweek, changing

hands again for an undisclosed ince, pointing out the back 2011 newsweek was sold for $1 in changinglion loan hands, pointing out that the international business times, newsweek has not published its print edition for nearly one year. note,e passing to "politico" has the story, serving as an anchor on "the today show" from 1982 to 1989, dying after a brief illness today. his time at nbc news dates back to 1962. he served as an international correspondent and returned in

1990's at the request of tint russert -- tim russert. good morning, sir. caller: thank you for c-span. i am 15 years airforce. the drone strikes, ron paul complaining, these guys want to complain about this to give president obama credit and try to knock him down. feel that this is so american. caller: -- host: thank you for waiting. caller: the embassies are supposed to protected by the nation's they are in.

only supposed to have a nominal amount of staff there. to close them sends the wrong message. i doubt any of this goes to the people. host: thank you for the call. edward has this story from "the new york times." howe in a toxic country, well our child be affected by the bad air and food in china." joe is joining us from boston. caller: i am calling in response to the caller that apologize for the extra security from the nsa, calling from boston to let everyone know that it does not work. i just want to remind everyone

does theranklin said, give up their freedom for security will have for deserve neither." willhey're saying they come back to bite us in the? that is all i have. host: thank you for the call. in his first interview on his book out this week, dan balz will be joining us. here's what the cover looks ."ke, "collision 2012 joe is joining us from the republican line, good morning. caller: i think the last caller made some good points, but the caller i have on this issue of the closing of embassies and ofstant scare's, giving up take thecy, we need to

opportunity to consider the changing of the policies. ourquestion of whether policies played a role, i would privacy in mye own right. it is easy to see, like in egypt, that the role of u.s. policies had a negative effect of such a large mass of people and they decided that those needed to be changed rather than continually giving a more personal freedoms. host: our last call is from darrell in missouri. holder- caller: eric said it best, america is a nation of cowards. that is just what we are. we ought to close these

embassies. i do not blame the people for closing them given we are doing to the people all over the country. as snowden and d us, we're just being lied to every day. we never get the truth. [indiscernible] host: we will leave it there. appreciate your calls and comments. , weng up next, dan balz will spend one hour with him to talk about the book and look ahead to 2014 and 2016. as the nation's governors continue their meeting in milwaukee, wisconsin, we will first turn to c-span radio and the guests making up the sunday morning lineup. nancy, good morning. >> today on sunday television

talk shows, it includes the world wide terror alert, security leaks, immigration reform, and the economy. you can hear rebroadcasts beginning at noon eastern with "meet the press." ,oday includes dick durbin saxby chambliss, and rudy giuliani. at 1:00 he can hear "this week" with martin dempsey. also on the program, representative peter king, from new york. .""glen green walt, on "fox news sunday," michael hayden and an appearance by actress and unn, messenger of peace.

on "status of the union" at 3:00 p.m., lindsey gramm and steve israel. ." 4:00, "face the nation new york democratic senator, chuck schumer. those of the sunday talk shows on c-span radio brought to you as a public service. rebroadcast of the shows begin at noon eastern with a rebroadcast of "meet the press, this week, fox news sunday, and finally face the nation from cbs." you can listen to them all on c- span radio, 90.1 fm, nationwide on x m satellite radio channel 119, download the free app for your smart phone or listen online at c-span.org. [video clip]

what are the milestone years for first ladies your history? i would say certainly mrs. adams, her. in the whiteo live house. very opinionated and bright lady, capable lady. on the social side, dolly madison and the burning of the house. you have others, but you go through a time when there are not -- there are not many. i would take a presence in east and that was the grandest that happened. >> tonight at 8:00 on a "q&a." >> "washington journal" continues.

host: dan balz, thank you very much for being with us. guest: thank you, steve. host: the book is called "collision 2012," we will dig right in. in the middle of the book you write that presidential elections are often "we told from the inside out, as a fall power and wisdom flows from the strategists arguing, yet they play out against the reality of an ever-changing country." guest: when you write a campaign book, carter to try to do is discuss the decision making a went on. of what better sense strategists were thinking about, talking about, the key decisions and motivations of the candidates. there is obviously another element to this. we could see it in 2012 and every election. more than 2012, there was the

economy. enough economy just good to make it possible for him to win reelection? or was it going to be just bad enough to make him exceedingly vulnerable to defeat? that is one. also the changing demographics of the country. we have talked about this a lot in the wake of the election. the 27% share that governor romney got, the problems republicans have, this is a changing country that is becoming more diverse all the time. it has a real shape on the electorate in a presidential year. the third element that i thought would be important would be a partisan fertilization i have seen. steve, it is around the country as well. if you think of yourself as a republican, 95% of you will

vote for the republican candidate for president. similar the if you think of yourself as a democrat. it is hard for campaigns to overcome those forces. sometimes ads are effective, but not for very long. they were to get out the vote. the obama campaign had an effective get-out-the-vote operation. what i wanted to try to do with that was draw attention to the fact that this is a book that tries to look at the campaign from both directions. side,on the mitt romney your interview with mitt romney after the election, you're right about that and often a comparison is drawn between what he said about the 47% and what his father said about the vietnam war. is that a fair comparison? guest: i do not know about that. we know that his father disqualify himself because he said that when he went to vietnam he had been brainwashed

by the generals about what was going on there. it was a comment that was crow " for him. -- critical for him. in this case the 47% comment reinforced the idea the governor romney was out of touch and not in touch with the middle-class. host: in your interview at the end of your book, what did he say about that? guest: his defense was that he did not say what people thought he said. we were at his home and when i raised the issue he said -- why did you bring this up? he went and found the notes he read it and he began to to me. he contended that what he said butnot that he was right, that 47% of the electorate would

never take control of their own lives and that those were the words he said on that videotape. host code chapter 47 of your book, what was his demeanor when you sat down with him? was open and friendly. i would not say that he is -- he was defensive. it was a good interview. i was pleasantly surprised that he was willing to do that. i was told of you have an hour, he wound up talking for an hour and a half. there were a few areas where he was processing what happened and came to terms of of what's had been lost. there were other parts of the conversation where i thought he was quite candid and open about himself, some of the problems of the campaign the knowledge and

that the president had run a more effective campaign than he had. it says here that the romney campaign never knew what hit them in terms of the technology of the obama campaign. guest: the obama campaign in 2008 got a lot of credit for breaking the role about campaigns by using social media and technology, by taking advantage of the internet. their campaign managers said to a early on that this is different time from 2008 and technology has changed radically. they have set out to harness and attempt to exploit it, if you will, getting their voters out on election day. host: they hired software

engineers, they the experts, number-cruncher's, digital designers, video producers by the score, hundreds. no campaign had ever invested so hard in analytics. is this -- that is the case. they created a very large technology operation to integrate their various lists of voters, people who had supported them with money. they had a lot of different lists. they needed software to talk to one another. you cannot buy that off of a shelf. you cannot develop that in three weeks. they began work on that the minute they went to chicago in 2011.ring of even before that they had in a sense been experimenting with analytics.

they modeled how likely people were to volunteer. it was the modeling of the elections in the midterms as a way to test their modeling apparatus. they invested far more than anyone had. the view of the romney campaign was that they had so much staff up from florida, initially it was the thinking that this was inefficient and in talking to the obama campaign their thinking was that this money spent on technology was making more efficient the volunteers on the street. host: i would like to remind viewers that you can join us on twitter or facebook. in the summer of 2011 there was this exchange between governor mitt romney and some of the

people on hand for this traditional, quintessential iowa event. social security, medicare, medicaid, account for half of federal spending. >> that is a lie. >> about half of federal spending. if we are ultimately not just this year but over the coming decades going to be able to balance the budget without spending more than we take in, we have to make sure that the promises we make our promises we can keep. there are various ways of doing that. >> corporations. >> corporations are people, my friend. everything that corporations earn ultimately goes to people. >> where the you think it goes? [laughter] [to yelling] friend. being, my

>> that became a defining moment early in the campaign. >> absolutely, it's stuck with him throughout the entirety of the campaign, casting him as someone who was more of a friend of the wealthy and less of a middle-class. it was an image that he was unable to shake. i spoke to people who were doing other focus groups. that was a repeated aspect of the way the people saw him, as something of a distant figure that did not quite connect. one of the reasons was that thought he was very wealthy and have lived a different life and were not sure that he understood their lives. there is a line that i included in the book that came from a mitt romney campaign focus group in which one person said that he had been too rich for too long, feeding the idea that

he was out of touch. >> here is what he told you in chapter 27, "i recognize that there was a drawback in my candidacy by virtue of my situation, massachusetts and my position of 12." guest: they were all factors. we now know from this interview with conversation i had his son, that was a factor that if he was ther right person to be the nominee as you is making the final .ecision about whether to run i think these factors weighed pretty heavily on him. he said that if someone else had been out there that he thought would have been better, that he might not have run. he specifically mentioned jeb bush. i as someone, if he had gotten in the race, romney might not have.

the campaign took shape, he felt he was in fact the best of the republican field, but there was a sense of hesitation or doubt about whether he was a good fit for the republican party. he knew that it would be a tough reelection campaign. the: joining us from one of battleground states in cleveland, ohio, loretta. caller: good morning. guest: good morning. i am going to pick up your book. i am just fascinated with anything mitt romney now. i would like to know your take ,way, with the romney campaign the autopsy that was done. i see that the republicans have learned nothing. they have a war on women, a war on workers, a war on students.

war on minorities, blacks, latinos? who is left to vote for them? they have not learned anything. if it from the top of anything, it would have been to let's all try to get along. but with their corporate 47%ality, i think that statement not only to find mitt romney, but also the supreme court, who gave that decision on citizens united. guest: the 47% comment was terribly damaging and the governor recognizes that in the aftermath of the election. he tried to talk his way through it, out of it at the time, but he recognized that it really hurt his campaign. but the romney campaign had a good moments and bad moments.

if you look at it during the primaries, they did a good job of weathering a lot of the things that came at them. he proved to be a pretty good debater. they had a good plan as to which states they were likely to win and which they were not, figuring out that whenever they had to win a race, they were able to do it. i think they had difficulty making the pivot from the primary campaign to the general campaign. the lie about self deportation put them and a spot for those who were here illegally. that hurt him. he did not find a way to move away from that. it cost him in the hispanic vote. the other thing they did not do effectively was put out in front of people the mitt romney that those around him could see and

believe in and who they thought was very likable. debate inside the campaign, a running debate, how do you humanize governor romney? i do not think they were ever able to do that very well? -- very well. he didn't runy advertising in the summer of 2012 that was aimed more at his biography and talk about who he was in some of the things he had done. his answer was people would look at them and then of course his wife loves him and his children think he's great and of course some of the people who he worked with would say he is a good person to work with. he said he did not think those would be effective. he said he felt that the most effective thing he had to do during the summer of 2012 was try to put president obama on the defensive. they were not able to do that

effectively. the obama campaign to find the romney campaign in 2012. what was the campaign -- what was the impact that? guest: there is no doubt that they defined him in the summer. once the republican primaries were over the obama campaign was ready to go with a plan of attack in their advertising. he wanted to go after him over his role at bain capital. --y wanted to go over him they wanted to keep him on the defensive and find a way that disqualifies him from making the statement that he knew better than president obama on how to handle the economy. the romney campaign came out of the primaries with very little money.

they were struggling to replenish their campaign war chest and they had a clear disadvantage on that front. they also chose not to respond directed to those attacks. there are political sciences that look at this and say that in the end that do not mean a lot. the polls by the end of the summer were not significantly different or very close to where they had been during the beginning of the summer. if you talk to the people in both campaigns, they believe that was an important defining. of the campaign -- defining p eriod of the campaign. it put a ceiling on governor romney. as he was able to start the comeback after labor day it made it more difficult for him to get all the way up to a winning majority. jonathan is waiting from west palm beach florida. good morning. caller: i have a lot to say so i

will try to be brief. vote was 70% of the electorate. if mitt romney had gotten 70% of the hispanic vote he still would have lost. only 20% e lexa president. president did doing the math, 20%. not all of them are eligible to vote. people stayed home and did not vote in that is what i am curious to know. who are the people who did not vote? if you look historically at all it is alwaysons, 52 to 48 or 53 to 47.

one side is never going to get that 47% because that is usually the difference in numbers. guest: the question of the shape of the electorate was one of the most important in defining the election. the obama campaign had a much better sense of what the election electorate would look like than the romney campaign. the share of the white vote that make up the totality of the electorate continues to go down for the reasons that we know, the country is becoming more diverse. hispanics are the fastest- growing part of the population. the obama campaign always believed that the white share of the electorate would be about 72%. that is what it ended up as.

, i thinky campaign they thought it would be higher than that. it certainly was higher than that in the midterm elections. the midterm electorate is often different than the presidential electorate. campaign knew what that was going to be in the sense that that gave them an advantage. president obama did poorly among white voters. he got his share of white voters as any democrat who has won the presidency in modern times. because white voters were a smaller share and he had a small support of nonwhite voters he was able to win the election. the romney campaign was surprised by the nonwhite share of the electorate but also by the share of the electorate, democrats versus republicans. >> the other question going into the campaign, what did mitt

romney stand for dac -- stand for? gay.as pro-choice, pro- when he ran in 2008 he got hit very hard for having .hanged positions on abortion on gay rights, he has never been for same-sex marriage but he talked in a much more open way then ted kennedy when he ran against him in 1994. in a sense he had moved in that direction. there are those that didn't particularly trust him. there was always an element, he had to convince the base that he was a reliable conservative. he did not play social issues in

the same way they did in the 2008 campaign. we want to make this about the economy. win the going to presidency it is going to be on the basis of the economy. they try to steer clear of those. primary election that comes into play. there's an interesting statistic or observation in the book. if you look at the share of the vote in the primary of evangelical christians versus those that say they are not if that was above , mitt romney lost that primary or caucus. if it was below he wanted. -- he won. or as a republican electorate that was resistant to him. host: in october the in

employment rate came down. the number had dropped. did postelection interviews, some people said, explain to me from your vantage point why governor romney lost. that was the first thing they pointed to. in the fall the economy got a little bit better and the unemployment rate had dropped. it was still high by historical standards. that was a psychological boost that they gave to president obama. the romney campaign thinks that was a very important factor in the defeat. in the final weekend, of the olympic games, mitt romney announced paul ryan. he sat down with bob schieffer in a 60 minutes interview. let me share with you a portion of what governor romney said

about the selection of paul ryan and his budget. [video clip] >> america has a choice, a very clear choice. are we going to continue to spend a trillion dollars more every year than we take in and passed that burden to our children? >> there's no question your campaign has been making this a reprimand of -- a referendum on barack obama. there are those that say you are making it a referendum on paul ryan's budget plan. >> that is the budget plan we are going to run on. ryan, whoselect paul is known for his budget, why walk away from it one day after announcing he is your running mate. a little baffling. it is one of those things that the did not think through that part of it as they made that decision. that was one of the biggest documents paul ryan put forth in 2012. guest: but they knew there was a

political risk and picking paul ryan. is a risk ofre everybody on the shortlist. there is no perfect candidate for vice president. theynk what they felt was wanted to elevate the debate and the campaign. they wanted to make this the big issue of spending the role of government. but picking paul ryan they felt they would put that brought topic on the table. that'sere elements governor romney disagreed with. end he felt that he was the domine and he is going to be the president if elected. it is going to be what he thinks, not what the vice president thinks. it cause them some problems for a couple of weeks as people kept picking away he had to walk away from it. if you are joining us on c-span radio we are talking with dan balz.

rick is joining us. independent line. the morning. caller: thank you for taking this call. ratherest makes some interesting observations. know how much his book goes into this. in a macro sense, the reason the i.t. elected was people he had, was the media. the media never vetted this guy. you have a president, i am a i was amazedry, when fox with the only news showed obamathat

--sed pronouncing mispronouncing corpsman five times. host: was there a double standard? 2008 presidentin obama probably got better press than john mccain did. great0 john mccain got press when he ran against george w. bush in the primaries. in 2008 he was on the other end of that. those things and and flow in little bit. i do not think in anyway those are the decisive in the way of presidential campaigns. i think if you talk to the romney people they felt that governor romney was unfair at different points along the way. about to get e-mails things that were being written

or said or talked about. in general i think those things balanced out. in this campaign in particular there was never any western orut vulnerabilities weaknesses in terms of what happened with the economy. in a sense that both of them had had was they have to deal with. on twitter -- perhaps so. especially with his medicare plan and his proposal to make a voucher out of that. i don't know it would have been significantly better had he picked someone else. jim mussina asked to pledge that they do not rerun in the campaign.

mussina explained that in their bid for reelection, both jimmy carter and george herbert walker bush try to rerun their first campaign. the world changes from the first electric to when you run a reelection campaign. president -- he was a now a president with a record. he was not the bright person he had been in the 2008 campaign. he knew the country was polarized around his performance in around him. on the one hand they would have to run a more negative campaign than they had run in 2008. he said we cannot try to replicate the mood of that first campaign. as we have talked earlier, technology had changed

dramatically between 2008 and 2012. messina was- struck by the use of smart phones and communicating through smartphones. he was saying to the president that we have to find a way to make this a different operation. one thing the president said was, whatever you do we want this to continue to be a grassroots operation. the 2008a hallmark of campaign as it was in 2012. host: you've written about this before. the 16th the -- what was remarkable was the 16 year stand on the campaign website between bob dole in 1996 and where we were in tony 12. -- in 2012. technology changes everything, whether it is the telegraph, or radio, tv, or the

internet. it has had a profound affect on society and politics. is practicedics and conducted, i have no doubt 2016 will look different than 2012. there are things on the horizon that you or i may not have any idea of at this point it will have an impact on how people conduct campaigns in 2016. to go to school on what the obama campaign did technologically. inwill be hard to replicate many ways simply because it took the obama campaign a lot of time and money to do that. most of the people running in 2016 to not have organizations yet in place that could begin to do that. the other thing is if you try to replicate that campaign it you -- you need to run the campaign in the moment. what did the obama campaign do? and how do we make that better based on stuff that is coming online? host: his new book is

"coalition: 2012." our next caller is on the line. he would say anything to win the election. he was so far to the right. and then he leaned back toward the middle somewhat. that was a and etch-a-sketch moment. the etch-a-sketch moment he referred to was one of brought -- was romney's key spokesman. makeked what was done to the pivot. he said it is like and etch-a- .ketch you shake it up and you get to start fresh in the general election. there are some people who took that as a sign that governor romney was going to band in all of his conservative positions

and there were some conservatives who were alarmed at that. it is not ant incorrect statement. at the beginning of a general election people do take a fresh look at the nominee. the question is how do you make from appealing to a ?rimary electorate how do you make that pivot to ?alk to the country at large particularly talking to the people who are one-sided. this was hard for governor romney to do. they struggled with this and there are some people who think that it wasn't until the first presidential debate in october that that mitt romney reappeared , the more moderate mitt romney.

i want to get to that point in a couple of minutes. let me ask you about to convention moments. first of all at the republican convention. you write about clint eastwood and what was happening inside the bubble of the romney campaign as they were watching clint on stage talking to a chair. guest: they were just as astonished as anyone else. if you are an average person watching that you probably thought this was what was planned, that he was going to pull out a chair and talk to it as if it was a president sitting. they thought he was going to do what's was that republican fundraisers, make a pitch on behalf of government romney. instead he got out there and began to ramble. he was scheduled to talk for only a few minutes. he talked for 12. they watched this and they

cannot believe what they were seeing. if you're clint eastwood you figure you do what you want to do. is theeresting thing -- in an implicit way how it is going to unfold. i thought everybody was on the same page. as they watch this, there were several romney people sitting were talkingy among themselves and check their cell phones trying to figure out what in the world is going on. this is not what they wanted. host: vice president joe biden -- [video clip] americans, we now

find ourselves at the hinge of history. is the direction we turn literally in your hands. it has been truly a great honor withrve you and serve barack, who has stood up for you for the past four years. know the incredible confidence he has in all of you. i know this man. recovery is not yet complete. we are on our way. the journey of hope is not yet finished but we are on our way. and the cause is not fully accomplished but we are on our way. i think you two nights, with america'sonfidence,

best days are ahead and we are on our way. in light of that horizon, for the values that define us, for the ideals that inspire us, there is only one choice. at choices to move forward and finish the job. reelect president barack obama. for those that remember, ted kennedy's speech in 1980 echoing the hope still lives and the dream never dies. your take on the vice president's role in all of this? was to be asle supportive as he could be to boost the ticket and to speak in many ways to the democratic base. one of the goals of the obama campaign was going into the convention and making sure the democratic base was energized.

there was some question about it. i think they thought they were going to get democratic votes at the percentages but would they get the turnout that they needed? .e went into the convention vice president biden is good at speaking into the base. he played an important role after the denver debate. the president had a bad night in denver. governor romney had a very good night. there are a lot of democrats wondering if the president wants to win reelection. why wasn't he more energetic? why wasn't he more enthusiastic in that debate? what is the matter with him? there was some demoralization in the rank and file among democrats. one of the things vice president biden was asked to do was go into the debate with congressman ryan and bring that pace back.

he was very tough on paul ryan, mocking him in some ways and verbally going after him. it is exactly what was needed. the vice president play that role very effectively in that debate. host: we have that moment from the first debate in denver. going back to your point about a new media landscape that younger voters get their political information from left-wing comedians. stephen cole bear and jon stewart has played the political narrative. -- stephen cole bear and john stewart has played the political narrative. guest: no doubt about it. they are a big force and it does affect younger voters. host: harry is joining us from canton north carolina. good morning. caller: good morning. what you just said about the aredians, the comedians

part of our biggest problem, as are the republicans. we put an african-american on , to be an uncle tom and a token to the white man's ways, in 2008 we had a woman on the ticket. for d 12 we have a woman in the primaries. both of them were deemed to be ignorant, stupid, and comedians like bill maher says they are sluts and whores naand obama still takes his million dollars. we are not going to get a fair take. guest: democrats feel they will never get a share -- a fair

shake through conservative radio. i think the larger point that is raised by this question goes talked something that we about, the degree of polarization in this country. people sources of information are now somewhat polarized. people tend to go find information from sources that sort of agree with their point of view of the world. as long as you have that, what you have is moments that reinforce people's positions, rather than creating a discussion across the gap in the gulf that exist. host: tony is mixed from littleton colorado. caller: thank you. for me, i think the big issue that impacted the 2012 race and will impact races going forward in 2016 was the impact of the tea party on romney's

professions. he seemed like the tormented candidate throughout the campaign, picking positions that he did not really believe in. can you give your perspective on the emergence of the tea party in what i think was 2009 and how it impacted 2012, and if you think it is going to have a big impact on 2016 going forward. question.y good i think there is no doubt that the tea party in 2009 and its influence on the midterm elections in 2010 had a very powerful effect on all of the republicans who were seeking the republican nomination. they recognize that there was a very sizable elements of the party's base. they wanted to make sure that they got their share of the majority of that vote in the primaries. theink it did push all of

candidates, including mitt romney, somewhat further to the right during the primaries. as we talked, it is harder to get back to the center or of what constitutes as a center in american politics. the question of what happens going forward is an important one and i think the republican party right now is somewhat split on this. seen a lot of fissures in the republican coalition right now or issues ranging from immigration to spending and other things. we don't know until we really get into the 26 campaign how powerful the tea party movement will be in terms of mobilizing votes or in shaping the debate. i think that the republican candidates will in some way have to make a choice as to how much they say they want to go for the tea party portion of the party or how much they want to get some of that that we don't want to do that in a way that compromises us for the general election in 2016.

host: on a more serious note, do you believe the romney campaign ever accepted the fact that they overestimated themselves? guest: incumbent presidents are hard to defeat. the notion that the romney campaign should have easily defeated the president is something of a misnomer. there is no doubt in my mind that the obama campaign had a better fix on how to run the campaign then did the obama team. obama had some very good people and smart people operating. they did some things that were effective.

they did misjudge what the electorate was going to look like. to some extent they were not able to focus on the issues in the way they had wanted to. the question of would the campaign be a referendum or a choice? would the a referendum or a choice between two candidates? i think starting out the romney campaign thought this would be a referendum on the economy and that the economy was bad enough. in the and people would turn to governor romney. obviously it was going to take more than that. that was part of the reason they were not able to win. obama versus romney and the future elections of america, robert is joining us from new york city. caller: good morning. i wanted to make a comment, i happened to be a member of the dnc during this. in -- aued there was a

strategy by the president and by the party. they went out of their way to poor peoplellion who have never voted before. i think that made all the difference in the election. many of them were given obama phones. they managed to get all of those people out who they enrolled for the first time. that made a difference in this election. i want to hear what they have to say about that. the obama campaign looked at the electorate in every state. it was a campaign in a series of battlegrounds.

as they were preparing the campaign would've the things they tried to do was figure out what kind of votes they would need to get a majority. and then how you would assemble the number of people they need it to do that. they needed to register a lot of new voters to get the number of people that they needed to win. they did a very sizable voter registration drives. then they had to pay -- than they had to figure out, howicularly for new voters, to get the mobilized and how to get them out to vote. a lot of the talking arbitration was about that. which states steve thinks long and the president's favor specifically -- states do you think swan in the president's favor specifically. guest: the hispanic vote was an

important part of that victory. in colorado it was important. i would cite those two states at a minimum. the margins may difference. host: this is from the first debate in the for -- in denver. was one of the most interesting moments of the election. it shook up the campaign but not in the ways we might have thought about the time. the exchange between president romney, president -- here's the exchange between governor romney, and jim layer. [video clip] regard to 97% of the businesses they are not taxed. those businesses that are in the last three percent happen to employee half of all the people who work in small businesses.

those are the businesses that employ one quarter of all of the workers in america. your plan is to take their tax rate from 35% to 40%. a veryd to a guy who has small business. he has an electronics business in st. louis. he has four employees. he said he and his son calculated taxes. state sales tax, state property tax, gasoline tax, it added up to 50% of what they earned. your plan is to take the tax rate on successful small to 40%.es from 35% the national federation of independent businesses say that will cost 700,000 jobs. i don't want to cost jobs. my priority is jobs. what i do is i bring down the tax rates, lower the deductions and exemptions -- the same idea between -- behind bowles- simpson.

there's nothing better to getting us to a balanced budget than having more people working, earning more money, paying more taxes, that is the most effective and efficient way to get this budget balanced. we had the split screen so you could see the president's reaction throughout. why was that she -- why was that an important moment? because he did badly at that debate come up governor romney was at the top of his campaign. he was very well prepared and the president seemed lethargic. it seemed like at some point he did not want to be there. he was not aggressive in responding to some of the things governor romney was saying and doing. it created an impression of a very effective republican nominee against a lackluster performance on the part of the president. it shook up the campaign for a number of days. richard is joining us on

the republican slime. line.the republicans caller: people are uninformed. i want somebody to love my country. obama does not like my country. we all know that now. mitt romney created jobs. the keystone pipeline that obama planned, he would have gotten rid of. it is a disaster. limbaugh, hed rush is great. what did obama really do for five years? nothing. and now the country is going in a wrong way. cannot understand how mitt romney lost. you put up a point which

gives me it chance to talk about this piece, this column in "the washington post." the question you pose, which direction for the divided gop echo -- divided gop echo what is your answer? both governor romney and president obama love the country. there is no doubt about that. i know people can disagree on that. the question for the republican party is in presidential election years, as we now know, the electorate at this point is somewhat democratic. republicans are going to have to figure out how to get from 47 or 48% 51%. do do they do that he echo they go in a more conservative direction? ere are some republicans who

think they have not had a true or the right candidate to make the argument on behalf of a conservative philosophy, that governor romney was not able to do it effectively, john mccain was not able to do it effectively in 28. -- in 2008. a want to see someone who can make the republican conservative argument more effectively than those two candidates have been able to do. you hear from some republicans. the other side as we have to figure out a way to address the new america that now exists. if we are as reliant on white voters as we are, we are going to struggle to win presidential elections. we have to reach more minority voters, particularly hispanics. i think that is one of the debates that is going to play out particularly in the nomination fight in 2016. larry is joining us.

caller: good morning treat how did the washington post get -- -- he was as get by cancer survivor. we don't do that in georgia. you ought to be ashamed of yourselves. you need to explain. i am not familiar with that. host: this is about martin o'malley, democratic governor for maryland. there is a crisis of confidence facing the country and getting the clearest terms yet that he is thinking seriously about running in 2016. guest: it is not a surprise he is thinking seriously about it. we had known he is looking at the possibility of running for some time. it was interesting the way he framed a message there as trying

to do something about a crisis of confidence in the country. there is such declining competence in the government possibility in washington. that element that he is going to go after if he decides to become a candidate. anybody thinking about running for the democratic nomination in 2016 obviously has to think about what it will be like to run against hillary clinton if she chooses to become the candidate. we don't know if she is going to do that. for martin o'malley preparation is probably wise. four democratic women, a headline -- i would make a broader

point, which is that the democratic bench is not particularly teeth as you look obviously former secretary clinton stands above everyone in terms of popularity within the pop that's within the party by a large margin, including above vice president biden. the rest of the potential candidates are not particularly well known. run thanooses not to the party is going to be in a much different situation than if she does. column on ther weather republicans in 2016 will take a less confrontational approach. let us talk about rand paul and ted cruz. represent a younger generation in the republican party. ted cruz in particular is a very hard edge in conservatism.

he is the pure version of the conservative message. he is exciting republicans around the country with that message. rand paul has the libertarian brand, which is different than other elements of conservatism and his views of foreign-policy have gotten in into a dustup with governor christie of new jersey. he also has a set of conservative views that he thinks might play better with some younger voters than some of the others in the party. , they are protesting going to iowa and new hampshire and south carolina to draw attention to themselves. they are thinking about what they want to say. they're trying to figure out what kind of response they can get. out of all of that they will decide whether to run and basis of their candidacy. is why we have already launched road to the white house 2016. the last call from north richland hill texas. good morning.

caller: what most of the republican party has thrown out isre without realizing it rand who of anne came to america as a young woman. she wrote atlas shrugged. policy, only the rich shall win. this has been the republican policy. it was failed to support for 30 years. one of the debates going on in the republican party that will pop out at some point is how do they do a better job of speaking to the middle-class? are some people on

the hill thinking about this, some people who may run for president to think about this. i think they recognize that was a deficiency in the 2012 campaign message. tothey cannot find a way marry the conservative philosophy with something that is appealing to the middle class, then they are going to struggle in these elections. i think they believe there is a way to talk about that without compromising either the principal or radical changes in to findlicy but to try ways to target that message and those policies more effectively. host: you write -- guest: we always think

presidential elections settle arguments that are going on in the country. sometimes they do. i think we are in a. now -- we are in a period now in which the elections are an ongoing debate between two sides that have quite different views on what should be done and the shape of the country. note elections do necessarily resolve those debates, particularly when you have divided government as we have. it is not clear if the republicans or democrats have control of all three given the .ules of the senate there are some signs that perhaps there is a little bit of a thaw. the president is talking with some regularity to some republican senators. it has not produced a lot yet. the senate has passed an immigration bill. we will see what happens on the budget.

i think the reality is that we are quite a polarized nation. one of the things we saw in this partson was that the red have gotten redder and the blue parts of gotten bluer. there were only four states in this election that were decided by five or fewer points. we have a read country and a blue country and the two are having a struggle to talk to one another. is a chieflz washington correspondent for "the washington post." thank you for being with us. guest: thank you. appearing on be "face the nation," after this. --ing up in just a moment, coming up in just a moment, governor john hickenlooper will be joining us. all weekend long on booktv and

american history tv, we will take you to nevada's capital, carson city, at 5:00. feature the carson city school, that includes the stewart indian school, one of the many schools created across the country to assimilate native american children during the late 19th and into the 20th century. the chairman of the commission is richard arnold. his mother attended that school. he talks to us about the history of this location. >> this is the former stewart indian school, previously known as the carson india school. school isdian actually a school that was similar to many throughout the united states. it had a purpose to call straight indian people from their respective areas that were nearby.

these replaced systematically throughout the united states. they were typically remote areas. even though it is close to the still was nevada it very remote at the time, placed in a location where we were on the outskirts of town, where they thought it would be a pleasant setting for people to come and learn the new ways of life. it was first conveyed over to the federal government. opened up the school in 1880, with first-class having 37 students. it had a capacity of 100 students. educating the of indian people from nevada specifically. had basically the three that were the

three main groups that would come here. the populations early on that were here in the beginning were representative of those three tribes. you can get more information on booktv and c- span3's american history tv. you can check out all of our travels of the local content vehicle at c-span.org/lo calconyent. the 130 third annual fancy farm event, that included features by the senior center of kentucky. let's begin with the comments of mitt romney -- with mitch mcconnell as he spoke to his supporters in western kentucky. >> they try to raise taxes on

everybody. i led the charge to save 99% of kentucky citizens from a tax increase. they try to bully conservatives over the irs but we call them out. you cannot get any of those things done from the back bench. that is why it is a very important to keep kentucky strong. we obviously have some big elections coming up. we are not just choosing. we are not just choosing who's going to represent us. we are going to decide who is going to run the senate.

, is thethe choice senate going to be run by a yes man like barack obama who believes coal makes you sick. or the guy you are looking at? [applause] senator mitch mcconnell at the fancy farm's event in kentucky. -- owing us is he was at the event yesterday. thank you for being with us. guest: thank you for having me. host: for those not familiar with this quintessential kentucky event, what is this all it is a catholic church picnic. they raise money for the school and the church for the first saturday in august every year. 1931 when happy chandler

went there and spoke on the stump, it has been a tradition in kentucky for politicians to go down there and talk to the voters. event evolved into an were basically the politicians crowd and speak and the chants, haulers, cheers, screams s, cheers, holler screams at them. mcconnell was trying not to make any mistakes. he was making this a race not so much between him and his but it wasopponent, a race between him and barack obama and between him and harry reid. alison grimes is the

secretary of state and comes from a long line of democrat at of best's here's a portion her remarks. our thanks to kentucky educational tv that allows us to carry their coverage yesterday. [video clip] >> after years of being a leader of the republican party, the come toan party has stand for gridlock's, obstructions, and partisanship. seems our seniors only understand a meeting of one word. "stop." timevoting time after against increasing the minimum wage all while you increase your pay. stop now. empty -- youre , stop now.ric

and you're failing to stand up for the good women of kentucky when you vote against obama [indiscernible] -- stop now. you're failing to realize the importance of labor that is lifting millions of -- millions out of poverty, stop now. we have two different public servants. that he views public servants as a carnival game. i don't scare easy. the kentucky secretary of state and democratic candidate for the u.s. senate. all of those speeches are posted on our website. what kind of reaction did she get and what to the polls say in this race? guest: she got a good reaction from the democrats.

the polls in kentucky show that this is a very tight race. the democrats last week released to polls, one showed grimes is up a percentage point and the other show that she is up by two. if these polls are accurate we are looking at a dead heat right now. most people i talked to do not expect either candidate to get more than 52% of the vote when november comes around. if these are in fact the two candidates, mcconnell has himself a challenge on his hands in 18 party candidate who spoke yesterday. he was even more harsh on mcconnell then allison grimes was with her speech. it is going to be interesting as we watch this crazy fall for these two races evolved over the next 14 or 15 months. we will see how mcconnell does with this challenge. we are talking with joe

gerth. the first ad against matt bevin on the mitch mcconnell campaign. [video clip] >> i approved this message. he is abevin says conservative businessman but when his businesses needed help he took $200,000 in taxpayer bailout, even though he failed -- ay taxes his and his company was the number one tax delinquent. his company failed to pay taxes and then got a taxpayer bailout. bailout doesn't, not a kentucky conservative. if i am not mistaken that ad came out literally a day or two before he announced his candidacy. it began airing a couple of hours before he announced it. the ad is a bit unfair.

the companies they are talking about but did not pay taxes, there is a company that makes bells in east hampton connecticut. when matt bevin took over the company was in bad shape financially. .t was behind on taxes they caught up on taxes and other bills. they pretty much turned the company around. you learn -- you lose the context in the mcconnell added. last week mcconnell drop a mail piece on bevin, which accuses him of being a fraud and a con man. it is ugly and it is not going to get any better. host: this is an attack ad against the senate republican leader. [video clip] is a, domestic fowl. in american slang, the chicken represent a coward. it is all they represent -- it

is also were present at of a new breed. >> obamacare should be repealed, and -- >> when confronted with an opportunity to act they often run far away, without a sense of direction. take minority leader mitch mcconnell paid on the issue of obamacare, he said -- >> this law is a disaster. we are not backing down from this fight. >> what he has a chance to defund obamacare, some say he's chickening out. --e service do not need conservatives do not need a chicken. leaders lead. if you find it, you own it. mitch mcconnell getting it from the democrats and tea party related organizations, despite the fact that his campaign manager is the former manager of rand paul's 2010 campaign. jesse benton, who is in fact married to the

, cameaughter of ron paul over with the main idea of trying to keep mcconnell from having a tea party. they failed on that. i do not know there was anything benton could have done to block it. now the democrats are sitting that and watching republicans look ahead. democrats appear to be unified at this point. host: give us a snapshot of where things stand today. guest: mcconnell is facing an inner party challenge. we've never seen him have to fight off a competitor before.

it's going to be interesting to see if he can deal with this challenge without turning off the tea party and risk alienating them in the election if he survives the primary challenge. , thank you for being with us. est: you can watch the entire event and our website at www.c- span.org. this weekend, we are live at the nga summer meeting in milwaukee, wisconsin. we are pleased to be joined by john hickenlooper, the governor of colorado. thank you for being with us. host: let me begin with one of

the panels yesterday. that statesf money spend on incarceration and health care for inmates in state reasons. you are part of that panel discussion. what was your take away? st: budgets have gone up continually in terms of incarceration. a lot of the people we end up locking up for years have mental-health issues, other health issues. if we can address those mental health issues, they can live constructive lives outside and we are not spending $45,000 or $50,000 a year to keep them locked up. host: one of the goals of the governors meeting is to learn best practices when it comes to incarceration rates and the cost keepstates put forth to inmates in jails. what did you learn?

t: the lesson from the state of washington, they put together a framework to measure risk. if someone is really a threat to commit a violent crime, they want to make sure that person stays in prison as long as they should. and hasne is nonviolent a high potential of getting a job and keeping a job and rejoining the flow of society, let's get them out of prison and get them through the halfway house or whatever the remediation program is a take that burden off the taxpayers shoulders. host: we have one line set aside for those of you who live in colorado to talk to john hickenlooper. you can also join us on facebook or send us a tweet.

where is colorado at the moment as far as the implementation of the affordable care act? i think we are on schedule. this coming winter and spring we will be able to achieve -- i have every confidence we will get it open and time. ambitious registration numbers and targets we have got, we're going to push real hard to make sure we make those as well. host: you quoted that you were nervous when it came to those marketplace practices. can you explain what you were talking about? guest: this is a new program that is very ambitious. not an existing program we're trying to tweak. we are creating something new. that always has some risk with it. we have been spending a lot of time looking at the technology and software.

part of this is the regulations are very complex and we don't people -- don't want people to be turned off by having to go through too much red tape. we're trying to say, how can we make this as simple as possible, make it easy for people to join? themany people, it will be first time they're able to get inexpensive health care the lives. host: house republicans voted on 40 separate occasions to defund the president's health-care law. if you see what is happening here in washington, what is your reaction? i'm not going to criticize people. you get dug into these positions sometimes. laws that came from the republican side maybe i did not like, but they are laws.

we try to make them work the best we can. healthcare is our law. burgoyne to do everything we can to use that framework to lower to do-- we are going everything we can to use that framework to lower cost. ago.o back just four years used10% of the doctors digital information systems for their patient records and prescriptions. only 20% of the hospitals. everyone else was on paper. now over half the doctors are using technology of one sort or another. almost two thirds of hospitals. occurs and allows us to contemplate controlling cost for the first time in a decade, there is an awful lot of moving parts. i want to make sure you get those parts right as well. abouti want to ask you

gun laws. two of the most terrific shootings took place in your state. columbine high school, and aurora, colorado. would national gun laws have made a difference in either of those cases? guest: it's hard to say. in both those cases, the people clearly had serious mental health issues. as you get into the issue, we try to be pragmatic. we did the most comprehensive mental health initiative last spring in the history of the state of colorado. the 1970's and 1980's we put people in institutions their whole lives and forgot about them. then we suddenly send them out on the streets. we definitely need more health care support so people can continue to live on the outside. ton they are a risk

themselves or others, we have got to find ways to intervene rapidly. background check, which was very divisive and controversial -- some of these gun issues, when you take the facts and look at them, we looked at 2012 in colorado. we stopped 38 people that were accused or convicted of homicides. 133 people convicted or accused of sexual assault, 620 people that had been convicted of burglary. 1300 people convicted of felony assault. some have restraining orders. and we looked at the records, 236 people when they came to pick up their brand-new gun, we

arrested them for an outstanding warrant. clearly they work, but it came this very divisive issue. would it have changed the shootings in the theater? no. that would have made our though, without question. host: what about the limits on ammunition clips? guest: that has been a significant issue in urban areas. , 31% to 40% ofas officers killed in the line of duty were killed with weapons using magazines more than 15 rounds. that is sobering. you hate to make any imposition on people's guns or any part of their guns. there were police chiefs that

that this was an important issue that would make police officers safer doing their jobs. servedohn hickenlooper eight years as the mayor of denver. mike is joining us from colorado. good morning. caller: thanks for having me. i have a question about amendment 64. i wonder if the government -- governor has insight about what the implementation will be and if it will be overcast compared to the alcohol or cigarettes relative to it, and maybe how the banking and money situation will work out for that. host: governor, you might want to explain amendment 64. amendment 64, which i did not support, legalized

recreational marijuana in colorado. you talk about doing something that has never been done before, trying to figure out what is the .egal and regulatory framework first, how do we make sure kids don't get it. a lot of doctors are very concerned that some of the new strains of marijuana have very high concentrations of the active ingredients of thc. it is kids whose brains are still growing smoke the stuff. it could forever affect their long-term memory. we want to have a very rigorous regulatory environment. business,be in the restaurants with breweries in them. we still had to apply to the bureau of alcohol, tobacco and firearms to get a federal brewers' license.

it is incredibly strict. was your manufacturing beer, -- once you are manufacturing beer, you have to track every ounce. you pay taxes on everything. it is a very significant level of taxes. our goal on this is to create every bit as rigorous and strict for thetory environment regulation of marijuana as we have for alcohol. that is one of the things we tax most in modern consumer society. indicated your opposition to this amendment. now that it is in place, you will carry it out? i don't agree with every law that comes out of the , but once they have voted, it is our job -- my job

and the legislators' job to make sure you that we implement it. jim is joining us, another colorado viewer. two questions. one, the rural electric green energy issue that has surfaced. as i understand, it's going to raise our roots -- rates rurally. i don't understand why it's going to be so dramatic. involving proposition 22, it will be a tax vote this fall. my understanding is a significant percentage of that up -- yet it will be positioned as it is all about the children an education when it is really about helping folks retire at young ages or make

sure their retirement programs stay solid. in terms of the world -- rural setting of goals for girl -- rural energy, you look at the real risk of climate change. colorado, our water storage -- half of our storage capacity is in the snowpack in our mountains. as it gets warmer, our ranchers and farmers are at risk. we want to make sure we try not to lose a single acre of agricultural land that can be productive, and lose it for lack of water. what that law or initiative rural co-opsat the would participate not at the same level as the large

utilities, but they were already committed to get to 10% of their energy through renewable sources. allowed to were they increase the bills to their consumers by more than 1%. this newlog allows them to go -- new law allows them to go up to 2%. we are talking a quarter, $.50, maybe a dollar a month. you are a be more if large user of electricity. the goal there is to say, if we are going to try to address some of the risks of potentials of climate change, we want everybody participating. we did not want it to be a burden. representatives from the co-ops, from consumer groups, renewable energy activists to say, how do we make sure we implement this so it doesn't have a big spike

in cost. comprehensive set of educational reforms, not just in colorado's history but the history of the u.s. he asked about whether that is going to go to pension. that is not the case. it is going to provide high- quality early childhood thereion for at-risk kids for kidsonal resources to come from extreme poverty. for the first time, the money will follow the kids. right now we do a census of all the kids and all the classrooms and that defines how much money the school gets. if this passes, if this kid jobs out a month later, whatever proportion is remaining of the

school year, that proportion the school loses its funding. they have an incentive to keep high-risk kids, the kids who have been dropping out and ash coststo trouble of property damage, up.rceration add early childhood education teachers, they will pay into pera. there is no ability of this law to be used to backfill our pensions in any way. host: power line for democrats with governor hickenlooper. democrats, with governor hickenlooper. caller: i'd like to hear you address my concern over

nonviolent criminals or conflicts -- convicts getting out of prison and there opportunity for work. applications ask if you have been convicted of a crime. i want to separate violent criminals from nonviolent. somebody gets put in jail for drugs or something like that, they're being punished, they get out and now we make it hard for the rest of their lives. we are sort of driving them towards crime. i want to hear your thoughts on that. guest: this is a point that you these greatu do see kids -- the first time i heard of this issue, there were bama guys in their mid-20's. three of them had served our country in the military.

they got arrested for i think it was marijuana related charges. it ended up being a felony conviction. suddenly it is exactly what you say. every time they apply for a job, they have a felony. we have people looking at that and say, is there a way we can address that. it is an issue all over the country. is there a way that once people have paid their due, and we let them not have this stamp on the record. it would be a major change legally and there are a number of people who still feel strongly that once someone has made that mistake, you can give them another chance but that record should follow them and people should be alert that they broke whatever law, they broke a significantly sufficient law and it stays on the record. host: our next caller is from

aurora, colorado. i'm surprised to hear the governor speak of climate when his administration is overseeing the biggest oil and gas boom in the history of the state of colorado. and how it is essentially the heart and spirit of colorado. it is driving the economy. i don't know how you can speak about this boom and popularity of it. post" stated there is 50,000 oil and gas wells in the state of colorado and it is being increased by 50 every week. this is a huge part of colorado. it causes most of the ozone pollution in the state of

colorado. it is something that really needs to be spoken a lot about. guest: a couple things. colorado, like most western states, we have the split estate. the person who owns the mineral ,ights to the gas underground the person who owns the minerals underground has a right to get access to the surface. is usually owned by someone different. my opinion it is a terrible system because you have natural of someone who is ranching or farming or just enjoying their lives on the owns theand the person mineral rights below them has a right to get access to the surface.

our job is to make sure it is done safely. colorado has the most rigorous set of rules or it we require groundwater testing before they drill. a year or two years after, another groundwater test. we were the first state to reach a compromise with the environmental community and oil and gas community. we are rigorous about pushing oil and gas drilling further away from schools and hospitals, places of assembly. the other thing that is missed too often is new technology. createdal drilling has this revolution in oil and gas toloration and allowed us recover natural gas at levels never imagined before. was $8.50 and is now between three dollars and four dollars and see if -- dollars.

if you look at the other benefits of natural gas, as we retire some of the older coal plants and convert to natural gas, it is so dramatically cleaner. don't often recognize this, but there are a number of estimates that suggest we are halfway towards compliance with kyoto. we never signed kyoto, but that is a significant step forward. our carbon emissions are back down to the level they were when nixon turned the white house over to kennedy in 1961. that is a germanic change. it is happening through inexpensive and cleaner natural gas. .- dramatic change it is happening through inexpensive and cleaner national gas.

people have no desire to have an oil and gas well killing within 500 feet or 1000 feet of their place of business or home -- or 1000 within 500 feet feet of their place of business or home. how do you balance that with the changes that come with it? how: an e-mail from josh, much does colorado expect to save because of marijuana legalization? is there savings? know if there is savings. one of the reasons that so many people supported legalizing marijuana was that the war on , many people felt it was a failure. the earlier caller asked about these kids to get a conviction for marijuana.

it is on their record and changes their ability to hold or get a job for the rest of their lives. we have had a system that did not work. that sense, perhaps a legalization will save us money. but we're very concerned about 15-year-old, 16-year-old kids go -- the number of kids to through difficult times in those years, and some of them have differing levels of stability in their home lives or they may have mental health issues of their own. they slip off the tracks and they start smoking pot, drinking, get into a self- destructive pattern of behavior. it can be much harder to get them back on the track. we want to make sure we have enough money in the system so that we can address some of those concerns. host: "the washington post" quotes abo

your reelection campaign, quote, if i lose, i go back to 14 weeks of vacation. i'm in a no lose situation. do you want another term? guest: yes. [laughter] those things get taken out of context. you won't meet someone more competitive than i am. i love a good campaign and i hope we get as many people in the campaign as possible open a real chance to debate the issues. i'm going to play as hard as i can. in the end, i had a great life before i got into politics. i ran for mayor in 2003 and it was the first time iran for anything. thing.an for any before that, had traveled the world. if somehow i don't prevail, if i mess things up in the campaign,

my point was i'm going to go a life was -- what i always worked for was to be able with themy older years level of freedom that most people don't get to do. like a lot of people, i worked week after week. i would go into work at seven or eight in the morning. sometimes i would be there until one or 2:00 at night. when you have your own business, you put in those hours. when you get to retire, you really get to retire. not everyone gets to do that. i certainly love being governor and of going to work as hard as i can to try to be reelected. murdereronvicted responsible for famine deaths and you granted him a temporary and you -- four deaths granted him a temporary reprieve. why did you do that?

guest: there can be no question bipolarhad severe disability. here was no question that byn't guilty, and wasn't reason of insanity. they got to eight or nine or 10 of the jurors and gave them this evidence that the kid clearly was severely bipolar. once they got him medications in 2005, he suddenly showed remorse and became a different person. when the jurors saw that information i said, that would've made a difference. three of them signed affidavits. intois point, it calls question, this is not somebody who should be executed. want to look at all the facts around the issue, the part that struck me -- we spent $18 million or $19 million in all

the appeals and legal issues, untill punishment trial you get to the point of execution. that is not that different from many states. for life in prison without prison withoutin parole as a couple of million dollars. dramatically cheaper. note deterrent value --no -- no deterrent value. their 500thated execution. they don't have a lower level of homicides, no lower rate of mass murders. the states that got rid of the then the states that got rid of the death penalty. the families were split. some of the families desperately want to this perpetrator to be executed. but some of the other families,

largely christian families that feel that the new testament in the bible is really about redemption and forgiveness, and if you execute this person it denies them the ability to keep working towards forgiveness. not want andid execution. that's not unusual. the familying all members of victims find closure, if it costs 10 times more money and is no deterrent, it makes you wonder why we are still having capital punishment. it begins to eliminate why there is no country in europe that still has capital punishment. outside of guatemala, there is no other country in this hemisphere that does capital punishment. australia, new zealand, israel have gotten rid of capital punishment. the real focus with this specific incidents was that the kid was clearly bipolar and refocus executing someone with

that kind of a disability was not in the spirit of what was intended. host: and yet you pay the political price, at least in the polls. guest: sure. i paid a bigger political price for the gun safety issues and the universal background checks, which became very heated. peopleu have over 3000 who are convicted or accused of violent crimes trying to buy guns and you stop them from getting guns, that is something you're going to support. whether it is capital punishment, universal background checks -- at some point, you just have to make sure you try to get people to hear the facts. the list ofwn universal background checks and allwe should expand it to the gun purchases, republicans and democrats -- most of them

say, i didn't know that. how much moneyut it costs for capital punishment and how there is no deterrence and it does not bring closure to the families of victims, people , that changessay the way i think. host: john hickenlooper is joining us for mill walking, where the nga summer meeting is m milwaukee, fro where the nga summer meeting is gathering. we want to get your calls and comments. recess, butn the sides on the immigration fight. the issue of the president's healthcare law, and the debt and deficit and what to do with that continuing resolution. all issues that will be coming

up as lawmakers head back to their homes in various states. asking,tion we are congress in recess -- what do you want to hear? donna conversation by giving us a call. the numbers are on your screen -- join the conversation by giving us a call. the numbers are on your screen. first, i want to check in with radio host. nancy, good morning. topics include the worldwide terror alert, security leaks, immigration, the economy, and other subjects you mentioned. you can hear rebroadcasts on c- span radio beginning at noon eastern with nbc's's "meet the press." today's guests include the

durbin and ready giuliani. this week with general martin dempsey, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. representative peter king of new , and dutch ruppersberger, a maryland democrat, both members of the intelligence committee. glenn greenwald, columnist at "the guardian." fox news sunday. guests include eric cantor of virginia. michael hayden, former head of the cia and national security agency. charlie's thereon, actress and united nations messenger of theron,- charlize actress and united nations messenger of peace. 4:00, "face the nation" from cbs. bob schieffer welcomes paul ryan schumer.ael mccaul and chuck

talk showsnetwork tv on c-span radio are brought to you as a public service by the networks. the rebroadcasts of the shows begin at noon eastern with "meet the press." rick locke, "state of the 3:00, "state of the union." radiowide on xm satellite channel 119. download our free app for your smart phone or listen online at c-span radio.org i've never really known what to do with our first ladies. on the one hand, they are expected to have causes. on the other hand, those causes

are not permitted to intrude or an official capacity. it has always been a tight rope. seeing how each of these women walk that tightrope tells you a lot about them and the institution and society. -- society they represented. >> our encore presentation of looking atl series, the public and private lives of our nation's first ladies. weeknights, all this month. during monday's program on martha washington, join in the conversation. ive-ek recess.f-town f

returning after labor day. now that congress is on summer break, what do you want to hear from your lawmakers as they travel back to their respective congressional district or state? the numbers are on your screen. cq focusing on the issue of immigration. mindful of how immigration opponents in august 2006 seized momentum.

lawmakers also focusing on the voting rights act. patrick leahy is the chair of the senate judiciary committee and brought up the issue of the voting rights act following the supreme court decision earlier this year. here is what he had to say. [video clip] >> president obama had an emotional news conference with the victims of the newtown shooting and he said this was just round one. with the election coming up, is it realistic to expect round two on that? >> it is mentioned it is something that but is notsense, something that he will get to now. unfortunate. could you pass one law that would stop all the gun violence in this country? no. but can you do better than we have? yes. you have some on the left, like

the mayor of new york city. he turned off some people who might have been his supporters. and then you have someone on the far right. there is of to be a balance in between. host: senator patrick leahy on the issue of guns and voting rights. the congress is in recess. what do you want to hear from your lawmakers? availablee story online at npr.org entitled, congressional recess is not a cease-fire, a chance to reload. here's senator patrick leahy on the voting rights issue. [video clip] this was not a state acting like they were open to negotiation or any effort to

make sure all the problems they had with voting could be fixed. andhoping we can go back have a new voting rights act consistent with the supreme court. the supreme court is sharply divided. five people decided that after an hour of hearing argument, they understood this better than the hundreds of hearings, hundreds of hours. people said, you must have gotten it wrong. .e're going to change it --n then, the chief justice there still will be voting rights violations. host: the full interview coming up at the top of the hour on "newsmakers." what do you want to hear from

lawmakers? barb is joining us on the line for democrats. i saw the newspaper hear about how much we are spending on defense and health care. health care implementation is taking a lot of time and money. whatever is going on is ridiculous and i would like them to concentrate on a solution. i don't really have a political party. i am a nurse. thank you. some news from the sunday shows, from the associated press. the top republican in the senate intelligence committee calls it the most serious threat i've seen in a number of years.

in his weekly address, the president says he wants to continue to focus on jobs and the middle of -- middle-class. here is more with president obama. [video clip] >> when it comes to creating more good jobs that pay decent wages, the problem is not a lack of ideas. independent economists and business owners and people from both parties agree on what they do. i propose many of the is ideas -- propose many of these ideas three years ago.

what we are lacking is action from washington. that is why in addition to proposing ideas we know will grow our economy, i put forward a strategy for breaking through the washington logjam. i grand bargain for the middle class. i'm willing to work with republicans to simplify our tax code for businesses, large and small. but only if we take the money we saved by transitioning to a simpler tax system and make a significant investment in creating good middle-class jobs. we can put construction workers back on the job rebuilding our infrastructure. we can boost manufacturing so more american companies can sell their products around the world. we can help our community colleges armor our workers with the skills they need in a global workers withm our the skills they need in a global economy. i will keep reaching out to republicans.

getting critical investments in our future and threatening a national default on the bills that congress has racked up is not an economic plan. denying healthcare to millions of americans or shutting down the government just because i'm for keeping it open will not help the middle class. his: the president and weekly address. we are focusing on what you want to hear from lawmakers. some of you weighing in on our facebook page. michael says, i want to know where congressional leaders stand on the edward snowden issue. facebook.com/cspan if you want to join the conversation online.

daniel is joining us from oklahoma on independent line. i don't want to hear anything from our congressmen, senators. i want to tell them a few things. i'm sick and tired of what is going on in washington. we have got this silly quantitative easing going on in the federal reserve that will do absolutely nothing for us regular folks except for driving prices up or it is making the rich richer. -- up. it is making the rich richer. i want to tell these representatives to get out there and do something useful or come home and give up your jobs and quit wasting our money. of cqthe cover story weekly, battle to win the recess. this particular story focusing on the battle over immigration. "national journal" has a piece

on tax reform. we have been covering a number of events with dave camp, chairman of the house ways and means committee. out, need points anymore evidence the tax reform is the longest of long shots this fall? look no further than dave camp's decision. the move would require the chairman to campaign for major stretches of 2014. any hypothetical reform package could be debated in congress. potential reform. it signals a shift in cap's thinking and tax lobbyists think camp'sd drive -- thinking and tax lobbyists think it could drive away reform. a caller on our republican line. my question is for

republicans and democrats alike, why is there not a bill in congress being placed on behalf of our children who are getting ready to go to college where a fixed rate such as prime plus one percent is not being offered to the students? when theing is so that students have something fixed and their life like a mortgage, they would also be allowed to be able to purchase homes and cars rather than be burdened with such a high fluctuating rate is currently provided. next is michael from farmington, connecticut. on our line for independents. i'm very supportive of president obama's desire to by building infrastructure programs. i think that's a wonderful idea.

i am concerned about how you pay for it. believe we can do something rather than increase the debt, we can do something with means testing, social security and medicare. the defense department budget should not be sacrosanct. there is so much waste in that budget. i've seen so many times where there fair play in our submarine programs are excessive and wasteful. their airplane and submarine programs are excessive and wasteful. a vote was put off in the house of representatives, but she did deliver the republican address and the focus was the president's health care law known as obamacare. [video clip] obamacare is discouraging

small businesses from creating jobs and hiring new employees. the law has perverse incentives for employers to reduce the number of hours that their employees can work. while most small business owners want to provide health insurance for their employees, many simply cannot afford to under obamacare. businessesruggling with 50 or more full-time employees will be required to provide health insurance or face huge fines for each employee. if you employ 49 workers, there are no fines. but if you add just one more employee, you're hit with penalties. these enormous penalties are a real threat to employers who want to add jobs.

they are a powerful incentive for employers to refrain from hiring additional workers. host: susan collins delivering the republican response to national public radio -- response. billnational public radio, o'leary writes as congress heads off for the 2013 summer recess -- that full story is available online at npr.org. over the weekend we covered mitch mcconnell,

the republican candidate, alison grimes, the democratic candidate and their primary challenges -- challengers had a chance to speak in what is a quintessential kentucky event. we have a link to kentucky education tv on our website. you can check it out at www.c- span.org. the callers joining on our republican line from alabama. would be nice to hear from congress that they have decided to go on a 10 year run of reducing everyone in congress's salary to minimum , and maybe go through a free college tuition program where you agree to spend two years running government when you get out, and get rid of the money so some clear decision-

making can be made. get the money out of there so they are not in there for the money. "the washington post," a story getting a lot of attention this morning. more than 20 embassies in north africa and the arabian peninsula have been closed. this is a photograph from the scene in yemen. the president meeting with the president of yemen last week. v is joining us on the democrats line from san diego. -- victor is joining us on the democrats' line from san diego. always republicans are crying about spending too much money for it and want to spend 400 million -- money. they want to spend 400 million. how about going fully after the illegal employers knowingly

.iring illegal aliens , so showing their faces that their cohorts who are thinking about hiring illegal aliens won't do it because it is too embarrassing. that would get back across the border to the mexican side, saying it is not worth coming to america because nobody is going to hire you. a twitter comment -- times," a profile of the magazine's competitor. katharine weymouth has lived

much of her life in the shadow of two formidable women and hazard chance to join their ranks. her grandmother, the late katharine grand. the death of john palmer of nbc's news. he was 77 years old. longtime and bc correspondent. the story this morning from "politico." bc -- at and bc and 1962. 1962. in he went on to do other cable programs, returning to and bc in the late 1990's. anchor and journalist. away at the age of 77. a caller is joining us on the line for independents. caller: i hope that folks take pause to reflect on this and

think about how this is coming together in our government. it's great we have now found a way to put our immigrants to work, with obama breaking through the 40 hour workweek, going to the 29.5 hour workweek. there will be so many more new jobs created. corporate profits will go through the roof. it will create additional jobs in texas. host: front page of "the new york times." medical tourists, simple math. u.s. estimates for a new hit, over $78,000. the belgian bill, $13,600. the story profiles michael shelton, who turned a private hospital outside brussels to have his artificial hip implanted back in 2007. his story and a comparison between the u.s. and europe, front page story.

harold is joining us from new jersey on the republican line. caller: i would like some truth. and then couple that with integrity. how the irsknow should tell us the truth. eight names appeared on the democratic and pewter page in the last election -- computer page in the last election. they were harassed and punished not only by the irs, but other agencies as well. fear and intimidation, chicago style. president obama won that election. even after his failed presidency. wasted. and billions the truth should be known.

they got all these records. it should not be that difficult to find out who is destroying our democracy. museumourtesy of the front page of the "l.a. times," monitoring afghan relief work from afar. the use of smart phones and satellites to keep track of progress in afghanistan. public -- republic," new homes on the rise. chris is joining us for massachusetts. homekers return -- head for the summer recess. what do you want to hear from them? hear the would like to largest and most well written apology and history of the world.

-- in the history of the world. we really do not have a functioning democracy anymore. our rights have systematically been eliminated. -- and now with -- continue to cover the town hall meetings in the month of august. you can check out schedule information any time at www.c- span.org. we will continue the conversation tomorrow morning on "washington journal" -- live everyday. michael harper -- michael harpster will be joining us to follow-up on the story, the arrest of more than 150 people

involved in a child prostitution ring that rescued more than 100 teenagers. we continue our monday segment on healthcare with kaiser health news. that is tomorrow morning at 7:00 eastern time, here on c-span's "washington journal" -- thank you for being with us on this sunday. enjoy the rest of your day. "newsmakers" is coming up next. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013]

withxt, "newsmakers" patrick leahy followed by the farewell ceremony for the robert mueller. later, the national governors association closing session with a discussion on cyber security. >> joining us on "newsmakers" is senator patrick leahy. thanks for being with us. >> it is good to the here. >> joining us is mattingly