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governor, jennifer granholm, is politically direct on current tv >> what should women be doing? >> electing women to office. ♪ >> announcer: take your e-mails on any topic at any time. this is the "bill press show." live on your radio and current tv. >> bill: now you know, even somebody as great as i am

occasionally will make a mistake. >> i refuse to believe that. >> bill: i have e-mails this morning correcting me. this one from joyce anderson. she says i do like and listen to you daily. i'm also from california. my husband and i have a house in inverness where carol and i have a house. so we have a few things in common but do not take offense at this but i shiver when you say irreconcilable instead of irreconcilable. i guess that's what it is supposed to be. >> yeah, bill, everybody knows that. >> bill: it is a small thing i know but please don't do it anymore. all right. but now i'm not sure which is right. irreconcilable. >> i don't like the way that sounds. i'm going to be honest. >> i like the way you say it. >> irreconcilable. >> i might be wrong but i prefer it. >> bill: we may be wrong but it sounds better and peter likes

it better. sorry, joyce! [ growls ] lucky for me your friends showed up with this awesome bone. hey! you guys are great. and if you got your home insurance where you got your cut rate car insurance, it might not replace all this. [ electricity crackling ] [ gasping ] so get allstate. you could save money and be better protected from mayhem like me. [ dennis ] dollar for dollar, nobody protects you from mayhem like allstate.

>> bill: hello and happy friday and welcome to the "full court press." good to see you today. thank you for joining us as we tackle the big stories of the day here from our nation's capital, around the country and around the globe. i'm bill press, liberal and proud of it. we'll be talking about the big stories of the day and taking your calls of course at 1-866-55-press. and tomorrow is cinco de mayo and republicans are now once again saying they're going to reach out for the latino vote

this year. what i want to know is if they really want latinos to vote for them, why did they kill the dream act and why do they always block any attempt at comprehensive immigration reform? the truth is republicans only care about latinos once every four years. we'll get into that and a whole lot more here on the "full court press" today. but first, here is today's current tv news update from jacki schechner. good morning jacki. >> good morning, bill. good morning everyone. if you use facebook on a regular basis, you may not give much thought to using the like button. you just click it and move on. it is exactly that button that is at the center of a case in virginia right now where six people say they were fired by the local sheriff, one of them for liking the page of his opponent in his re-election bid in 2009. one of them simply liked the page and that was all. a federal judge has said that like is not constitutionally protected free speech. the judge said it is not the

same as writing out a message and then posting it. first amendment scholars disagree saying that there is no question that like counts as free speech explaining that in the physical world something like giving a thumbs up is covered by the first amendment and so in the virtual world like goes even farther than that because it prints text on the screen. a lawyer for the six workers say they do plan to appeal. wisconsin democrats heavily dislike governor scott walker. as he faces his recall election on june 5th but he's raked in $14.7 million in individual contributions so far this year and the wisconsin center for investigative journalism found out that $10 million of that has come from out-of-state donors. he has 25 times as much money as his potential democratic opponent and he's been making fund-raising pitches both in person and in the letter saying he needs money to counter the big union money coming in from washington but it is clear from the numbers that it is walker

himself who is benefitting from the out-of-state donations. join us in chat. current.com/bill press. we'll be right back. i have the most common type of atrial fibrillation, or afib. it's not caused by a heart valve problem. i was taking warfarin, but my doctor put me on pradaxa instead to reduce my risk of stroke. in a clinical trial, pradaxa® (dabigatran etexilate mesylate) reduced stroke risk 35% better than warfarin. and unlike warfarin, with pradaxa, there's no need for regular blood tests. that's really important to me. pradaxa can cause serious, sometimes fatal, bleeding. don't take pradaxa if you have abnormal bleeding and seek immediate medical care for unexpected signs of bleeding, like unusual bruising. pradaxa may increase your bleeding risk if you're 75 or older, have a bleeding condition like stomach ulcers, or take aspirin, nsaids, or blood thinners, or if you have kidney problems especially if you take certain medicines.

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[ male announcer ] cookies with smooth caramel and chocolate. ♪ ♪ hmm twix. also available in peanut butter. it takes people with real knowledge to build and maintain a race car. polymers, hydo-carbons, thermal plastics, math and science? you bet it is. many kids don't understand how important these subjects can be that's why time warner cable developed connect a million minds. to introduce kids in our communities to the opportunities

that inspire them to develop these important skills. how can my car go faster? maybe your child will figure it out. find out more at connectamillionminds.com >> announcer: this is the "bill press show". >> bill: buenas dias, amigos. today is quattro de mayo. one day before cinco de mayo. we're not going to be here tomorrow. we celebrate today. welcome to the "full court press." we are live coast-to-coast on current tv and on your local progressive talk radio station. good to be with you today. lots to talk about, yes and the

subject of immigration reform and on politics and a whole lot more. we'll cover the news of the day and take your calls at 1-866-55-press. join the conversation. love to hear those voices from all the way -- all different parts of the country. we haven't had a call from loch cha polka, alabama in a couple of days. >> they're listening. they'll call. >> bill: i hadn't thought about how much flights would cost to loch cha polka. >> who knows. >> bill: does spirit airlines go there? >> yeah, right. >> bill: lots to talk about. take your calls at 1-866-55-press. you are here with the team peter ogborn and dan henning and cyprian bolding. >> bill, happy friday. >> it is not only the day before cinco de mayo. it is international "star wars" day. >> bill: get out. >> nerd alert. >> it is may 4th national

"star wars" day because may the 4th be with you. >> oh, my god leave right now. >> it is a real thing! >> bill: is that right? >> it is an internet thing. i'm not saying i embrace it. may the 4th be with you. >> bill: that sounds like a barbara walters slip. [ laughter ] >> may the 4th be with you! >> bill: isn't it today that the avengers opens? >> it is indeed, in america. captain america. >> clearly. >> bill: yes indeed. a big day yesterday on the political scene. michele bachmann endorsing mitt romney. she says mitt romney is going to be the next president of the united states. that's not what she told john karl of abc news a year ago. >> mitt romney, can he beat obama? >> no, he can't beat obama because his policy is the basis of obama care. the signature issue president obama is obama care.

you can't have a candidate who has given the blueprint for obama care. it is too identical. it's not going to happen. >> bill: not going to happen, you're right about that, michelle. we'll go to afghanistan here at the very top of the hour. nia maleka henderson from "the washington post" will be joining us in about 20 minutes from now. david shuster from current tv in as a friend of bill. but first -- >> this is the "full court press." >> bill, miami heat star chris bosh had a busy schedule over the last couple of days. see if you can follow me here. on wednesday, he into you to new york with his teammates for game three of the eastern conference first round series against the knicks. then he got word his wife was in labor so he hopped on a private jet, flew back to miami to be with his wife who gave birth to a boy named jackson. about 3:00 a.m. then it was back to new york where his plane touched down yesterday afternoon. he made it to madison square garden just 30 minutes before tip-off to applause in the

locker room from his teammates then he actually helped win the game. the heat won 87-70. one game away. >> bill: he actually played after all of that. >> after being a new dad. >> it wasn't like he gave birth! >> bill: well yeah but. >> look up in the sky saturday night. you'll see the moon! the really really, really big moon. nasa telling us the lunar satellite will be the closest to earth than any other point this year resulting in a super moon. it will be about 14% larger, 16% brighter than the average full moon. only 221,802 miles away at 11:34 p.m. eastern saturday evening. at one point in its cycle tomorrow night, it will look 30% larger than it normally does. that's when it is closest. >> bill: that will be exciting to see. >> big moon. >> hopefully no clouds where you live. kim kardashian looks like she might want to marry kanye west. "us weekly" reporting the couple who have not publicly announced

their relation-although it is painfully obvious they're together. they're moving together at lightning speed. she's doing everything she can to speed up the finalization of her divorce from kris humphries so she can move ahead. >> oh, that's right, she was married for 72 days before. >> bill: is she getting married before or after she becomes mayor of glendale, california? politics could get in the way here, right? >> bill: thank you dan. well, you and i may have had a busy week but at least we didn't have a round trip to kabul afghanistan in the middle of it with president did. and still a lot of talk about the impact of this new ten-year agreement he signed with president karzai while he was there and the timetable he announced for getting all of our combat troops out of afghanistan to find out what's happening on the ground there in afghanistan in kabul for "the huffington post," joshua hersh joins us on

our news line. good morning. good to talk to you. >> yeah, hey good to be here. >> bill: let me ask you first of all, we've talked a lot about the reaction here in this country to the president's speech which was aimed at americans. but what kind of reception did it get from the afghan people? >> well, look, there's a couple of sides to the afghan people, obviously. the taliban predictably made their feelings known quickly after the president known, about two hours later, there was a views attack on a western private security facility here on the edge of town. they then claimed -- who talked to the press a lot -- that it was a direct response to obama coming and the idea of americans staying longer. but interestingly enough for me is someone who sort of expected to hear more war-weariness here, a lot of the people in kabul at least feel very reassured by that.

they were very concerned about the idea that the americans would leave entirely in 2014. when we left in 1992, we with closed the embassy. we completely shut down operations and there's been a lot of anxiety about that. so he reassured them that the u.s. wasn't going to be disappearing from the scene. >> bill: you mentioned the bombing by the taliban shortly after the president left the country. so they are still a major force and the president -- the president also said there are some talks going on with some of them at any rate, right? >> yeah. it is very complicated. there are clearly talks going on. different opinions about whether the talks are going on with part of the taliban a political element that can speak for all of the taliban or questions about whether the afghan component of the taliban can speak for the pakistani components of the taliban. a lot of the intelligence coming

from two american officials here that these attacks that take place in kabul with some regularity. they're orchestrated out of pakistan more than afghanistan so maybe they're talking with the afghanistan side and not the pakistan side. it is a little bit of a gray area to what power the taliban has. >> bill: the fact they were able to pull off this attack in kabul, so shortly after the president was there, what does that say about the afghan security forces and their ability to provide the security for the afghan people? >> and not just shortly after the president being there but on the anniversary of bin laden's killing. the day that everyone should have been -- i think it speaks to on one level just that if someone is determined to blow themselves up, there's only so much you can do to stop it. to some extent. the city is has been fortified

not just by the western military presence but they have this thing they call the ring of steel. it is a series of checkpoints all over the city armed by afghan security forces. and they do a pretty good job. i think that they do manage to stop some stuff. but to a dedicated person willing to give up their entire life for an attack, they're not going to stop everything. so it is not that telling. it is -- there are some question marks that are left to be seen about the afghan security forces that the u.s. military would tell you they're getting much better. they'll tell you they have a year and a half still to go of really intensive training then there is the fact that the u.s. will still be here. we'll still have something like 15,000 troops i would guess. 10,000 to 20,000 troops after 2014 as trainers and as advisors and probably doing operations, too. >> bill: so nationwide, we're talking to joshua hersh from "huffington post" live from kabul this morning here live on the "full court press." you can follow josh of course at

"huffington post."com and on twitter, you can follow him at joshua hersh. josh, so a year and a half from now, what are the expectations we should have for the government of hamid karzai to be able to run that country? i mean it seems today he can't even run kabul. will he have national support and a national unified government? >> you're asking basically the fundamental question that everyone wants to know. i mean there is going to be an election in 2014 also. another piece to the puzzle here. karzai has said that he's not planning to run. he's not planning to be part of that new presidential team so on some level, you know it will be a whole different administration in afghanistan dealing with it. but what sort of institutions have been built and is it still going to be sort of a

karzai-supported follower or will it be someone completely different, there are major questions about what will happen here. huge questions. the americans, their rhetoric is very optimistic. optimistic enough that you have to wonder where it falls in terms of reality readying the troops here and about the government. there's huge corruption problems in this government. a lot of things haven't been solved. >> bill: for this ten-year period now, we said we're going to be with you through 2024. do we know how many american troops will remain beyond 2014 and what their mission will be? >> it's gonna -- we have hints of it. and again because i think obama running for president and nobody in america particularly likes the war that much. we're not probably going to hear too much spelled out from the american side. it is not going to be insignificant. there's something like 90,000 troops here.

won't be anything like that in 2014 or after 2014. the estimates -- we've been hearing are in the 10,000 to 20,000 of just sort of regular army guys playing a role of advising and training. as i'm sure you know from previous wars, why the encompassing role -- can be anything. then there is going to be a substantial set of operations portion doing counterterrorism operation. we have no idea what that number will be like. there will also be the drone wars which will continue based out of afghanistan and probably will continue to attack targets in pakistan. it won't be the number of troops but my guess is lot of it will continue for many years after this. >> bill: finally, i just have to ask you this. as an american journalist in kabul, do you feel safe there? >> kabul is a pretty safe city. anything could happen. when it happens, it can be pretty chaotic in a way that you wouldn't find in say

washington, d.c. where i live. i'm always surprised coming out to places like this, how ordinary life is on some levels. you take a cab, you go to lunch. you have a meeting, you go home, you watch a movie. you do a lot of normal things. it isn't too interrupted by security stuff i always find. there is a lot of comforts for westerners here that are always -- when i come to a place like this. >> bill: thank you for taking time to join us this morning. idi admire your work and i'm not surprised you're as good a reporter as you are. you've got it in your blood and in your genes. apple didn't fall far from the tree here. thanks josh. thanks very much. good to talk to you. >> thanks a lot bill. >> bill: he's the son of cy hersh, one of the nation's great reporters and particularly good when it comes to covering the middle east. his son josh hersh in kabul for

"huffington post." and joining us on the "full court press". >> announcer: radio meets television. the "bill press show." now on current tv. and there's only one place you'll find us. we're the idea nobody wants to hear. until the truth reveals itself. and there's only one place you'll find us.

the gavin newsom show is a search engine for solutions and

that's the focus. we want to focus on solutions and ways of bringing people together. collective action is the only way we're going to solve the world's great vexing problems. >> announcer: heard around the country and seen on current tv this is the "bill press show." >> bill: 24 minutes after the hour. nia malika henderson reporter for "the washington post" in studio with us in the next segment. before we go on, big question, need some extra money at the end of the month? that's what the folks from

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closing in on this. we probably have 3,000 e-mails that have come in the last 30 minutes about how to pronounce the word is -- i think i've got it now. irreconcilable! irreconcilable. >> all right. >> bill: not irreconcilable. irreconcilable. now you're confusing me. >> i was just saying -- okay, you're right. irreconcilable. >> bill: irreconcilable. a "bill press show" exclusive. we thank you all. english teachers and journalism majors out there who will straighten it out. >> and pains in the ass who won't leave us alone to correct it. >> bill: now speaking about irreconcilable for one pastor down south, it is irreconcilable to have a son or daughter that might appear to be gay.

and here is what pastor sean harris says you should do about it. >> the second you see your son dropping the limp wrist you walk over there and crack that wrist! >> bill: crack that wrist! [ laughter ] >> man up! give him a good punch. you're not going to act like that. you were made by god to be a male and you're going to be a male. >> bill: he is nuts! absolutely nuts. >> that is disturbing! really disturbing to listen to. >> bill: wait. wait. i want to point out. this is a preacher right? and you hear his flock agree with him. they talked about -- he goes on about what if your daughter is a little -- let him say it. >> when your daughter starts acting too butch you rein her in. >> bill: what a pig.

>> oh, no, sweetheart. you can play sports. play them. play them to the glory of god but sometimes you're going to act like a girl and walk like a girl and talk like a girl and smell like a girl. you're going to be beautiful. you're going to be attractive and dress yourself up. >> bill: can you imagine having a sicko like that as your preacher? and then he went on a local television station and said oh no, don't criticize me because that's not what i said. >> i specifically told the congregation that we are to love gay people. >> bill: yeah, love them as you beat the crap out of them! >> it came through. >> bill: oh, man. i have to tell you, how in the name of god could anybody accept him as a messenger of god? people like that, first of all -- well, i won't say it. you have to suspect the

sexuality of people like that is all i gotta say. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." her unique mix of comedy and politics to current tv. >> it's like a reality show, they're just turning cameras on and we just do our thing. >>politically direct to me means no b.s., the real thing, cutting through the clutter. i'm energized to start my show everyday because it's fun, because i care about what's going on in this country, rather than some sort of tired banter it is actual water cooler talk it's the way people really talk about these issues. we've always considered ourselves a comedy show. let me just say i am not ready for my close up. i think it's important to laugh. i think it

will be exciting, because you can't script three hours of radio. what is going on? i can't tell you how many times right wingers call the show and say, "i don't agree with anything you say, but your show is funny as hell." the only thing that can save america now, current tv. can i say that?

>> announcer: this is the "bill press show" live on your radio and current tv. >> bill: "full court press" here. 33 minutes after the hour. happy friday, may 4th. we're brought to you today by the international brotherhood of teamsters, good men and women of the teamsters union under president jim hoffa, we all look better because of their good work. you can find out more about it at teamster.org. well, the political season must be winding down because nia

malica henderson is back in town and in studio with us. political reporter for "the washington post." good morning nia. >> the campaign season is winding down indeed. >> bill: one of the last wind-downs, one of the last holdouts yesterday. you were there right? michele bachmann what, 121 days after she dropped out. >> she was like i think the first to drop out after coming in sixth in iowa and finally gave the big hug to mitt romney after of course slamming him as not being a real conservative, saying he wouldn't really repeal obama care. but yeah yesterday, it was real. there was never a real lovefest when it comes to mitt romney. a lot of them are very tepid. this one wasn't exactly -- she was on stage with bob mcdonnell. >> bill: of course what she said yesterday is not what she

told jonathan carl from abc news less than a year ago. >> mitt romney, can he beat obama? >> no, he can't beat obama because his policy is the basis of obama care. the signature issue of president obama is obama care. you can't have a candidate who has given the blueprint for obama care. it is too identical. it's not going to happen. >> bill: not going to happen. >> not going to happen. she's singing a very different tune yesterday. i think at some point she referred to him as president romney. she's jumping the gun a bit there but said it was a choice between you know -- between the two and it was a very easy decision she said. she obviously wants it to be president romney. >> bill: so she has endorsed -- what do you hear from rick santorum? >> that's right. i think they're all -- he endorsed someone else yesterday. not named romney. there was a senate candidate that he endorsed yesterday. but i think these folks are just

biding their time. you have gingrich with all of his debt. about $4 million in debt. santorum has about a million dollars in debt. so i imagine some of these negotiations are going on around that. but the question is i think for mitt romney, how much are these endorsements worth? sure he got michele bachmann. is newt gingrich's endorsement really worth that much at this point? rick santorum probably worth more than all of the others but again, i think in some ways, these folks missed their window because they stayed on so long. rick santorum clearly wanted to leave before he got beat in pennsylvania. and of course, gingrich just litsched along much -- lymphed along much longer than anyone thought he should. >> bill: let's not forget about ron paul. >> i get press releases saying he's drawing crowds of thousands of people. he's actually doing well at the state conventions. getting the delegates. >> bill: he's getting delegates. >> he's quietly working behind

the scenes. there's no way he's going to close the gap between himself and mitt romney but you know, by still being in here he, i think is probably worth more of an endorsement. >> bill: will still have a stack of delegates he can at least go to the convention with and release them at that time. >> yeah. you know, i guess maybe he'll get some sort of speaking role there. he's not a great speaker. he can do pretty rambling and professorial in the way he speaks and certainly his platform is not in keeping with what the g.o.p. wants to hear. he's pretty much an isolationist. we'll see how he fits in and what he's able to do with those delegates. >> bill: the one thing we did learn, however when newt dropped out, were you there for his? >> i was not there for that. >> bill: 25-minute speech. most of which time he spent telling us how great he is.

this little montage was put together by -- we played it yesterday but i love it so much, i have to repeat it. i think our friends over at think progress. this is all from newt's 25-minute speech. >> classic newt. >> coinvented the opportunity society. i think we helped coinvent c-span. 16 year period of working to build a majority. developing a generation of solutions and training through go pac. founding the conservative opportunity society. building the contract with america. which led to the largest one-party increase in american history in an off-year election. and in the process we won control of the house for the first time in 40 years. and we passed welfare reform. we were the first re-elected republican majority since 1928. i've tried to move national debate including 24 books. calista and i have done seven documentaries. i've written four novels on the civil war. thank you all very much. >> bill: aren't i great? amazing. [ laughter ]

>> so amazing. he's so great. when we're just too small to understand his greatness. >> bill: i think that's what it is. >> bill: he did say he was dropping out as a candidate but not as a citizen. >> he will continue on as a citizen, probably continue going to lots of zoos because he loves doing that. >> bill: we know that can be dangerous. >> that's right. >> bill: bitten by a penguin. also at the news conference yesterday was governor bob mcdonnell from virginia. so is this the latest v.p. tryout? >> it certainly seems that way. you've seen mitt romney with all of these folks kristy, arubio, ayotte up in new hampshire. he's been with bob mcdonnell before. he presumably is on the short list. you're looking at a candidate mitt romney who has this huge gap, about 19 points at this stage. >> bill: like mcdonnell is going to help with that. >> mcdonnell is not going to help with that because of that bill he signed mandating women

who get abortions get ultrasounds. it is not going to go over well with those independent women. >> bill: transvaginal probe. >> it doesn't sound pleasant. but so yeah, and even i think michele bachmann, as much as i think he was courting voters by standing next to her. she's a prominent figure in the republican party, i don't think her platform and her stances on a lot of these social issues sits well with a lot of these things that independent women care about. >> bill: malica henderson from "the washington post" in studio with us. happy to take your calls the political situation changed this week with both newt gingrich and michele bachmann endorsing mitt romney. now as we mentioned tomorrow morning early, i will be at andrews air force base getting on the press charter plane to go with the president -- he will be on air force i. we will be following. >> it is a sweet ride though.

>> bill: right. going to columbus, ohio, first of all then flying to richmond, virginia. then back here to washington and columbus and richmond are the two first official campaign events of the president's campaign so we're off and running, right? >> definitely. >> bill: what do you expect to see tomorrow? >> we talked about this. this is a campaign that knows how to put on these events. i'm sure there will be big crowds there. they're obviously bringing out michelle obama who also draws huge crowds and people really support this first lady. so i think mitt romney is going to have a hard time matching that. matching that sort of enthusiasm and there has been talk that there is still an enthusiasm gap between 2008 and 2012 and surely there is i think in some ways, these sort of big events are a way to demonstrate -- >> bill: enthusiasm gap you mean among obama supporters. >> exactly, exactly. they're not as excited young people aren't as excited as they were in 2008. and i think in some ways, these

events are designed to say guess what. we still got loads of enthusiasm. we can still draw the big crowds to these political rallies. so i expect to see that. >> bill: i must admit i didn't get the full schedule yet. i signed up. but the -- i don't know like where these events -- are they going to be at college campuses? >> i don't know. >> bill: convention halls? >> i don't know because i'm not going. i haven't paid attention enough. i feel like -- that's what they tend to do. have them at these college campuses. but we should check that out. >> bill: we notice where they're going held. -- where they're being held. it used to be they're going to run for president. they would have a news conference like in the senate office building. or something like that right? there might be 12 reporters there. >> right. >> bill: this is a big, huge event. obama is really good at those kind of things. >> he's really good at those events. even better when he's there with michelle obama. and this is -- jim messina

david came out and said this is his last campaign. and these are the signature events that he has -- in some ways, invented. we haven't seen these sorts of political style rallies ever. i don't go back that long. >> bill: he's going to ohio and virginia. very, very important swing states. i mean i guess -- they at least have tho win one of those states, i would imagine. they have a lot of paths to victory. some out west, florida, you put michigan in the mix and then pennsylvania but virginia, of course, that's a state he won. alaska by about a million votes. northern virginia very important to that victory there. so we'll see. we'll see. and in ohio, obviously the folks are going to be important are the blue collar workers. >> bill: it was funny at the white house the other day one of the reporters, the day that president obama showed up in afghanistan which we didn't know he was going to be there because the trip was a secret.

one of the reporters said i should have known. when i looked at the schedule, they put out a phony schedule, i was one of the -- those who fell for it and went to the white house for the briefing at 3:00 in the afternoon. there was no briefing. [ laughter ] >> right. >> bill: but this reporter said when i looked at that schedule, i should have known. either the president was in afghanistan or ohio. [ laughter ] >> right! >> bill: talking politics with nia malica henderson. we'll take your calls at 1-866-55-press. friday. quattro de mayo here on the "full court press." >> that's right. >> bill: yeah. >> announcer: radio meets television. the "bill press show." now on current tv. >>do it, for america.

current tv, it's been all building up to this. >>bill shares his views, now it's your turn. >>i know you're going to want to weigh in on these issues. >>connect with "full court press with bill press" at facebook.com/billpressshow and on twitter at bpshow. >>i believe people are hungry for it.

>> bill: rewe have an abundance of good talent today here on the "full court press." nia malika henderson with us from "the washington post." david shuster current tv's own david shuster coming up in the next hour as a friend of bill. so -- and again your calls welcome at 1-866-55-press. nia malika, you and i might feel like it is friday. we've had a rough week. we're looking forward to the weekend but at least you and i didn't have a round trip to kabul. >> that's true. >> bill: he gets off a plane and gets right back to work. >> he was there. for what? an hour or six hours.

it was very brief trip there. >> bill: but so the focus this week has really been with the anniversary of the capture and killing of osama bin laden the president reminding people kind of -- indirectly maybe that this was his signature achievement and republicans trying to deny him any credit whatsoever. >> it is true. i think -- >> bill: who won that round? >> i think obama won that round because he made that very dramatic trip into kabul coming down from those stairs of air force i under the cover of darkness then the prime time address and talking about the future of afghanistan and the future of america's relationship of afghanistan. what we've seen here is that democrats have really taken part of the republican franchise. the republican party had been known as the national security party. the daddy party whereas democrats had been known as the mommy party. now i think you have a situation where democrats are trying in

some ways successfully to be not only the mommy party but the daddy party in the national security party. i think in some ways you can blame bush for that. he's left the republican party in tatters in terms of foreign policy. you saw this very wide array of foreign policy approaches even from these candidates. ron paul an isolationist. rick perry seemed to want to go back into iraq. i think with mitt romney, he's trying to find some footing there and you saw him come out. this is switching topics a little bit. of course, he criticized obama for spiking the football and signing the football and throwing it back into the fans of bin laden but even with the chin thing we were talking about before, he's trying to say this is an administration that is infragile and leads from behind. >> bill: you would think -- there was a time when -- with the united states reaching out to try to help a dissident in china and dealing with the

chinese government and with the secretary of state on the ground, there was a time when everybody would say let's let the president work this out because this is too important to get -- to let it become a partisan political football but romney can't -- >> that's right. romney -- he clearly wanted to make that point yesterday. he gave what was a pretty standard stump speech and in the middle of that he had a pretty -- harsh criticism of this administration. >> bill: they will politicize anything they can. i want to go to the phones here. nia malika. i do want to point out we found out during the break that the president will be at ohio state in columbus and then he will be at virginia community -- >> virginia commonwealth university. >> bill: with their great new coach.

>> smart. >> bill: he's hosting the event. from norfolk here's maurice. good morning. >> caller: good morning. how are you doing? >> bill: good. what's your point? >> caller: my question was do you guys think that the romney campaign will be able to amass a grassroots campaign that will rival what president obama already has in place? >> bill: that's a good question about the grassroots. >> you know, probably not. partly because they don't have the history and the head start that obama has. and if you even look at their donor rolls, the sorts of people who are donating to the obama campaign, a lot of small dollar donations. $3 $4, $250. and romney just doesn't have that. he has a lot of high roller donors, obviously they're donating to the pac that supports, millions of dollars. but even when they donate to his campaign, these are you know, sort of big spenders. those aren't the type of people who go out and knock on doors

and make homemade signs, you know and go to these rallies and bang the phones for support. so i think it will be very, very hard and bill and i were talking about this. even if you just look at the theatrics of putting together a political campaign, i think romney is going to have trouble showing that sort of enthusiasm that obama can show. >> bill: the koch brothers aren't known for going door-to-door. >> you're right. exactly. >> bill: the other thing is that we know -- you know certainly you've been on the road that while we've been focusing in the media on the republican primary and every one of these states, there has been a democratic primary and president obama's campaign has been putting together in every one of the 50 states a grassroots operation. so they've got offices they have directors. i get their stuff. i know. they've been having events and getting people to sign up. and they've been building this grassroots operation while we've

maybe been looking the other way. nia malika henderson well with come back. come back as often as you can. >> bill: we'll tell you next what the president will be up to today. he has a busy day. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show."

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search engine for solutions and that's the focus. we want to focus on solutions and ways of bringing people together. collective action is the only way we're going to solve the world's great vexing problems. on current tv. >> bill: how about it. three minutes ago before the top of the hour, david shuster from current tv in studio with us as a friend of bill for the next hour. also be joined by jeremy bird from the obama campaign.

and the president today will be meeting and getting the daily briefing with the vice president at 10:30 this morning then he'll hop in the beast and heading over across the river to arlington, virginia and washington lee high school meeting with a group of seniors and their parents to talk about student loans and he will be giving a big talk at that high school about the importance of students being able to get a shot at getting a higher education with a lower interest rate on their loans and continuing those lower interest rates. then he comes back to the white house and this afternoon in the rose garden, he will be doing one of the things he loves to do best. welcoming a big champion sports team. in this case the university of kentucky men's basketball team. welcoming them to the white house in the rose garden at 4:55 this afternoon. i'll try to be down there representing all of you and i'll be on the trip to klum --

columbus and richmond tomorrow. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show."

>> bill: hello, everybody. happy friday! it's friday, may 4. this is the "full court press" here on current tv. good to see you this morning. and thanks so much for jumping on board the bus as we head off from our studio here on capitol hill in washington, d.c. and take a look at all of the big stories of the day here in our nation's capital and around the country and around the globe. we'll give you a chance to weigh in. take your calls at 1-866-55-press. and what do you know?

michele bachmann, 121 days after she dropped out of the race has finally endorsed mitt romney. yes, the same man she once accused of not being a true conservative, the same man she once condemned because of his massachusetts healthcare law and the same man she once said could never, ever beat barack obama. well, at least she got that right. just juan -- just one of the things we'll be talking about. first here with today's current tv news update out in los angeles, jacki she schechner. hi jacki. >> good morning, everyone. mitt romney and rick santorum will get together today in pittsburgh. the first time the two have met up since they are former opponents and rick santorum dropped out of the race. in honor of the meeting the dnc has released a new video called rick, we couldn't agree more. >> if mitt romney is an economic heavyweight, we're in trouble. because he was 47th out of 50 in job creation in the state of massachusetts when he was

governor. >> the video also uses a clip from one of the gazillion g.o.p. debates where santorum talks about the importance of boosting manufacturing and we hear that will be a key issue that comes up at today's meeting. this video is not unlike the one we saw from the obama campaign on wednesday that used newt gingrich's own word withs to show how he wasn't such a big fan of romney either. one g.o.p. candidate is looking to make history. she wants to become the first black republican woman in the house of representatives. her name is nia love. she's running from utah's fourth district. here's a quick look at one of her campaign videos. >> my favorite part of running for congress hands down talking to people and meeting with people. >> my favorite part of that video is when she says she's a -- >> they want to dismant it will from the inside out. she faces a tough challenge running against a six-term democratic incumbent jim mathieson.

she's a mormon by conversion and thinks she will do well with the utah mormon majority. we'll be right back after the break. i have the most common type of atrial fibrillation, or afib. it's not caused by a heart valve problem. i was taking warfarin, but my doctor put me on pradaxa instead to reduce my risk of stroke. in a clinical trial, pradaxa® (dabigatran etexilate mesylate) reduced stroke risk 35% better than warfarin. and unlike warfarin, with pradaxa, there's no need for regular blood tests. that's really important to me. pradaxa can cause serious, sometimes fatal, bleeding. don't take pradaxa if you have abnormal bleeding and seek immediate medical care for unexpected signs of bleeding, like unusual bruising. pradaxa may increase your bleeding risk if you're 75 or older, have a bleeding condition like stomach ulcers, or take aspirin, nsaids, or blood thinners, or if you have kidney problems especially if you take certain medicines.

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it's go time. >>every weeknight cenk uygur calls out the mainstream media. >>the guys in the middle class the guys in the lower end got screwed again. >>i think you know which one we're talking about. the overwhelming majority of the country says"tax the rich,

don't go to war." >>just wanted to clarify that. >> announcer: broadcasting across the nation on your radio and on current tv, this is the "bill press show." >> bill: hey, what do you say everybody? happy 4th of may. getting ready for the big cinco de mayo celebration tomorrow. great to see you today. thanks for joining us. it is the "full court press." we're coming to you live coast-to-coast from our nation's capital, washington, d.c. the center of the universe. especially when david shuster is in town. >> good morning. >> bill: that's when the power -- >> i gotta say -- >> bill: good to see you.

>> when i was driving over here, 70 degrees outside. top down on the convertible. i could listen to you on 1480 a.m. crystal clear. it is great to have you heard in the nation's capital. when you're driving around! >> bill: i'm glad to hear that. also, that's of course a plug. time for a plug for the david shuster show. >> does david have a show on there too? >> bill: every saturday afternoon. david, good to see you. thank you for coming in today. lots to talk about. of course, we always -- we save the seat for the table for you. so not just a two-way conversation. you're involved and you know how to do it by giving us a call at 1-866-55-press. you can join me and david shuster and the entire team press here, peter ogborn and dan henning and cyprian bolling our videographer. everybody shows up this morning. >> we're here. we made it. >> bill: i want you to know, david, this is a historic moment.

this is the end of our sixth week on current tv. >> wow! >> bill: made it through six weeks. we're still here. >> i think that's -- monday may be a different story but we're here. >> we're getting close to the record territory for when you and i haven't gotten fired. >> bill: speak for yourself, dude! [ laughter ] but my count cyprian can tell me if we're right. that's 90 hours of programming here. >> that's good. look, people are still having a difficult time trying to figure out where current tv is located. but more and more people are discovering it and your listeners and people listening on the radio there is a very simple system. you go to the current.com web site and you enter in your zip code. it tells you where you can find it on your zip code. >> bill: easy enough or you can go to billpressshow.com and we'll link you. more and more people discovering that's lots of fun. >> i can tell you how easy it

is. my redneck parents who live in alabama -- >> in loachapoka? >> they want withed to get the show. they're hard core republicans. i said go to the web site, check it out. they now have current tv. >> bill: we allow republicans? >> believe it or not. >> seriously i have a feeling it will be easier to find current in the years ahead certainly because there is this fcc ruling involving the bloomberg fight over comcast and the fcc was clear about how do you define a cable news channel and if you meet that definition then you have to be placed -- in the same tier. so i think with current tv's plans and what not it will easily qualify as a cable news channel and then it will be easy for people to find. >> bill: i read that article. i didn't make that link. excellent point. >> jimmy kimmel let everybody know where they can find us. >> bill: that's true. >> channel one million. >> bill: david is in here for the whole hour as a friend of

bill. we'll be joined a little bit later by the national field director for the obama campaign jeremy bird who will tell us -- and the campaign launches tomorrow. tell us what's up with him. we will get into all of the issues of the day david. but first, dan has the big stories of the day. >> on this friday, the cbs news reporter who tweeted to treasury secretary tim geithner over the legitimacy -- >> bill: come on. mark knoller. >> over the legitimacy of his $50 bill after starbucks wouldn't accept it is saying the coffee chain reached out to him and apologized for the incident. mark knoller tweeting that an official contacted him saying the store should have taken his $50 bill and they were very sorry. >> why? >> bill: big controversy you know. >> they're very socially responsible.

>> all former president clinton wants to do is drive. ellen degeneres asked him yesterday what's the one -- [ laughter ] what's the one thing that he wants to do that he can't because of who he is and that is to get behind the wheel of a car. he says if he wanted to give up secret service protection, he could drive but a good second place for him he says is he makes them let him drive the golf carts whenever he plays golf. >> bill: yeah. that makes a difference, right? >> tomorrow afternoon the fastest two minutes in sports, the 138th running of the kentucky derby. post time at 6:28 p.m. eastern at churchill downs. 3-year-old thoroughbreds scheduled. if you want a chance to win big put your money on optimizer rousing sermon, done talking liaison. they're all going off at 50 to one. >> liaison. i wonder whose horse that one is.

>> bill: john edwards? 11 minutes after the hour now. david shuster, so much to talk about. i'm sure you were up all night talking about osama bin laden's latest -- the release yesterday up at westpoint by the way. all of the documents that they amassed in his compound in arabic so they've been translated then they were -- what's the word? classified right? until like yesterday. but some very funny stuff has come out. he said among other things that he -- there was a plan -- and by the way, i gotta back up. what you really see is this old guy in his house, can't leave his house. nobody is listening to him anymore. he has a clicker and he's watching tv and then he's writing these notes about what we ought it o do. >> think we all have relatives we can relate to. >> bill: one of the things --

they should assassinate -- not that we joke about assassination, assassinate president obama but the reason is then biden would take over and biden was such a klutz he said that the country would just fall apart. he also said they ought to have a plan to assassinate general david petraeus but there were no troops out there anymore to take his orders and say yes, sir and go do it. >> he had a lot of very creative ideas in the world of terrorism. i suppose you could say he is a content guy. he comes up with all of these various plans but the execution and the ability to carry it out was clearly diminished several years ago. look, it is sort of an interesting and somewhat amusing point that it is like his kingdom is -- he was still sort of in the palace but nobody else was there. >> bill: yeah. >> he didn't really have anything else he could do other than watch his pornography or whatever dvr stuff he has and then come up with these crazy ideas. >> bill: and try to keep the peace among his wives who were there in the house fighting each

other, too as well. and the funniest to me was that he said we're coming up to this anniversary of 9-11. we have to think about how we're going to message -- get the message out. and so his lieutenants were diving in on which of the american tv channels they could trust. >> okay. >> bill: they thought fox -- no no. fox was -- as for fox news, let her die in her anger. they did not also -- said cnn seemed to be in cooperation with the government more than any other channel. and they turned out that they liked abc best of all. now if you're the head of abc what do you think when you find out you're osama bin laden's favorite channel? >> i would be sure to bring out the fact that abc was one of the first to interview bin laden back in the day. john miller who is back at abc he was a reporter who did it.

had a very sort of polite conversation with bin laden back at a time when the u.s. could figure out who he was or where he was. peter bergen who we both worked with at cnn. i would imagine because of that effort and that sort of relationship that sure, bin laden probably had some kind of fond memory when this independent news organization, abc was able to sort of find him and agree to certain terms so that the location would be kept secret and what not. >> bill: i want to point out he met his master before current tv came along so therefore he has no comments about current tv. god knows what he would say. speaking of current tv, david shuster, we made a little noise this week and got a little criticism this week here on the "bill press show" and current tv. >> no! >> bill: because of some comments that were made about ann romney's attire. >> what did you say bill? >> bill: what did i say?

>> it's okay. >> bill: first of all peter you have the photo op on your web site -- the photo up on your web site? >> if you're watching current tv, you can see it. >> bill: they were on the cbs morning news with charlie rose. mitt and ann together. and they were talking about what she really thinks about -- what mitt is really like. let's hear her comment. >> i love the opportunity of letting people see a side of mitt that often people have mischaracterized. >> which side is that? [ laughter ] >> he's funny. >> why hasn't that come out? >> it's an interesting thing that again people like to keep him in that narrative. so it's nice for me as a wife to be able to say now look, this is the person that's really there. this is the boy that i knew. i still look at him as the boy that i met in high school.

>> really funny. up late at night watching the merv griffin show. it is hilarious. was she just at a jimmy buffett concert? >> bill: she has a silk t-shirt on by designer reed crack off. the thing cost $990. the problem with ann and mitt romney is they can't open their mouth or appear without telling you how rich they are. who is going to show up in a t-shirt like this. she should be like michelle obama and wear j. crew. >> here's my take on this. i do think apparel choice, we ought to lay off. we ought to lay off in terms of the cost. she's not the candidate. we all know that the romneys are out of touch with americans as evidenced by her number of cadillacs, how many of us have an elevator for our cars, all of

that is out there. so what kind of shirt how much she wants to spend on apparel is up to her. i think the bigger question though is where was the shirt made? was that shirt made in the united states or was it made overseas? because there is a curious issue here, more than a million u.s. textile workers have lost their jobs over the last ten years because americans are buying more and more textiles overseas. i think politicians should stand for made in the u.s.a. just as some of us buy our suits with the unite label, union of needlepoint and industrial textile employees which signifies it was made in the u.s.a. i think politicians ought to stand for the same thing. maybe even spouses then that would actually have a positive impact in terms of when we talk about their apparel. >> bill: i think that's an excellent point. i would be willing to bet that if it comes from a madison avenue designer's store silk t-shirt, it was not made in the united states. you know what? but i don't know any reporter that has followed up on your

lead -- one reporter went out to find out how much it was worth right? >> i can tell you that. >> bill: i haven't seen anybody talk about where it was made which is an excellent point. let's find out. >> i can tell you especially from my radio show, we're doing research on this. between now and tomorrow, we'll have the answer. we'll have an entire segment in our show about what tripes of products are made in the u.s. and what types of textile products are not so when you look at an ann romney or a suit that david shuster is wearing or sean hannity is wearing based on the label, you can make a determination about whether that person cares about american jobs or not or whether it is a bunch of show. when you see somebody wearing the u.s. flag pin as a certain anchor on fox news does, the important thing is not the flag that's made out of plastic that's on your lapel the important thing is the label on the inside that says whether or not your jacket was made in the united states. >> bill: david shuster is in studio. 1-866-55-press. one final point. this was picked up on this

whole -- my comments were picked up as well as some comments made by -- some other -- progressive talk show hosts were picked up. peter, what's that conservative news site? >> news busters. >> i never heard of them. >> yeah, i'm sure. >> bill: they haven't gone after you, right? so at any rate, they have the transcript of what i said about ann romney. i said that she went to some madison avenue highfalutin store to get this t-shirt. right? they print the transcript and they printed that i said that she went to some flat you on flatulent store on madison avenue. for the record, i just want to know -- >> the weirdest store i've ever been in. >> now we know what was going on over at news busters. they were not focused so much on

you. they were having their own little party. [flatulent sounds] >> bill: watch out for the flatulent store on madison avenue. >> as long as the flatulence is made in the united states, that's all that matters. [ laughter ] >> bill: i don't even think mitt's farts are made in the united states. how did we with get off on this? >> announcer: this is the "bill press show" live on your radio and current tv. oh, no. if al gore's watching today... i.q. will go way up. how are you ever going to solve the problem if you don't look at all of the pieces? >>tv and radio talk show host stephanie miller rounds out current's morning news block. >>you're welcome current tv audience for the visual candy. >>sharp tongue, quick whit and above all, politically direct. >>you just think there is no low they won't go to.

oh, no. if al gore's watching today...

eliot spitzer joins the new news network. >>we don't stop until we get answers that are truthful, serious and not based on simplistic answers.

>> announcer: heard around the country and seen on current tv this is the "bill press show." >> bill: hey it's 25 minutes after the hour now. in studio, david shuster. and we will get back to your calls at 1-866-55-press. and other events of the day. but first, david you live here in d.c. do you have an apartment condo? >> i have a little house in north georgetown. >> bill: so you know what, this is the time of the year when you look around, spring cleaning and you look at the windows and you think oh, my god, you know. i'm so tired of those drapes or those shutters or those blinds. you want a change. we've got the place. >> really? because i never clean my blinds. so my blinds are always looking pretty bad. what have you got for me? >> bill: peter and i discovered blinds.com. online. the best place. carol and i got new drapes from blinds.com. they have a great selection, great prices. they make it very easy. even an idiot like me, how to measure it, how to get the exact measurements. and if you goof up the first time, they'll say no no, no, go

back. here's how you do it. they'll even send somebody out to your house. you need -- >> i need an installer. >> bill: blinds.com. for shutters or blinds or shades or drapes, whatever. you get free color samples. free shipping and no sales tax in most states plus expert installers if you need one. so go to blinds.com for prices that absolutely crush -- they got the best prices, not only the best selection. their prices crush home improvement store prices. it is blinds.com. blinds.com. check it out. blinds.com. david, late say hello to nancy calling from up in hampshire new york. >> caller: good morning. >> good morning, nancy. >> caller: illinois, not new york. >> bill: i'm sorry. blame peter. >> caller: hi. he was talking about the textile

industry. and where products are made. when you go on barack obama where they sell t-shirts and bumper stickers and mugs, every item is made in the u.s. >> bill: well i would hope so. but you don't necessarily take that for granted you know. right, david? >> look, i would imagine probably true on the other side as well. all of the campaign products are likely made in the united states. but to me, that's obvious right? politicians should have their campaign products made in the u.s. what about more of the discretionary stuff that people don't pay so much attention to. for example, i'm pretty sureel that the barack obama's suits are hart schaffner marx. i know they are. those are made in -- made in chicago. made in the united states. that's the sort of thing i want to hear from other politicians. >> bill: i'm not so sure that mitt romney's products are made in the united states. okay. we're going to talk to jeremy

bird from the obama campaign when we come back. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." with jennifer granholm. >>i am jenniffer granholm and you are in the war room. it's a beautiful thing. >>jennifer granholm on current tv. >>i'm a political junkie. this show is my fix. >>in politics, she was a gutsy leader. in cable news, she's a game changer. >>be afraid, be very afraid. now, the two term governor from michigan is reshaping the debate with a unique perspective and a forward-thinking approach. >>our goal is to bring you behind the scenes with access to stories that you've never seen before. >>she's a trailblazer determined to find solutions. >>one of the key components of a war room is doing a bit of opposition research. >>driven to find the thruth. >>i'm obsessed with the role of govenment.

>>fearless, idependent and above all, politically direct. >>part of the mission here in our own war room is to help these candidates stay on track. make your voice heard.

>>now let's get some real news. (vo) first, news and analysis with a washington perspective from an emmy winning insider. >>you couldn't say it any more powerfully than that. >> current tv, on the roll.

(vo)followed by humor and politics with a west coast edge. >>ah, thank you. >>it really is incredible. (vo)bill press and stephanie miller, current's morning news block. weekdays six to noon. >> announcer: on your radio and on current tv, this is the "bill press show." >> bill: you got it. 33 minutes after the hour. this is friday, may 4. it is the "full court press" brought to you today by ask me. you know the good men and women of ask me. the largest public employee and healthcare worker's union in the entire country under president jerry mctee. for more good information about their work, go to the web site afscme.org. on this friday edition of the

"full court press." david shuster as a friend of bill this entire hour. and david, as we were just talking tomorrow morning early i'm going to hop on the white house charter plane. press plane to columbus, ohio then to richmond, virginia. president obama's first two campaign events. ohio state. >> the ohio state. >> bill: the real one. and columbus, ohio. already on the ground in columbus, the national field director for the obama campaign. jeremy bird. hi, jeremy. thank you for joining us. >> hi, bill, how are you? >> bill: we're expecting a big crowd, a big event tomorrow. tell us about it. >> we are. we're excited. tomorrow in columbus and then % later in the day in richmond, virginia. we'll be kicking off the 2012 campaign. really the president's first big campaign event both here at the

ohio state university and then at bcu in richmond. so we're getting things ready today. looking at the site and looking forward to a great day tomorrow. >> bill: it is not just the president. the president and the fist lady both. >> absolutely. the first lady will be there which we're excited about. >> jeremy, will the president mention mitt romney in the speeches tomorrow? >> that's a good question. i don't know about the exact language of his speech. i do think that what he will do is he's going to contrast his vision you know, strengthening the economy from middle class families with romney's plan to take us back from the failed policies of the past that got us into the economic crisis in the first place. i think you'll hear from the president made pretty clear contrast between our vision of economic security for middle class families and mitt romney's. >> the reason i ask is there was a debate that spewed out in "the new york times" the other week about the infighting within the obama campaign about how is the best way to define mitt romney

and make that contrast. the question is do you define mitt romney as an incredible conservative based on his positions during the primaries or do you portray him as a flip-flopper? and those two don't really sort of go together. so what's the final results on that? what's the answer? >> well i think what you'll see tomorrow and from our campaign is really just a focus on -- the president's economic message contrast to mitt romney's more budget busting tax cuts for the wealthy. fewer rules for wall street. all of the same formula that benefits the few -- his campaign will talk about bringing out the etch-a-sketch and trying to etch-a-sketch away what they said during the primary. the contrast is pretty clear between the president's vision and his accomplishments on the economy and thorning this

around. >> bill: in a couple of speeches this week, not every one of them, the president did mention mitt romney. not i think at the white house but outside the white house. he mentioned by name. but jeremy, a little earlier in the show, we had a cowl from maurice, his name was down in norfolk, virginia, had a question which really is directed to you. his question was whether or not the president is going to be able to build a very aggressive grassroots operation around the country in 2012 as he was able to do in 2008. now, as the national field director for obama for america i would assume that's your responsibility. >> that is. >> bill: are we finding this enthusiasm gap people are talking about? >> that is actually my responsibility. really my responsibility is to figure out how do we as a campaign harness and support the grassroots activism that's happening all across the country. i think when you get on the plane tomorrow and you get out here in columbus and then later

in richmond, you're going to see incredible grassroots activity and excitement that we're seeing across the country. we've been building this campaign for a long time now. and we have -- in all 50 states, a grassroots organization that -- of the best political organizers and volunteers that i've ever seen. and we've seen it grow and grow. as we get closer to the election, of course, it gets even bigger. but you know, last weekend, we had a day of action across the country where we had thousands of people out registering new voters. here in ohio, we had dozens of offices open. neighborhood teen leaders coming in every single day talking to the neighbors building the grassroots organization. i think that kind of media hype around there being some sort of enthusiasm that you see that whether you look at the polls in terms of intensity of support for the president or if you just come out here and you'll see the grassroots support tomorrow. it is something that's very

encouraging to the campaign. >> jeremy, i i want to ask you about breaking news here at current tv. the labor department just reported that unemployment dropped last month, the month of april from 8.2% to 8.1% but the flip side of that is that the economy created just 115,000 new jobs. that's a little bit lower than people had expected. it suggests that the economy continues to slow. what's the obama campaign reaction to that? >> well, you know, we've said from the beginning the president didn't create the mess that we're in and solving it is not going to happen overnight. but we have been seeing now i guess this 26-month of private sector job growth in this country. we're going to be in ohio tomorrow where about 122,000 private sector jobs added since march of 2010. 34,000 manufacturing jobs. so we're seeing positive trends although there's much more work to do. and obviously seeing the unemployment rate drop is an

encouraging piece of news. but we've got a lot of work to do. when the president came in, we were losing 800,000 jobs a month. he came in and the problem you know, as people are thinking about the election coming up is the policies that mitt romney is proposing, the policies that got us to a place where we were losing 800,000 jobs a month. >> you would acknowledge, jeremy that the pace of the recovery itself has slowed down that we are not in as rapid a recovery as we were say six months ago. that's a political problem isn't it? >> well i mean i think seeing that we are continuing to add jobs is a positive trend. and yes, we want to see it accelerate even faster. and that's something that i know the president is focused on every single day. >> bill: i want to ask you -- and david, you and i have a lot more to talk about with these job numbers coming out here. jeremy, while we have you with us, the president is out there tomorrow. it is a saturday. he put in a busy week. went to kabul and back.

what are we going to see in terms of campaign activity? what are you guys planning on? once a week? twice a week? the president is going to be in full -- they're making no doubt about it. tomorrow is a campaign day. right? so how many campaign days do you think we're going to see a week? >> you'll see tomorrow as a campaign day. % obviously the president has his day job to do. he'll get back to d.c. and get to work. we haven't figured out the exact schedule but he will be back in the white house and doing his day job. >> bill: you've gotta know the white house has to say -- you may not be able to tell us this. they have to say you can count on -- you can have him one day a week or two days a week, you know what i mean. do you have that worked out yet? >> yeah, no. all of that will come later toward the summer and into the fall. for us, my job is to make sure while he is doing his day job that we're building that organization across the country that can bring people into the

fold and talk to folks about what we have accomplished. train the volunteers and the staff that we need to build our organization. when he's ready to fully campaign. >> bill: i guess we do want to be sure all of our viewers and listeners know if you want to join jeremy's army of volunteers it is barack obama.com. easy enough. >> exactly. >> are you having fun out there? the ohio state university is one of the top universities in the big 10. it is a great place. even though i hate their football team. are you having fun out there? >> i am having fun. i was fortunate in 2008, i got to work in ohio and work with the great folks out here. it is a coming home for me. it is a great state. it is a great university. it is going to be a beautiful site tomorrow. i'm having a lot of fun. >> bill: i'm looking forward to joining you. and expecting great things and a great crowd and great enthusiasm. great energy. so we'll see you out there

tomorrow, jeremy. thank you. >> thank you. if any of your listeners want to watch online we're live streaming it at barack obama.com/live. >> what time? >> about 10:30 a.m. doors will open at 10:30. if they want to tune in eastern time probably around noon or so, we'll start our preprogram online. >> bill: okay. just trying to think about what my schedule is tomorrow. i'll be there when they tell me to be there. jeremy bird for the national obama campaign. david, your point on the job numbers, there is good news and bad news. the good news is it is down to 8.1. if the unemployment rate is below 8% which will be it looks like for sure, maybe 7.8% or something, that's really good for obama. >> that trend is good although if you look at the numbers, the next drop in order to get it down to 8 or 7.9 you do need to get back at creating 200,000 to 250,000 jobs. >> bill: in the last two

months, this month and last month were less than 200,000 which is going in the wrong direction. still positive but not enough. your questions about that. your comments on the job numbers or on the grassroots operation for me or david shuster. 1-866-55-press. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." wants to hear. until the truth reveals itself. and there's only one place you'll find us. ah, claim trouble. [ dennis ] you should just switch to allstate, and get their new claim satisfaction guarantee. hey, he's right man.

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the gavin newsom show is a search engine for solutions and that's the focus. we want to focus on solutions and ways of bringing people

together. collective action is the only way we're going to solve the world's great vexing problems. and good luck. ♪ ♪ >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." >> bill: 13 minutes before the top of the hour. and with david shuster in studio with us. from current tv. david, you know what we do every friday. >> fast clips of the week. >> bill: exactly! we'll take a look at -- take a listen to some of the favorite

sound bytes of the week. the top five. we start at the bottom and work our way up to the top. well, for a lot of people, the president made a very tough call a year ago to send the navy seals in after osama bin laden. that's not what donald rumsfeld thinks. number five. >> you mentioned it was a tough decision. i don't think it was a tough decision. we've seen a lot of instances where presidents over the years have had to make decisions like that. i think after spending that amount of time that number of years and that much money we increase the special operations forces by about 50% we increase their budget, we increase their equipment and finally, when all of that comes together to not make that decision it seemed to me would just be dumbfounding. i can't imagine any president not making that decision. >> this from donald rumsfeld who outsourced the effort at tora bora back in 2001 when they had him surrounded. he also called off a raid in pakistan under similar circumstances six years ago.

>> bill: navy seals ready to go, porter goss, c.i.a. director says we have him. al-zawahiri, we can go after him. we can take him out. donald rumsfeld says it is too risky. >> yeah. >> bill: what a wiener. >> newt gingrich. the political scene is a lot less colorful now that newt gingrich has dropped out. he didn't drop out altogether. here he is. >> number four. i'm suspending the campaign. but suspending the campaign does not mean suspending citizenship. [ laughter ] >> especially on mars! >> bill: or the moon. what does that mean? was anybody threaten doing to take his citizenship away? >> given the citizenship he's threatening to take away from immigrants, i think we should threaten his. >> bill: last night night at the white house correspondents'

dinner. there were no sacred cows and no sacred bulls. not even for jimmy kimmel, the president of the united states. >> number three. >> mr. president, you remember when the country rallied around you in hopes of a better tomorrow? that was hilarious! [ laughter ] that was the best one yet. >> bill: you know what was nice about that? nobody laughed harder than obama. >> everybody got roasted that night. it was great. everybody! >> bill: to be able to -- that's what it is. it is sort of a roast to. take it in good humor and to be able to laugh at yourself, it is a great gift. >> we got our own network got zinged. >> bill: no kidding. no sacred cows. not even current tv! >> number two. >> al gore launched current tv in 2005 and it took off like a north korean rocket. [ laughter ] to be honest, i didn't even know current tv was still on the air

but then i don't get channel a million. [ laughter ] >> bill: now david, i was -- at my table with joel hyatt cofounder and the chair now of current tv with cenk uygur host of course of the young turks and with eliot spitzer host of viewpoint. david was at a nearby table, the president of current tv. we all laughed our heads off. >> joel and the type of folks who you know -- look, it is great attention! you can't -- they're talking about current tv so fine, make the jokes about channel a million and there is some element of truth to that unfortunately. >> to be honest here, bill laughed his head off after he looked to make sure that bill hyatt was laughing his head off. [ laughter ] >> bill: but again to be recognized even in a joke from the podium right? white house correspondents' dinner, boom you bet. finally, all the way up to the

top. speaking by the way of the correspondents' dinner, the star of the evening as always was barack obama. >> number one. >> what's the difference between a hockey mom and a pitbull? a pitbull is delicious. [ laughter ] >> bill: again, i was sitting alongside cenk. he murmured "i can't believe he went there." do you think it was okay? on the president's part? >> i think it -- >> bill: it was a ledge edgy. >> -- it was a little edgy. >> if you're talking about how you taste things and do you taste or eat a hockey mom i mean your mind can go to all sorts of different scenarios there. >> bill: you're taking this too seriously. >> when i saw michelle obama her reaction was she sort of winced. that's where her mind went and maybe that's where the president's mind was sort of

going but it depends on how you take it. >> bill: i think with most people in the crowd i mean being in the ballroom, there was a gasp at first. people went huh and then they got it. this is the dog -- oh yeah. samous. followed by the -- schamus. video, eating the dog. >> you know journalists. journalists like to think about the sexual innuendo. the double talk. the sexual talk. [ laughter ] >> bill: david shuster your show tomorrow. those of us here in washington, d.c. and chicago. >> and chicago and columbus. wvko in columbus. we're on the move! >> bill: we will be lucky enough to hear you tomorrow and i will be lucky enough to be on the road tomorrow. thanks for coming in, david. >> bill: i'll be back with a quick parting shot. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show."

is what he said. and i was like "you watch your mouth. she's my friend." friend is a strong word. [ male announcer ] chocolate just got more irresistible. find the all brown bag and you could win!

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