>> michael: coming up tonight, it's sweet home gailsberg, illinois, not exactly how the lyric goes but the president goes back to writ all -- where it all began, and gets back to basics. i'm michael shure. this is "the war room." [♪ theme music ♪] >> michael: welcome to "the war room." i'm michael shure. today the president started a wave of speeches on the economy. he returned to knox college in galesburg, illinois.

there was a flier comparing the unemployment rate in 2005 to now. now the rate is 7.6%, with 11.8 million out of work. what the flyer didn't say is the disastrous republican policies raised the unemployment rate to an even higher 7.8% when president obama took office. here is what the president had to say about that. >> obama: the income of the top 1% nearly quadruples from 1979 to 2007. but the typical family's incomes, barely budged. by the time i took office in 2009 as your president, we all know the bubble head burst, and it cost millions of americans their jobs and their homes, and their savings. the erosion of middle class security was laid bare for

everybody to see. >> michael: much of the president's speech seemed to frame a series of future battles over the nation's debt limit because he has had it up to here with republican intransigeance. >> but with this endless parade of posturings washington has taken its eye off of the ball and i'm here to say this needs to stop. >> michael: of course that didn't prevent republican leaders from lobbing zingers at the president's speech. take a listen. >> what is the point? what is it going to accomplish? you probably have the answer. nothing. it's a hollow shell. with all of the buildup, you would think the president was unveiling the next bond film. but in all likelihood it will be like a rerun of some '70s b rated movie.

>> michael: those guys are really funny. mitch mcconnell is really a funny guy. you know what d.c. movie i have seen mitch? the doomsday thriller called how to lose voters and alienate the country. mike lee of utah circulated a pledge promising not to fund the government after september 30th if obamacare is not defunded and apparently 15 republicans have signed on. roy blunt seems to be abandoning his colleagues. >> is this a viable way to govern and legislate and run washington? your colleagues in the senate? do you support this idea of basically no debt limit raise if it includes funding of health care? >> well, no, i don't support

that -- >> you are not holding the debt ceiling hostage over this? >> no, i'm not. >> congress has the highest disapproval rating of all time at 83%, and six out of ten americans would vote out all members of congress if they could. 60% of the people. that's not just a wave of obama's speeches. that's the sound of the american people getting ready to take you out, enjoy the ride my friends. joining us now from washington, d.c. is new york daily news washington bureau chief jim warren. jim, thanks as always for being on the show. >> 83%, quite the figure. it's one reason i'm convinced that anthony weiner actually has a chance, because the bar of expectations is so low. >> michael: it's true. >> when it comes to these guys. >> michael: and these are people that haven't even tweeted

themselves out to the world, and they are only 17% popularity so maybe it will help him. jim warren tell me something, some republicans are making it seem like president obama personally made the unemployment rate go up starting in 2005. is the president doing a good enough job explaining how our economy got to where we are today? >> yeah, i think he is doing a very fine job if you listen to the speeches. i think he's making the case quite well. i think the real question is an increasinglying from -- from -- fragmented culture who is listening. when it comes to the cable networks their attention span is short. the fox news was on it for about 30 seconds and then they split to obama bashing.

and it reminded me to the extent to which one of the challenges michael, i think here is can he get somehow his case before the critics and undecided, he needs to ultimately persuade rather than the true believers who i think are listening. >> michael: that's a really good point. it's about getting the message to the people that are not getting it clearly. the people that are blinded by the president are always going to say he is doing enough. doesn't part of that have to do with making sure the president gets credit for how far the economy has come back already. and it's about creating an image of the president which is not true -- listen it's not a fabulous economy right now, but it is certainly inching back. do you think he is getting enough credit for that? >> no, but i think there is also some self inflicted wounds there

with some pretty poor marketing by the obama administration in the first few years when it came in particular to the stimulus. when it comes to the stimulus i think a very good case with be made that a very impressive job was done. the benefits of what played out i think have never been appreciated at all to the american public. but one has to realize is the white house they are not naive, they know the limits of presidential speech making these days. i think the hope is to somehow pound some of these points through even when washington keeps noting no new ideas here. so what. a lot of good if, quote, old ideas are being presented and they have to pound enough so come the fall, this is somehow a little bit more on the national

leadership radar screen. that those guys who come back from their safe districts who are reflexively against him, realize we have got to start talking about some of these issues. he is not going to turn the fox news channel nation -- >> michael: of course not. >> -- his way. >> michael: yeah, and aside from the limits of speech giving and speech writing what about the length of speech in this speech lasted somewhere between 7 and 8 hours today. do you think that matters? >> when you think of knox college and some of those other places in illinois which played host to the lincoln douglas debates where you did have guys going on for hours and hours, it is a testament to our short attention spans that we start cringing after four or five or six or seven minutes. i think you can't do everybody in 140 characters. and there are a mix of things here to play out, but you can't

explain the benefits say of early childhood education one of the, quote old ideas that they will mention tomorrow if they haven't already -- you can't do that in a quit little sound bite. so i applaud him. now would i want him only to be doing it in this long form? no. but they are smart. they know they are going to have to try a mix of things, but i do think his passion and that wonderful phrase about distractions and phony scandals -- >> michael: it hit home. >> that was 140 characters, and that was right on the mark. >> michael: exactly. and from something big you can pull a bunch of those. and they know that as you said. jim there was another high-profile speech that of tracy martin before the constructional black cawucuscaucus.

>> to have the president of the united states comment on -- on our situation, it really touched home, and it's -- it's moments and -- and comments such as the president made that -- you know, it sparks the conversation in every household. >> michael: how important were the president's remarks on race on trayvon the other day -- last friday or thursday? >> i think they were -- last friday -- i think they were superb. and every once in a while, the guy hits it absolutely out of the park, and it's kind of reassuring -- it won't be to the fox news nation, it's kind of reassuring to have a president who can write his own speech from apparently a few notes on a small piece of paper, and to intermingle a whole slew of

matters of 30,000 feet and then the deeply personal. i think it got the subject out there for a little bit. but you are fighting this 24/7 news cycle and the fact that even today, as i'm watching on the cable networks breaking news across the bottom we have a name for the royal prince. [ laughter ] >> michael: yeah. >> couldn't we have waited a few minutes. >> i couldn't because it is george by the way, and i had william in an office pool. i want to go on to some very serious stuff to new york city. and now that we have learned that anthony weiner has continued to send out inappropriate texts, does he stand a chance of becoming the mayor? >> my paper reported on a forum

on hiv and aids and he was cheered. and he got a resounding applaud. and people staying stick with it. that said, i mean -- are there some -- are there some limits to deceit? are there some limits to our tolerance for all of this? i mean i'm one who believes that americans have been differentiating what they deem personal transgressions and their perceptions of personal performance and people like weiner and eliot spitzer have benefited from that. but this, the time line the fact that clearly he was lying at some critical point in the last year when he claimed to be fesing up to everything. it will be interesting to see how tolerant folks are. and if there is going to be any

change in the views of new york women. up to now there has been no gender gap. in fact weiner has been leading his primary opponent when it comes to women. i -- explain that to me please. >> michael: i can't explain a lot. and certainly i can't explain that. but we will be watching. jim warren as always thank you for being here in "the war room." coming up on the show jour super secret spy group were back in the snooze today -- i mean the news today. and then drink it up progressives, this is the only democratic female governor in the united states. question is how do we get maggie hassan some back up. and it's only a matter of time before tv networks start breaking into their own breaking us in to discuss the mean that developed from their own breaking news event. stick around.

if you believe in state's rights but still support the drug war you must be high.

>> "viewpoint" digs deep into the issues of the day. >> do you think there is any chance we'll ever hear the president even say the word "carbon tax"? >> with an opened mind... >> has the time finally come for real immigration reform? >> ...and a distinctly satirical point of view. >> but you mentioned great leadership so i want to talk about donald rumsfeld. >> (laughter) >> cutting throught the clutter of today's top stories. >> this is the savior of the republican party? i mean really? >> ... with a unique perspective. >> teddy rosevelt was a weak asmatic kid who never played sports until he was a grown up. >> (laughter) >> ... and lots of fancy buzz words. >> family values, speding, liberty, economic freedom, hard-working moms, crushing debt, cute little puppies. if wayne lapierre can make up stuff that sounds logical while making no sense... hey, so can i. once again friends, this is live tv and sometimes these things happen. >> watch the show. >> only on current tv.

>> michael: welcome back to "the war room." the nsa is back in the spot light today. the house is voting on an amendment that would drastically restrict the agency's ability to collect phone data. the amendment to the defense appropriation bill specific the section that allows the federal government nearly unlimited access to phone records. the political wrangling over this vote started last night, when it looked like there might be enough bipartisan support to pass it. late last night, jay carney urged rejection of the amendment. his statement read . . . the statement prompted this

tweet from represent amash . . . critics of the amendment worry that it was legitimize edward snowden at a time when the u.s. is still trying to get other countries to reject snowden's asylum request. today snowden's lawyer said he has applied for temporary asylum in russia and plans to stay there, quote, for now. snowden intended to study russian culture, find work and quote, somehow create a time for himself. joining us now from washington is peter fenn, democratic political strategist, and apparently a blueberry picker. peter welcome back into "the war room." >> thank you very much. nsa was watching me as i picked blueberries. >> michael: i'm sure they know. i'm sure they waiting for their

bushel. you were part of the church commission into the use of surveillance, so you know a thing or two about this. is the amash amendment necessary? >> well, i think there is a necessity right now to take a really good hard look at this. i'm not on first glance very happy with -- with this program. i'm very concerned about it, very nervous about it whether this amendment is the right way to go right now, i'm not quite sure, but i do think it puts pressure on the intelligence community and the administration to do something that i have been calling for a while, and that is to create a presidential commission much like the simpson bowles commission to look at this within a year 18 months have subpoena power. it's really important to -- to have this so-called public

debate that the president wants to have, and to get to the bottom of this. because i think we have not kept up with the technology with the foreign intelligence surveillance act from way back in 1978 that i worked on and i think the rush to pass the patriot act and to -- to keep it going, has raised real concerns. so, you know, if this is a way to get a really good hard look at this, to bring some of this to light then i'm all for it. you know, i -- i think -- you know, what scares me about this -- this is the congress after all. >> michael: yeah. >> and passing something quick and fast without a lot of hearings, without a lot of discussion, you know, could be -- could be problematic. >> michael: but congress as we said earlier in the show has a disapproval rating of 83%, and it seems like this amendment has popular support. 74% of americans think that nsa

surveillance intrudes on american's privacy. and this whole issue is being used to explain president obama's approval rating dropping below 50%. i'm making the same sound as you, because i'm not sure that is the reason. what do you say about that though? >> i think what you have seen is paralysis in washington. nothing on the economy, this looming budget crisis again. so you have seen this congress be completely going down the tubes, and -- and the president's popularity has dropped along with it. but i think you are right, the major thing about this michael that people should think about is when this first came out, there wasn't that much concern. as people began to learn more about nsa and what the intelligence community was doing, that there were all of

these unanswered questions about facebook and what is going on worldwide, then things changed dramatically. congress seem to look at polls and they figured out they better do something about this. i think the president should set up this commission. put some of the folks -- like lee hamilton had a piece today with the former governor of new jersey, which is very good in "politico." they ought to get a serious staff, not like this privacy board, which is a lot of nothing, and almost like a church committee that i was part of in the '70s really look hard at this. >> michael: and not just do it very quickly in the dark of night. and he wasn't the governor of new jersey, he was the governor of new jersey. >> that's right. >> michael: i want to talk a

maris poll. is there anyone in this field that dems should be afraid of? just the fact that paul ryan is that high up shows you the power of name recognition, doesn't it? >> that is all this is really. and you have marco rubio scared to do going hard right on abortion making an idiot of himself. the right-wing seems to hate chris christie because they think he cost the election of the republicans last time. look, if we thought that the last republican primary was -- was -- i won't use the phrase, but a something show, this -- this one is going to really do that in spades. this is going unbelievable.

>> michael: and some of those players may even be back. >> sure. >> michael: i want to go to one of your tweets, peter. you tweeted this . . . that seems first of all like 143 characters, but we'll let it go. tell me do you think that's it for mcdonell? >> yeah, i do. he was mentioned as a possible vice presidential candidate last go around with mitt romney, and he has slipped really badly. the smart thing to have done michael is admit -- look this is a friend. he was helping. i made a mistake. i shouldn't have taken the money. i'm paying it back now. it has taken him forever. and there's more to come from what everybody says. i think it will effect the republicans in virginia too. i think the democrats have a good shot to win the governor's

race. and i think mcdonell is bye-bye. >> michael: two democratic senators there as well. that's a bluing state. i want to talk about steve king with you, because i don't want to go about this race before i let go of you. his comments from last week he equated immigrants with drug mules with calfs the size of cantaloupes. he is sticking by what he said. do these stories hurt the republican party and their brand? >> i think so. i think what happens when you go so far out and don't compromise at all ever with any democrat, you know, your rhetoric on democrats is so vial and -- and -- and steve king has just been very consistent on this, and i kind of had hoped he was going to run for the senate in iowa because i thought this will be great, because we'll get rid of him. >> michael: yeah, i think you are right. it would have been great to see him lose and then just be out of

washington. peter fenn thanks so much for being here. we want to move now to something a little more heart warming. george h.w. bush shaved his head earlier this week jto show solidarity with this little boy. patrick is a two year old son of a member of his secret service team. after he shaved his head, all 26 members of his secret service detail followed suit. it shows an act of compassion that goes well beyond politics. well done, mr. president. have i mentioned today that there is only one female democratic governor in the united states? i have? well, it bares repeating because it is absurd and that story is next. ♪

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