this sunday, christmas week ends with a flurry of activity in washington and the white house scores a key victory. >> i want to thank the democrats and republicans who put conviction ahead of politics to get this done together. >> but after the break, major challenges await the president in the new year. high unemployment, the war in afghanisn, a ballooning deficit and republican rule, at least in the house of representatives. where does the obama team go from here? with us this morning, senior adviser, valerie jarrett. then, taking stock of 2010. >> it is the law of the land. >> the passage of health care reform, the shock of an oil disaster in the gulf, the rise of the tea party and the ongoing

struggles of millions of americans, looking for work in a still fragile economy. where has it all left the country politically? will it be possible for the two parties to find any common ground in 2011? with us, our political roundtable, nbc news special correspondent, tom brokaw, historian and author, doris kearns goodwin. columnist for "the wall street journal" peggy noonan and "washington post" associate journal" peggy noonan and "washington post" associate editor, bob woodward. captions paid for by nbc-universal television good morning. before departing to hawaii to join his family for the christmas holiday, the president picked up several major legislative victories during this lame duck session of congress, repeal of the ban on gays in the military and the s.t.a.r.t. arms control treaty with russia. >> a lot of folks in this town predicted that after the

mid-term elections, washington would be headed for more partisanship and more gridlock. instead, this has been a season of progress for the american people. >> and here to talk with us about the president's agenda, heading into 2011, top white house adviser and close friend of the president, valerie jarrett. happy holidays, valerie and welcome back to "meet the press." >> thank you, david. >> the president was talking about a shellacking that he was responsible for in the mid-term election and then to victories in the lame duck session. what happened from the president's point of view? was there a course correction he ushered in? >> the president said right after the election, what we heard and what the nation said during the election is that they really wanted to see the congress and the president and the administration in washington working together. they wanted us to deliver on behalf of the american people. and i think what we saw during the course of the last few weeks

was just that. we made enormous progress, as you pointed out, from the taxes -- everyone when they get their next paycheck instead of their taxes going up, they'll go down. earned income tax tax, child tax code, with a credit to afford children to college. importantly, a credit so that companies will invest and take 100% of their expenses now to create jobs for america. that's sending a positive signal. the s.t.a.r.t. treaty, the president's single most important foreign policy. and don't ask, don't tell. now gays and lesbians can serve their country proudly in the military. the military is based on trust. now they'll be able to serve proudly and represent our country. these are all major accomplishments that are achieved in a bipartisan basis with congress and the president, both sides of the aisle working together. >> the vice president, who was on the program last week,

responded to a question of mine about when people think about the president, do they -- are they able to sort of pin him down? what is he exactly? a liberal moderate, a centrist or what? he had this response, in part. i want to play it for you. >> what he is, he is a progressive leader who, in fact, understands that politics is the art of the possible. >> and that's -- the art of the possible, to a lot of observers, is a marked change from how he campaigned as somebody who is going to change washington, change the way washington operated. has he made a shift in his own mind to say i've got to change tactics here? i've got to change strategy in order to achieve things we need to achieve? >> i don't think so. the same person i've known for over 20 years. the president was in the state senate and had a reputation for being able to work very closely with people on the other side of the aisle and forge that compromise. he's pragmatic.

that's his reputation. early on in the administration, i think the republicans made a concerted decision to oppose what we did. what we saw after the mid-term, the president said i'm going to reach out more. i'm going to try harder and they reciprocated. that's what the people wanted. >> is that the issue here, that the tax deal cleared out the underbrush here and now there's more opportunity for real engagement, real agreement? >> i hope so. i don't know about clearing out the underbrush. i think it's an example of what we can do when everybody says what's most important to me? what the president said was most important to him was not to raise taxes on the middle class, to make sure that those who were unemployed had 13 months of benefits. those are the ones who will go out, pay their rent, buy groceries, buy household supplies, afford christmas presents for their children. that's going to grow the economy and create jobs. what's important to the republicans was to have tax breaks for the very wealthy and the estate tax provisions.

so when you marry the two, you ended up with a package that was able to get the bipartisan support that we needed. in a sense, everybody got what they wanted. >> this is a candidate who wrote in one of the memoirs that extending bush tax cuts for the wealthy was morally troubling. a lot of the core supporters who came out in unprecedented numbers in 2008 see this as caving or they see it as weak ns. th they don't see it as a progressive who believes that politics is the art of the possible. >> when the president wakes up every morning focusing on what's best for the american people, not what's in his short-term political calendar but what's really important to the american people. what he did not want to have happen on january 1st was to see our economy that -- although it is improving, it is still fragile. and he did not want to have people see their tax goes up and he knew that was what was going to happen. he wasn't going to just fight just to fight and take that

chance. so, what he realizes is that he had to be pragmatic, but he was being pragmatic in order to deliver for the american people. that's really what i think you have to focus your attention on. that's what he used every decision he makes. the vice president, grow our economy, create jobs and keep america safe. every stigs decision he makes i measured against that. >> as president, you do have to fight. he said after the mid-terms. he told jon stewart, it's still yes we can, but it's yes we can, but. is that the story, that that obama agenda has to be tempered by the realities of washington? >> we have to accept the realities that the republicans did win the house. they now have a responsibility to lead as well. we can't ignore the realities of the membership and makeup of congress and the fact that we are going to need bipartisan support to get things done.

that is a reality. things that the president won't compromise. the republicans wasn't the high income tax cuts to be permanent. the president said, no, we can't afford it. in the new year, we'll have to tackle the deficit and we're not going to extend those tax breaks for the very wealthy indefinitely. we can't afford it and it will be important to control our deficit and tighten our belts. that is something we'll have to fight for. in the next year and year after, he will have to fight very hard when those two-year extensions expire to cut off the income break to the very wealthy. >> you are among, in your portfolio, someone who is a liaison to the business community for this president. he talked about bankers as fat cats and others to lead business to think he was hostile toward them. what does this tax package do to get people back to work? and what is the new area of cooperation between the white house and the business community

to get the economy moving? >> let's put it in context and let's keep in mind what was going on when the president took office. our financial institutions were crumbling on the break of disaster. our economy was in a freefall. the stock market was crashing. people were seeing their life's savings destroyed. businesses were having to lay off people. we lost 4 million jobs. it was a period of turmoil. the president had to take several bold and decisive steps, several unpopular, to right our economy and get us on the right track. just last week, the president had a group of approximate 20 ceos from around the country to come in and talk about how can we grow the economy? how can we get some of the dollars sitting on the balance sheet invested? it was a really good session. we spent 4 1/2 hours talking about what we have in common. what you'll see going forward is an enormous amount of cooperation around exports, free trade, making sure the korean free trade agreement where the

president lobbied very hard to open up export opportunities, focus on public education, making sure ow community colleges are training people in a way that they'll be ready for real jobs at the end of the training. so many ways the president is aligned right now. if you succeed, if you create jobs, if you invest in america, if we're able to help you compete in the globally competitive marketplace, then the country wins. that's what the president wants. >> the president spoke after the mid-terms about a difficulty that he has had connecting with the american people, living in the bubble of the white house and being in the bubble of the presidency. he talked about, as i said, after the midterm. let me play a portion of what he said. >> when you're in this place, it is hard not to seem removed. and one of the challenges that we've got to think about is how do i meet my responsibilities here in the white house, which

require a lot of hours and a lot of work, but still have that opportunity to engage with the american people on a day-to-day bas basis, and give them confidence that i'm listening to them. >> you know him as well or better than anybody working in the white house. how does he do a better job of connecting with the american people when so many are hurting? >> he often says this is his biggest regret, that when he took office because of the crisis that was presented to him, he had to spend almost every waking hour in washington, focusing very hard on solving that crisis and what he missed thoroughly was the engagement with the american people. he said that right before vacation. he said when i get back i want to figure out a way where i can spend more time outside of washington listening, learning and engaging with the american people. that's what really gives him his energy and his strength.

we're determined in the new year to make sure that his schedule reflects that priority. >> we're in the midst of a permanent campaign, and the campaign of 2012 is already upon us. i find it interesting in one of the president's recent interviews, he said about a president i presidential prospect, sarah palin, that he doesn't think about her. should he? >> his responsibility is to think about all americans every day, wake up in the morning and think about growing our economy, keeping us safe. he needs to keep focused on -- >> he also thinks about political -- >> as president, his job is to focus first on that. if he does that job well, looks out for america, if it's clear he's doing everything he can to make sure hard-working americans who have lost their jobs can go back to work and if he keeps america safe and demonstrates that 24/7 that's his priority, then i think the politics will take care of its. >> do you think he should be

paying attention to her as a political opponent? >> i'm going to go back to what i'm saying. because he's the president of the united states, he's not out there running the way he was when he was a senator where you have to think about everybody in the field every second of the day. the american people expect him to lead. he is their president. he is everybody's president, regardless of party affiliation. that doesn't mean that at some point he's not going to get out there and launch a campaign. but the most important thing that he can do for the american people is think of them every single day and let them guide his actions. >> finally, your role in the white house is unique. for those of us who cover politics, who cover administrations, you have a lot of responsibility as an adviser, but you're also one of the president's closest friends. and it helped to mentor him and develop him as a political figure. what role do you play for him in that way? what is unique about it? and how do you help strengthen him? >> i think the president is lucky to be surrounded by a

strong group of those in the white house as well as his cabinet as people who he trusts and who he relies on for advice. the fact that i'm a friend who is there, who has known him for a long time provides me with the ability to be a sounding board in one way, but i think what's important to know about the president is that he really listens to a variety of different voices, diversity of opinions. and that's what really gives him the energy and the ability to think clearly and innovatively. when you see the president engage with a roomful of people, he calls on not just the people he has known for 20 years, but the new strangers, who might be the junior press at the table. but he has a new idea for how we can grow our country and make it strong, how we can compete internationally. he has an unopened insatiable appetite. sometimes people lean in and give him ideas and he comes back

and says this is what i heard today. what do you think of this idea? that's what you want in a president, innovative, creative, looking for new ideas and he surrounds himself with a diverse and robust group of people. and i consider myself privileged to be at his service. >> we will leave it there. valerie jarrett, thank you as always. >> you're welcome. up next, taking stock of 2010, health care reform, the oil disaster in the gulf, the rise of the tea party and the ongoing economic crisis. where has it all left the country politically? our roundtable weighs in. nbc's tom brokaw, historian and author doris kearns goodwin, "the wall street journal's" peggy noonan and "the washington post's" bob woodward. we know why we're here. to chart a greener path in the air and in our factories. ♪ to find cleaner, more efficient ways to power flight.

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lame duck session, how the year ends for president obama. some are talking about the comeback kid, look what he accomplished. on november 3rd after the shellacking, it wasn't supposed to work out this way. what happened? >> let's not get ahead of ourselves. we've got a long way to go and there are still big problems out there. we had a good month, certainly. and it's due, in large part, to the fact that he seemed to be in charge, that he was leading from the front and not from the back, as the good who was kind of consulting with everybody on the hill before he made his decision. he stepped up and the country was ready for this kind of action, and the republicans, i think to some degree, got caught a little flat footed by his eagerness on the way that he wanted to get the deal done. >> let's pick up on that, doris. he signs a signature piece of legislation, the repeal of don't ask, don't tell, that prohibited gays and lesbians from serving

openly in the military. this was a way to mitigate some of the damage on the left. look, this was a campaign promise. i got this done. you may not like that i'm dealing with the republicans in other ways but i got this done. and on this issue, the politics were too difficult for the republicans to stay united in opposition. >> right. it's one of those moments when it was an idea whose time had come. the gay movement deserves a lot of credit for making the whole way we think about gays different now. it's very fortunate for obama, i think, that that came at the same time as the tax cut, which a lot of people on left were upset about. presidents in history are always upset about the people in their own party who criticize them. tom roosevelt used to say they're tom foolery guys, but in a way they need to push them from the outside in. i understand why he got irritated but on the other hand it was great that he had that combination so he could say, yeah, i did this. but on the other hand i did the tax cut. >> what's your read on the

president's strong finish? >> it's real, and the repeal of don't ask, don't tell is a big deal. that is a movement in civil rights that will be noted for a long time and perhaps forever. at the same time, there's something about obama that is not connecting with the people. and i was trying to think, you know, what is that? and somebody was telling me about this wake in gathering that richard holbrooke's widow had after he died, holbrooke being the afghan negotiator who died. bill clinton walked in. of course, clinton always takes over a room. and he put his arm around the widow and started talking and saying that richard holbrooke had been somebody who always

fought, believed in peace and somebody that was there told me suddenly everyone in the room was involved in bill clinton's emotions. and that's what obama has to do. he has to find a way to make these things personal, not abstract. he's so cerebral, so smart, he appears cool and he has to get in there and make those connections with the people in the unemployment line, the assembly line, in the mountains of afghanistan. >> i agree with you, but the very steadiness that allowed him to come back from scott brown's victory, which seemed like he was in dead in january and then he -- and now allowed him to come back from the shellacking in the midterm, that's a strength to neither be too high or too low and keep that steadiness. at times you want him to yell, to fight, to show more emotion, but maybe those don't often come together. >> as a manager, he did a great job. he's masterful. but as something connecting with

the average voter, he's not yet there. and that's how you win. >> on an issue like -- considering the president's position right now, an issue like don't ask, don't tell is perfect. here's why. it's a liberal issue. it's a left issue, but it was in line with centrist thinking, the the center supported the change. when a president of the left can make leftist moves with centrist support, he's going to be okay. rightist, the same thing. always keep in line with the center. i would also say, bob, as an extentuation to your remarks, the presidency has a mystique, a weight, gravitational pull. the president walked into the white house with a certain

mystique and i think he lost it in the first two years. he needs to gain it back. that's my read. >> i want to follow up on something specific about don't ask, don't tell. there's still a lot of questions about how this gets implemented. then there's another question about military recruiting on college campuses. my own wife, as you know, is part of the program at princeton, as a lot of americans who were in the military and are no longer in the military were. is that the next step to take it on? >> the military has mixed feelings about whether they want to go back to harvard, columbia and the ivy league schools. it's expensive rotc programs and whether they get enough bank for their buck, in the elite institutions to go into a commissioned program of some kind or are they better off working at the schools where they're going to get generally a greater response to it. so, that's an issue. now the ivy league and elite institutions are beginning to say, we would welcome them back.

we want to open that conversation again because of the repeal of don't ask, don't tell. you may find the military saying, i'm not sure that we need to go there, because, frankly, it's just not a happy hunting ground for us. >> i did naval rotc back in, you know, the coolidge administration. and it is important for the military to connect there with exactly the point you made recently in your op-ed piece about this disconnect between those who serve and people who kind of say, oh, no, not -- that's not for me. and one way to do that is to bring it -- bring rotc everywhere. >> here is what i think, bob. i've actually been thinking about this a fair amount. and what i would do is if not do it campus by campus, if you go to boston, for example, you could do an m.i.t. harvard program and put a couple of

institutions together and have a central rotc program drawing on all the institutions. if you do it institution by institution, with the questions that the military already has about costs, you have to put officers in those programs and training programs, they may be better to do something that is more centralized. >> let me bring it back to the wider challenges that the president has faced this year. he has had a strong finish, but this has been a tough year for the president and the democrats. ap wrote about it. quoting the president, this is what change looks like, obama said proudly, after health care law passed. but the economic recovery was too slow, the oil gushed for too long. the health care law was too complicated, the unemployment rate too high, the political discourse too raw, the tea party too loud. americans were in a foul mood and democrats got the blame. that's really the story of 2010. >> well, let's not -- the way that's written, it suggests it was a matter of fate. oh, my goodness. decisions were made.

they were not popular. you know, health care, two years into this drama, you can look at it, look at the numbers and realize people just don't love that. that was just the wrong -- >> they don't understand it. >> well, when you're two years in, and they still -- everywhere across the country are scratching their heads, that is almost the definition of a failed idea. not that they're going to get used to it. >> it's going to help the economy. >> two different answers to that, david. a lot of small businesses understand it and say it's going to cost us more money and we're going to move our employees into the medicaid program or somewhere else where we're not going to be able to afford to cover them. people looking at it from the ground up are saying, i don't get t it's 2,700 pages. most of the major health institutions that i know in this country that are going to be responsible for this care are still trying to sort their way through it. at the very highest level, they don't understand it. >> a misjudgment. >> i'm not sure that it was a

misjudgment. >> reputation. to even do it, do you think it was -- >> to go down that road, with that bill. >> what hasn't been done, bill safire used to say, tell them what you're going to say and then tell them and then tell them what you told them. somehow we didn't get straight what that health care bill was. part of it is the rhetoric of the president and part of it is to get everything out to the country today because everything is so distracting. i did a speech on health care and joe wilson says you lie. >> i had somebody that read the whole thing, read it twice and he confessed he didn't understand it. the conjecture and the -- now, i don't think that health care and where that's go iing or how it gets changed, implemented is a peril to the obama presidency. i think there are other things, like the threat of terrorism,

very, very real. >> and unemployment, bob. they missed the path on that. systemic unemployment, when it goes up two-tenths of a point right before the election, after they thought that they were on the right direction, that is a big signal. and my own guess is that it's probably a 12 or 13% of people who are not looking for jobs anymore. >> peggy's point, whether it's about health care, the government stepped up, took some big whacks at policy. namely, dealing with the economy. a lot of people said, wait a minute. nothing has worked here. you bailed out the banks, started under bush. you continued it. the auto companies. you did health care. you did the stimulus and we're still in the same position. i still don't have any equity in my house anymore and i can't find a job. that's a role of government issue. >> there's also growing from that, but part of what we're talking about is the biggest political change in the united

states and my lifetime is the sense grown-ups have that their children will not have it better. we are a happy people, look on any street in america, you'll see people doing christmas, the holidays and it's wonderful. but deep down on the third level of thought, there is a strain of heaviness that i've never seen before. >> nbc news/wall street journal poll, people's views on this last decade that it's the worst decade in history, 54%. >> well, let me take them back to 1938, for example, the prospect of war and world war ii and the economy wasn't working as well as fdr had hoped it would. and the country was on its backside. >> and it was dreadful. >> the worst decade leading up to the civil war. >> historians who lived in those other decades, 1930s, i'll still

take this one as troubling. >> what about course correction, though? bob, you talked about connecting. and this issue of how the president positions himself to deal with the pessimism, to deal with systemic unemployment, the threat of terror, politico wrote something about obama reinventing the presidency. quote, he needs to be the ceo of america, said former white house chief of staff john podesta, an obama sympathizer, who ran his transition to power after the 2008 election and is now urging him to dramatically refashion his presidency. the west wing makeover would involve obama no longer being velcroed to the hill and giving more attention to powers of the presidency that don't involve signing bills into law. >> that's true. when you talk to economists, ceos, one thing that comes through in all of this in terms of the economy, you need a plan and you need a plan that's not one year or two years. you need a long-range plan and

no politician in the modern era has figured out to present a ten-year plan that he or she could sell politically. because the problems in the economy are structural. it's not something you can tinker with. it's something that you get a ceo on sodium pentathol, truth searium, how do you fix these things? what's your ten-year plan? what's your eight-year plan? he has to find a way to make that politically saleable. whether he can, we'll see. >> i think there's a way of having a bold vision. think about what fdr did in 1940, still coming out of the depression. we had the war to worry about. he mobilized the economy in a fantastic way. he brought in ceos. obama could do something similar like that. he gave much bigger appreciation, tax credits to business and they came through

to produce to ship the tanks and the weapons. if he were to go for alternative energy in a bigger way than he has and get these ceos to say what kind of tax credits do you need to keep jobs in the country? there's a way to make america competitive in the world again, number one economically. >> and you have the war -- >> you have to create that -- >> let me get a break in here and we'll come back and talk about the challenges ahead. spend i spending, the war in afghanistan, and the political landscape, already taking shape for 2012. ♪

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our political roundtable and i want to talk about the challenges that the president faces. the first is best summed up by m meriam, austerity, enforced or extreme economy.

that's what washington is going to be grappling with, tom brokaw. >> you find families already doing that. more women are saying to me i buy an extra edition for the coupons. i used to make fun of people in the grocery store with coupons and now i'm clipping them. on the other hand, when they are going to shut down a military base or agricultural station, you're going to get the pushback, saying you can't do that. that's our whole economy. this is a tricky piece. mitch mcconnell said the other day the president is in for a big fight, but the republicans have a lot of pressure on them as well because they made a big promise on how much they can cut spending. we're not going to kickstart the economy by cutting spending and cutting taxes. as i said a moment ago, there are some real structural issues

we have to deal with here. innovation is behind the curve, what's going on in vietnam, india, china and even the middle east for that matter. we're not addressing that with this political leverage. >> to that question, peggy, do we have the balance right between austerity and what tom mentioned, innovation? are we done investing in our economy to being openly competitive before we can deal with this long-term debt picture? >> that's a huge one. that will be worked out over the next few years. i'm thinking, as tom was speaking, we have 40 million americans on food stamps. we have a lot of people in distress and a lot of people getting help from the government. it is true that we have to cut spending. everybody can make that speech, but it's going to be really difficult at this same time, entrenched interests that are winding up costing a heck of a lot of money in america, such as

municipal and state employee unions with pension benefits, et cetera. every state is going bankrupt. they all have to look at the price of things. i don't know if austerity is really the right word. >> it's an odd word. >> there's a different -- austerity means self disciplined, shared sacrifice means you're doing something for a higher object. for example, during world war ii, they called what we were wearing austerity clothing, trousers with no cuffs, no vests, two-piece bathing suits to save cloth. >> the good old days. >> we were doing it for a common cause and leadership strength has to be right now, if we're going to go through an austere period, somebody more than undoing the deficit, that we're investing in the future at the same time we're being austere. >> which involves trust. >> exactly right. >> saying everybody is going to take a haircut, everybody is going to have some difficulties but we'll all get through it

together. we're a great nation. >> there's all this talk about cutting spending and then they don't do it. of course, the tax cut deal is what's going to add almost $1 trillion to the deficit. if you go back, i happen to recently be reading ronald reagan's own autobiography. in there, he says -- and he is identifying with somebody who tried to cut government. and in that -- in a very confessional way says one of my biggest disappointments as president, i wasn't able to do this. and he says i let down the people on this issue. so if ronald reagan couldn't cut spending, who is going to do it now? >> the yearly increase, he was never able to cut into. >> cross currents in the republican party over how deeply they want to cut, which programs are they really going to go after entitlements, are they going to appeal health care?

what is the big fight of 2011? >> part of what he does is take a lesson from bill clinton, let them fla their hand, stand back from it and see what happens in the party. more pressure will be coming from the ground up in the republican party than we can now fully anticipate in these tea party members who are coming in. when they come to increase the debt limit in june or down the pike a little ways, or shut down the government, the tea party people who have come in on this wave of populism will push back very hard. peggy was close witness to this. i was reading as well some of the reagan years and people forget this. in 1982, he raised taxes after cutting them the year before, but they had wonderful language. they called the tax cut not a -- i mean tax increase not a tax increase, they called it revenue enhancement. >> yeah. >> oh, those were the days. the good old days. >> and only reagan could have gotten away with this. he said when he signed the bill and addressed the country about

what he was doing, he said this is really an extension of what we did a year ago, when they cut taxes, to increase taxes was an extension of that. and somehow they were able to market that. >> we're going to have to raise taxes at some point here, or you don't address the deficit problem. again, if you go to reagan, the deal he made with tip o'neill, they doubled the tax. >> a familiar figure in the republican party, mitch mcconnell about making the democr democrats sweat, tactical in the new year, what's this going to be like? >> the republican party has been winning big, consequential, serious elections throughout '09 and that's what's going on around the country. that's what's going on around the country. and 10. it is very significant, but they

all know the problem is entitlement spending. and if you're going to look at where the money is spent, you're going to have to decide, exactly how do we go at this? how do we go at it -- not only among the available remedies on spending, how do we take any one of those remedies without the presidency? do you know what i mean? highly unusual for a party that is not holding the presidency, that is only holding the house to make huge change here and yet they have to move forward in a serious way or the people who elected them will be very angry with them. >> bob woodward, another huge challenge, the war in afghanistan, 2011 is the year in which troops will start to come out, the president tells us. the vice president was on the program last week. i pressed him on this deadline point. this is what he said about the end game. >> the nato conference, where we said we're starting this proc s process, just like we did in

iraq. we're starting it in july of 2011 and we're going to be totally out of there, come hell or high water, by 2014. >> 2014. the wall street journal took this on in an editorial, saying this was a mistake. this is what they wrote in part. mr. biden's rhetoric, implying the lack of american staying power will make it that much harder for general petraeus to get the support of pakistan's military in rooting out the taliban sanctuaries in north waziristan and around quetta. the remarks also undermine months of administration effort to downplay its original mistake of setting a july 2011 deadline for beginning to withdraw u.s. forces. the u.s. and its allies went out of their way at the recent nato summit in lisbon to extend to 2014 the date when afghan forces will take full responsibility for security in their country. >> does your head spin? >> yes, it does. >> the beginning of the end of the war is july next year and

the end of the war is 2014. what they haven't told us is how they're going to do it and how it will work. and there still is this disconnect between obama and his white house and the military about where this is going. and, you know, if you take that report that they've issued after studying this, you know, really for months, they said, well, we made progress, but it's fragile and reversible. now, if you've got ratings and, you know, you're making progress but it's fragile and reversible -- you're smiling. >> yeah. >> what does that mean? that means you're in never, neverland. we don't know. >> can the president make the case that we are still fighting an existential threat? >> he hasn't made that case yet.

six out of ten people think this is a war not worth fighting. you cannot bring soldiers within harm's way if you do not convince the people this is a war worth fighting. the threat of al qaeda remains the question, if we can prevent, dismantle and disable them at getting back to us, that's worth doing. but somehow that hasn't penetrated the country and that is a failure of leadership until that happens. >> it is amazing to me that we are, what, nine years into these wars? oh, my goodness. and we are not talking about it every day on the streets and in the cafe and over coffee. it is amazing. it's just accepted as a fact. >> that's because 1% of the country is fighting the war and 99% of the country -- >> we better get our rotc back to harvard. >> i don't think that will make a difference, with all due respect. they have a choice whether or not they want to join rotc. it's not mandatory. >> of course. >> it's working class families

primarily from smaller towns in america. >> it always is. >> from a military tradition of joining. it's an obligation of all of us as well as the political leadership of this country to make sure it's on the table, not just in forums like this, but on a regular basis. also that we're looking at this in old terms. we're looking at where is the victory in afghanistan? afghanistan has had 2,000 years of foreign invaders who have crawled out of there without a victory in conventional terms. and it goes down the borders of afghanistan, we're talking about islamic rage. i've been in waziristan and in the north, in the quetta region, two most hostile regions i've seen all over the world and you know i've been a lot of places. >> it hasn't been defined with specificity. last year obama said the poison is in pakistan. the problem is in pakistan. the sanctuaries are there and he

decided secretly, okay, these sanctuaries are unacceptable now. >> let me get another break in here and have a couple of minutes left on the other side of this break. we'll at least go to the topic that's already under way, which is who are the republicans going to nominate to challenge president obama? final thoughts from our roundtable, after this. to need a day job.going we actually have a lot of scientists that play music. the creativity, the innovation, there's definitely a tie there. one thing our scientists are working on is carbon capture and storage, which could prevent co2 from entering the atmosphere. we've just built a new plant to demonstrate how we can safely freeze out the co2 from natural gas. it looks like snow. it's one way that we're helping provide energy with fewer emissions. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 are still talking about retirement tdd# 1-800-345-2550 like it's some kind of dream. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 it's either this magic number i'm supposed to reach, or... tdd# 1-800-345-2550 it's beach homes or it's starting a vineyard. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 come on! tdd# 1-800-345-2550 just help me figure it out in a practical,

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from the battle space to cyberspace. [ female announcer ] around the globe, the people of boeing are working together. to give our best, for america's best. that's why we're here. ♪ we are back with more from our roundtable, final thoughts. tom brokaw, at this stage, we were getting ready for the new year and new announcements as to who was going to run for president. >> right. >> what are republicans going to do? >> well, you know, who knows at this point, dave. you heard me say this 1,000 times over. the ufo always holds the unforeseen will occur, we don't know who they are at this point. 15 months ago the tea party was a faint line on the political horizon in this country and suddenly was a very powerful force. there are, obviously, a lot of republicans in the senate and in the state houses around the

country who see themselves in the oval office. tim pawlenty is run ining hard minnesota. sarah palin is obviously more than flirting with the idea now. haley barbour has probably banged himself up again with comments this past week, to say nothing of people in the united states senate and mitt romney, former governor of massachusetts. there's a lot of moving around going on out there. >> what kind of candidate, peggy noonan, do you need to run in the republican party to take on obama? what is it at this stage? >> a big thing is how the tetonic plates keep moving in american politics. a lifetime in journalism, what did you learn? he said expect the unexpected. if we've learned anything from the past decade, it's that anybody can arise from anywhere and become a leader. gosh, what do the republicans need to beat obama? a credible alternative, a

serious man or woman, someone with experience and some weight and heft, who can get through iowa and south carolina. >> and so not sarah palin, is that right? >> thank you, bob, so much for qualifying that. i have to tell you, i'm one of those who think palin will not run and i happen to think if she runs, it will not work. her people love her, support her, watch her on tv, read her books, love to cheer her. they especially love to defend her when people like us criticize her. they will not -- i am telling you, they will not vote for her. >> she can be a factor without running? >> they won't vote for her for president. she's a realist. she knows this isn't going to work and so she will sacrifice herself and support somebody else in the palin primary. >> is the president vulnerable? >> i think somebody like a chris christy would be vulnerable.

>> governor of new jersey who proclaimed on this program he is not running. >> the kind of person who speaks straight, who has a fire in his belly, who you believe in, even if you don't agree with him. that kind of person, i think. >> seems to not be a politician. >> in the context, what are the conditions going to be in 2012? are we going to have another terrorist attack or if the country remains secure. if we catch fire in the economy, for example, if something happened catastrophically in the middle east that the president de deals with either in utter failure or brilliantly. those are all the unknowns that we have to measure against what the chances are. we still have a long way to go for that, david. >> does the president make a fundamental shift, tom in this next year in his leadership style and tonal approach to the american people that gives him a

lift? >> he better. that's what i think. >> i remember years ago talking to obama, when he was in the senate, and we were talking about illinois. and he went around the state saying i have support here. i have support there. and i don't have support here. and i walked away realizing, he's a politician. he knows where the votes are and he's a realist. the question is going to be, can he grow and adapt to whatever those circumstances are? we don't know. >> here is what i think about president obama. we'll see whether this painful loss in november and then the recovery that we're seeing in the short term, in terms of his political fortunes convert him in some fashion to a new kind of person. allies said bill clinton's career was helped measurably by defeat when he first ran for governor of arkansas. he learned a lot from that and had to deal with people in arkansas in the business community and also realized he

was vulnerable. by the time he got here, he had been through that kind of an ordeal. ronald reagan had been governor of california for two terms before he got here. he had been used to running a big state and dealing with the democrats. obama has not been through that kind of baptism by fire. and i hope know that he's beginning to listen to some of the business leaders who have been rapping on his door the last year, saying we were for you. we have some things that we think you ought to hear and whether or not he will be receptive to them about how to change the economy. >> i will make that the last word and leave it there. thank you all very much. happy new year and happy new year to all of you at home. we'll be back next week. if it's sunday, it's "meet the we'll be back next week. if it's sunday, it's "meet the press." -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com

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