>> from washington, the mclaughlin group. the american original. for over three decades, the sharpest minds >> the mclaughlin group is brought to you by, siemens. every day, siemens answers are helping build the future of america. siemens-answers. >> just wanted to check to make sure we were on schedule.

>> what i believe unites the people of this nation, regardless of race or region or party, young or old, rich or poor, it is the simple profound belief of opportunity for all. >> opportunity for all, the theme of president obama's state of the union address in january 2 months ago. the president's opportunity agenncludes hiking the minimum wage from $7 and $0.25 to $10 and $0.10 per hour and ensuring equal pay women. white house analysts noted that the president backed away from an earlier theme of his, economic inequality. any quality being determined

that mr. obama under 26 s in one speech, one month prior to the state of the union. why did mr. obama dropped the theme of inequality? the writer jon favreau tells us, anytime the democrat mentions inequality, suddenly they are they reaching populist. well, is being eight populist such of bad thing these days? many raging populist are taking hard. michael to masking in the new york review of books notes there's an optimism among liberals of the democratic party, after years of moving to the right, it's finally stopped chewing its way leftward, away from economic centrism and populism that the party as ahold has not embraced for years or even decades. one people in particular to thank fothe survival, thus she said senator elizabeth warren, the professor harvard law school. after congress approved the

troubled asset relief program, warren was selected by senate majority leader harry reid to supervise how the $700 billion bank bailout was to be administered. talk did most to get the country out of the 2008 financial crisis. warren also helped design the consumer financial protection bureau which helps consumers steer clear of risky loans. that was my message to sit senator scott brown, she defeated brown winning his seat in .12. drain this campaign, she stoked liberals with passion speeches. one warren video in particular went viral. i.e., all over the internet. inequality might be shaky but warren's words ring with the troops. don't pass out.

>> nobody in this country got rich on his own. e factory out there, before you, but i want to be clear. you moved your goods goods to market on the roads that the rest of the speed for. you hired erker is that the race of the speed to educate. you are safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. you build the factory and it turned into something terrific, or at great idea, god bless. keep it big hunk of it. but part of the underlying subject is you take hunk of that and pay for it forward. >> the question is populism and should hillary clinton be worried? pat buchanan. pay period i don't think she should be worried but there's no doubt the populist rhetoric should be appealed. the reason it's not going

anywhere is not because hillary clinton knew of the centerleft candidate. three reasons, one reason is basically obama care which is the great liberal enterprise that big government has turned into eight total debacle and basically discredited the idea of liberalism. secondly if you look at the entire western world, all of themave reached the limits of the massive welfare state, how much you contacts and how much you can spend and it's affecting growth. so these are two of the reasons for the fact that it's not going anywhere. >> you think hillary clinton is more properly described as they centrist? >> the energy in the democratic party is around pism. i think only clinton is fairly portrayed as the centrist, but if you look at the preschool education, raising the minimum wage, she's not going to have

any difficulty crafting of vision that will appeal to democrats. president obama said, that business, you didn't build it. he said the road that took you to her business, the schools your kids attend come the libraries that are there come everything is part of any collective effort and i do live in the society where we should be looking out for each other. it's not ache grass at lipstick individualism. o'leary clinton can easily navigate this future. >> there are 10 democrats on capitol hill who are in tight races. you know how that will turn out? and they are the biggest liberals on capitol. >> they are on swing districts in the senate and not all of them are considered really liberal. what is interesting about elizabeth warren, i agree that there is an atmosphere where

populism could work in the next election, but it's created by the policies that have been put forward by the president. they are not making livable wages, getting only part-time employment and they are suffering economically come there's the feeling that their needs are not being met and that's kind of what populism was about. and she's only second-tier candidate, and if hillary clinton decides to run, i have hard time seeing her running @ la elizabeth warren. i think she's going to be more of the centrist candidate and i'd do think the populist theme will be part of the democratic primary for certain. >> i understand part of what she just said if populism is the new, how do

you explain president obama's new any make of approval ratings? >> we have aa very weak economy, huge numbers of people who are unemployed, 28 or 27 llion people who work part- time and want to work full- time, and one of the easy ways to deal with it is the 1% or whatever it is. on of course is to have the fiscal stimulus but the other is to put a lot more energy because the jobs of the future will be in the field of education. >> as it turns out populism is the hot potato within the democratic party. >> the third way the centrist democratic think tank. it champions moderate ledge of

us politics. in the december op-ed for the "wall street journal," third wave leaders too popular's like new york city mayor bill to placido to task. if you talk to leading progressives these days and you will be sure to get the message. the democratic party should embrace that economic populism of the mayor and massachusetts senator elizabeth warren. nothing would be more disastrous for democrat. there are economic movement relies on april tenth, we have it all, fantasy. if we force the world to pay higher taxes, close a few corporate tax loopholes and break up some big banks, then presto, we can pay for it and even expand. existing entitlement. meanwhile we can invest more deeply and katie 12 education, infrastructure, health research and clean energy, and more. on the same day that bill

deblasio one his mayoral race, to fund public education and universal pre- kay failed and the landslide. before democrats followed senator warren and mayor elect deblasio over the populace cliff, they should consider colorado as the true 2013 election day harbinger of american liberalism. so say third way democratic centrists. >> question, does the third way eclipse eleth lawrence populism? elenor clift. >> well this is aa oh fight within the party. they're main pitch is that what happens in new york city and what happens in massachusetts typically does not play across the country. so, liberals beware of the horse that you ride going into the next election. if they make of very good point. the other point is you have to face entitlement and say that

that area of trending the budget, if you want to have money left for all the progressive things, but i think right now democrats are done with deficit reduction. sequestration and all of that. those numbers are coming down, and i think now is the time where it democrats are taking up for 14 and 16 are talking about putting money on the table and putting programs out there. >> i just wanted to say that elizabeth warren is up. that short segment that has gone viral on the net, that says something. >> it does say something but it doesn't mean that there is some appeal for that. but just the use of reference point. deblasio who reelected with something like 75% of the vote, his support now is down to like 39% or 38% that he's dropd hermetically. his programs are not taking

place effectively and so i would use that as the reference point. >> there's another inhibiting factor. like the republican party, it's heavily dependent on big money. the big contributors and folks who do not tend to li revolutionary ideas, you take the minimum wage increase and that's extremely popular. i think it could be true. but as mark mentioned, you get to some of deblasio's idea and incremental taxes on the well- to-do, it's not going anywhere. >> i think this ties in well with what you said about obama's poll numbers, of very simple act petition. popular rhetoric sounds great on the campaign trail but when you put it into practice, things don't go well and people don't like it. i think the populist rhetoric, you are right emma goes great on the campaign trail. yes, it's like fantasyland.

>> i disagree. >> educating children is not fantasyland. >> is the tea party of variant of popular? >> it the precise opposite. it's populist conservative rhetoric, and the mainstream establishment crowd here and the democratic party, you have elizabeth warren and bernie sanders and deblasio, then you have the mainstream party that says you have to win the election. so them to parties are mirror images of one another. >> pilloried by the weight is not of the left-wing of the party, she tilts towards the center and is very smart about her politics. she's always been more or less 's fair to put her in the n't n same league either. >> this is become of very high headed seminar here. now that we have done our duty, don't forget, the mclaughlin group has its own website and you can watch this program or earlier programs on the web at anytime from anywhere in the

world. issue number two. adrift from the house of saud. >> the saudi's are angry and exasperated, frustrated and i think i think the us is not showing leadership in this moment. >> this is one of the growing number of middle east experts to warn that the us-saudi relationship is dangerously adrift. later this month president obama travels to react to try to repair our relationship with thhouse of saud, the bedrock of the middle east policy for decades. mr.obama will meet with king abdullah, the nation stores the regions largest oil reserves, at 267

billions of perils of crude reserve. compare that to canada's 174 billion, russia 60 billion barrels. there are three points of friction in the us-saudi relationship. one, the us nuclear negotiations with iran was strong on the saudis by surprise. there we're back channel contacts with tehran and saudis historic original rival. audi arabia fears that iran will get nuclear weapons threatening national security. and chemical weapons use struck saudi arabia as of betrayal. the saudis back the syrian opposition and store us strikes as game changers that would force reshot from power. number three, mr. obama distancing of longtime us allies, former egyptian

president hosni mubarak makes it dubious as to whether they are reliable consistent ally. the purpose of us policies last october, saudi arabia rejected his seat on the united nations security council that the us has pushed forward to attain. the saudis drew from iran as existential. they said, do the saudis, the iranian nuclear program and the syrian war, apart of the single conflict. one well-placed saudi told me, if we don't do this in syria we will be fighting them next inside the kingdom. >> question, how serious is the rift. >> well they've been one of key es for that region for decades. they helped us in innumerable ways, and they have financed the

government and they have lost confidence in this administration. because this is something that's been obvious for quite a while and they've been quite public about it. they have been happy with who emerged the power in syria, because the ones who did wear their enemies. the allies like the leaders of egypt were abandoned by the united states in their view. you can't do this to their allies. >> i'm sorry, i don't put them on that kind of pedestal. the education that they do in their schools, they teach people to be anti- american. where did been nine/11 hijackers come from? our relationship with saudi arabia is one of the most cynical relationships since world war ii. the value of their oil is diminishing, they're looking around and are scared to death about all of these are the

street uprisings, so they are blaming obama for deserting them. is going to do the photo op, we still need them and they still need us, but most of this relationship -- >> the basic problem is, the saudi see the iranians as rivals for hegemony and the gulf. when the unid states went in and smashed it saddam hussein ways lost the biggest sunni power and became aa shiite state. maybe other where the change of alliances which would lead them completely out in the cold. >> went to the united states interests converge with the saudi interests? >> i think they have been thoroughly good on our side. >> the problem, the gulf arab, some of them are supporting the

net walls in syria and others arpporting the rebels that we support. i think even the saudi several we can't do the fact that the rebel rebellion could bring powers and people who will be coming after them. pay period how much friction is there over the egypt issue? >> big-time. >> saudis versus americans? >> we were horrified by the way we treated the leader of egypt. both of them are at the -- >> we need them strategically, but we need them them less and less for oil. i think the relationship is changing and both sides still need each other but if you like to strip will help settle things the little bit. i don't feel like there's any threat of eight huge rift. >> okay, saudi shopping spree. the mac user involve lecture goods and now instead of

designer lands they are massively defense building spending billions of dollars in the us to upgrade their front- line army troops. the weapons purchases include everything from swiss made sphinx thistles, small arms an american attack helicopters, jet aircraft and advanced rockets. also take notes. dottie officials have said that if iran build an nuclear weapon, the saudis will purchase their own nuclear weapon from pakistan. >> question, is the middle east in an arms race, pat buchanan? >> yes it is. the whole place is up in chaos. all these countries are collapsing, egypt, nobody knows what the ture will bring, and they have lost iran as their huge ally in the persian gulf, and across the golf is iran.

>> it's the aftermath of the disastrous decision to go into iraq, but with an opening in iran, the country should take it. >> mime hoping they actually accomplish something and instead it gives them of slight delay on the road to becoming an nuclear arms country. >> on aa ohmic schism scale -- with and the breadth of the grand canyon. how big is the us-saudi rift? from zero to 10. >> is between six and seven and it's very serious. >> i'd say it's more like five. the five. >> i'd say eight. >> issue number three, senate

showdown. pay period two weeks go president obama warned his fellow democrats, in the midterm democrats who often don't vote. too often when there's not the presidential election, we don't think it's sexy are interesting. people tune out because the electorate changes, and we get walloped. well, the democratic turnout isn't the only reason that democrats may take aa walloping in this november's midterm elections. so says the nonpartisan political analyst charlie cook. things are starting to look gristly for senate democrats, and at this point it's sure looks to be of very ugly year for democrats on capitol hill. the two shadows looming over the democrat election process. number one, obama's anemic job approval ratings down to 41%, and number two the backlash against the affordable care

act, a.k.a. obama care. even more unpopular than it was in 2010. today, according to cook between 10 and 13 democratic seats are now at risk. while only two republican seats might change hand. the most vulnerable senate democrats are, mark pryor of arkansas. to take control of the sate, the republicans only need to pick up six seats.

>> question. mr.obama took shellacking in 2010, will he be taking walloping in 20 or team midterm? >> i think you will end his healthcare law as well will take our role in that. we lived in florida this month and democrats lost the seat that they were supposed to win, and people right now are pointing to the healthcare law as part of the reason that they are able to pull off the victory. that's being looked at as bellwether and i'm always very cautious of that. but the layout that you just showed really tells the story. not only that there are vulnerable democrats ike mark prior and kay hagan and mary landrieu, that's expanded out in the past few weeks to include pele like mark udall who was not considered vulnerable or what has happened

is, the president's approval rating has gone down, the healthcare law popularity has also sunk and people are getting really upset about that area and the economy is not improving so people are getting closer look by voters and how do they know? they are not getting outstanding with obama when he visits states to campaign. none are committing to appear with him and that's assigned that they know that they could really be in trouble. they are not super vulnerable but it's still pretty early and in a few months we will get the picture of how big that math is. >> deblasio come the new york mayor will be forced to back off many of his populist initiatives. >> i kind of agree with pat. it's deblasio versus the rich in new york city and the rich are winning. >> susan? >> the democratically led senate will not take up the minimum wage. >> i have to respond to that because that's so clearly unrealistic to when the mass popularity is

down 238%, it's not just because of the rich because they never supported them in the first place, so he's in deep trouble. >> i predict his favorable rating will drop into the low 30's before the fourth of july. bye-bye.

this week on "moyers & company," the corrupting influence of money in politics. >> this is the era of the empowered one percenter. they're taking action. and they are becoming the new headline players in this political system. >> people want influence. it's a question of whether we're going to allow it to happen, especially if we're going to allow it to happen and nobody even knows who the influencers are. >> announcer: funding is provided by -- anne gumowitz, encouraging the renewal of democracy. carnegie corporation of new york, celebrating 100 years of philanthropy, and committed to doing real and permanent good in the world. the ford foundation, working with visionaries on the front lines of social change worldwide. the herb alpert foundation, supporting organizations whose mission is to promote compassion