we went through the top of the show, what you're doing up at this hour. producer rob has one quick rob? okay, wayne writes i'm up early every morning to watch all those televisions on the wall behind willie. it's like free cable. >> people look behind me. our market research shows most people watch this show to see o'reilly's reruns over my shoulder. depressing but they're still watching. "morning joe" starts right now. the fundamental strength of this nation is still there and we're just stuck. we're stuck with some legitimate -- we have problems in europe, problems and crises, uncoordinated policy issues taking place. people are scared from a bunch of things but this will pass, too. look, i don't know when, three months, six months, a year.

but it will pass and the american economy is going to blow your socks off. uncoordinated policy. we shot ourselves in the foot. i think the debt ceiling thing was demoralizing to the public. we have to stop doing that, get together and we will get through this. this country has been through far worse, by the way. we should always remember that. i'm positive and very optimistic in the long run. >> optimistic. okay, we need that. good morning. welcome to "morning joe." it is thursday, august 11th. you would not believe who we have on our set. >> i would. first off let me say, though, jamie diamond -- >> yes. >> good guy. >> yes. >> and an optimistic guy. >> it's kind of refreshing, isn't it? >> yes. good morning, america. >> i mo. >> jon meacham back from the

woods. back from the woods. >> i haven't taken one yet since i last saw you. >> since i last saw you. >> your vacations are like three months long. >> i've been to the 18th century, it's a long way away. it's really tough. >> did you bring us a gift? >> i brought something for willie. >> oh. of course. willie. >> we don't usually give these to people from vanderbilt but i wanted you to have that. >> purple are the school colors then? >> they are. >> so that's not like -- you're not being ironic or anything. thank you, jon. >> that's nice of you, jon. >> it's a tennessee thing. and harold has several. >> pretty color. >> school colors are also purple. >> harold, i think, probably carried franklin county. >> i did. >> how are you doing, harold? >> i'm good this morning. >> jamie dimon says things are going to get better and i trust

jamie dimon. what about you? >> it was the right message. it was the right tone. the financial markets had to enjoy hearing him say that. investors had to appreciate hearing him say that. i hope the white house and those in washington heard the message loud and clear not only do we need to work together but the tone, the message needs to be more coordinated, the policy needs to be more coordinated. i was pleased to hear him yesterday. i don't think i was alone either. >> no, it was good to hear him out there. >> sort of hard to find but there are bright spots. i was reading -- >> really? >> yes. an article yesterday that tech firms are hiring. >> that's good. >> there are bright spots. >> little bright spots. baby spots. >> investors fleeing u.s. stocks in droves for the second time this week as concern about the health of french banks and fears of another global economic downturn led to steep losses on wall street. the dow tumbling 519 points,

over 4.6%, wiping out all gains from the previous session. it's the average's fourth triple it digit move in five days. the s&p 500 shedding 51 points, a loss of nearly 4.5%. the nasdaq dropping 101 points finishing with a loss of 4%. and as of wednesday's close, the dow has now lost over 2,000 points since july 21st, the start of the slide. the index is down over the last 14 trading sessions. the latest slide comes as president obama met with members of his economic team in addition to fed chairman bernanke and tim geithner to discuss the outlook for the u.s. recovery, jobs and deficit reduction. it was their third meeting this year. and, you know, the super committee, almost all of them have been chosen. >> yeah, they have. that's an interesting group. >> yes. >> so jon meacham, let's talk

presidents. this president is taking a pounding from just about all sides. a couple days ago we were comparing it to what carter was going through in 1979. are there any other comparisons? >> i think that's the most apt. i think you could look at bush '91 and sort of as '91 became '92 heading into the tough new hampshire climate bush had to deal with the primary challenger, obviously in governor buchanan. but it's a moment of drift in which i think the last thing a president wants to be is part of the entire scenario that has people about drift and it decline, invisible, and get off totally or be in charge. the president has, i think, interestingly sort of ended up in the worst possible position. >> as a historian, a

presidential historian looking at real time at this president, how are you, your breed, going to be judging this president? >> are we too caught up in the moment by moment? >> his theme to reform over the past two years. >> i always resist superlative-itis. >> i do, too. i know. sorry. >> at some point there's a point of, a tipping point. and it's sort of hard to continue to make the argument, well, if only "x," obama would be doing better. and it's simply a political reality. you break it, you own it, as general powell said. he may not have broken the whole thing, but he didn't put it all back together. well, a new "washington

post" poll has president obama's overall job approval rating at 44% and disapproval rating at 46%. both are down from three weeks ago. and it's lowest at 46%. a new reuters poll shows that 73% of americans think the country is heading in the wrong direction while 21% say it's heading in the right direction. that "washington post" poll also shows 78% are dissatisfied with the u.s. political system. >> that was the number right direction/wrong direction was the first trouble for bush '92. even as the aprfl rating was way up and the emotion of the gulf war victory, that number was trending in the wrong direction. >> the big problem the president has right now, the people -- and i think it's been talked about in the columns the last few days -- people are questioning his leadership abilities. it used to be an empathy question whether he understood. they're questioning leadership

capacity which is problematic. i hope he calls the congress back immediately. i hope he lays out a plan for them to vote on. i hope he sticks by that plan and urges all of them -- you and i having served, there's one thing members of congress understand, that's the market going up and down. it's easy to understand when you have a 2,000-point loss in the market in over a two-week period. you have to have a plan and he should call them back sooner rather than later. this president has had the worst august of any president. '09 the health care debate went the wrong way. ten republicans picked the momentum in order to win the majority in 2010. obviously this all goes with these challenges. he won in '08. '09 he got his health care bill done. in '10 he extended the bush tax cuts. he needs a win in november and december of this year. if not, it spells real trouble for next year. i'm a supporter. i'm a friend but i have to tell you there are real questions about the leadership capacity.

in listen iing to jamie dimon wt was so refreshing to hear him and the tone, he sounded like a leader. we're going to get out of this and here is how we're going to do it. the president needs to do the same thing. >> i was saying yesterday, jon, i'm reading another fdr biography about a privileged youth, a radicalized presidency and you just read through two or three pages of that. you see roosevelt as the bombs are dropping at pearl harbor, just taking it all in, calling his cabinet people in, making tough decisions throughout his entire presidency. there was this strength in leadership that americans yearned for, willie, and you just had harold talking about maybe congress coming back. parliament has come back in. the rioting has stopped in london. it's starting to stop across

england and this president, of course, they know he's not going to do that. it wouldn't do any good. with well, it won't do any good if you don't know how to lead. but if you know how to lead, it actually would do good. is he planning on going on vacation in august? >> he is supposed to go up to martha's vineyard. i don't know why there's any question congress should come ba back. why is that a debate? this is a huge crisis. >> it's about as bad as it gets. it would be nice if everyone was back working. the president's style, which is important, but now we have to think about the substance, why are the markets going up and down? because there are doubts about the economy here and the economies across europe. so what are we going to do about it? we know what the problem is. we have this super committee. does that get us anywhere? is this a group of people that's going to get together and make serious decisions about what we have to do to reduce our debt, about what we have to do to create jobs? i don't think there's a whole lot of that either. >> we don't need a, quote, super

committee. we need a strong president. and for this president to say bringing congress back in is not going to do anything, it just makes him -- >> everyone is writing off his super committee. is that because it's a joke? >> we don't know if if it's a joke or not 0. that's not going to calm the markets in the next week. >> nor is it going to calm voters. the super committee's job is to focus on these can cuts in november and december, which obviously there's a relationship between that and certain instability in the markets. but bringing and voting on a moratorium, bringing them back and repatriation to allow that money that was generated overseas to come back home at a much lower rate, to bring them back on a tax extension for business and employees, this is something congress could do. the president would show leadership. >> bring them back to extend unemployment benefits. >> that would be parmt of that as well. >> you're sounding like a wall

street guy. tax cuts for business owners. >> main street is wall street. and when main street does well, wall street does well and vice versa. we have to stop disconnecting the two. that was part of jamie's comments yesterday. >> i asked if the president was going on vacation because i've said there's nothing more than the president getting away with his family, clearing his mind, going golfing. he likes golfing, golf. he likes bowling, bowl. cross stitch, whatever you like doing, if you're president, do that. >> anyone like cross stitch here? >> there was a little in the fdr years. >> but if we're in this global economic crisis, which could be just as dangerous as 2008 if not more and you've got members of congress out on vacation right now and you've got the president getting on a plane to go up to martha's vineyard and this crisis is still going on, that

is every bit as striking and jarring a note to americans and to markets as was his refusal to go down to the gulf coast during the bp oil spill. >> and i think we can't ignore what's happening in england. i mean, just because this is -- >> well, the riots -- economically in france, i fear fraps is about to get downgraded. >> warning bells. >> that's going to be devastating for the euro zone. we are all connected. the markets crashed in part because of what's going on in europe. >> the french banks. >> members of congress immediate to be back at work, and this president need not fear of members being back to work. he needs to figure out how to talk to them. >> everybody should feel a commitment to be there. >> john chambers, as you well know, dramatized the political dysfunction and challenges we

face in washington, so that's clearly a part of the analysis. as a part of the analysis globally. that's the reason, if no other, congress needs to come back and defensem demonstrate they are working to wrap their arms around this challenge and to show and demonstrate to regulators that our system is not as dysfunctional as evidenced the last two or three weeks. >> having been away a little bit, the s&p happens, the s.e.a.l.s are killed, the riots in england. it was this incredible period where it felt as though the world was cracking apart. and the president was curiously not making an impression. watching it just as, again, f m from -- >> barnicle was more upset off air than on air yesterday. the fact that the president waited to talk about the s.e.a.l.s and then just kind of put that in on the end of a press conference.

oh, and by the way. somebody in the white house doesn't get it. somebody in the white house is clueless. when you have 30 americans die and it's treated that way when, again, i'm baffled. i'm rooting for the president. we all are rooting for the president. if rush limbaugh is still rooting for the president, then he's also rooting for america to be in a vast decline, rooting for his stocks to collapse. these are precarious times and we need a president who knows what he's doing and a president who has the support of the american people but, willie, right now this president is just creating a lot more questions than answers. >> and you can call it theater but it's a question of urgency. people have urgency in their lives, they don't have jobs, they can't pay their bills. they want to know he's there, that congress is will. it's not just the president. congress should be there

fighting to change this. i think an explicit jobs plan is something we'd like to hear from the president. j at least put something out on the table. most of it won't get passed but at least this is what she said to do to get people back to work. it would be nice to hear the president to do that. >> to go back to fdr, we need a spirit of bold experimentation. if something fails, admit it frankly but try something. always try something. >> said fdr was president for eight years during a depression. he didn't end the depression. not close to it. but what he did, he made people like my parents in rural georgia believe that they were going to survive, that they were going to be able to feed their four children, that they were going to be able to get through the next winter. fdr did that.

just like churchill. even churchill's detractors will say churchill got great britain through 1940. saved western civilization just on the power of his leadership, on the strength of his will. leaders who act like leaders can do great things. >> leaders lead. >> yes, they do. that's why they call them leaders. coming up this morning -- >> jon was going to say something. >> i think president reagan falls in that category, too, because, as we all know, the economic numbers in the early 1980s were not good but he managed to convince people that things were going to be okay. the capacity to instill confidence is the mark of a great president. right now it's very doubtful we're going to be in that situation. >> we're going to bring in a pointed member of the so-called super committee, senator pat toomey. >> super? >> congressman peter king and

tavis smiley and dr. cornell west on the national poverty tour. >> up next the political playbook. first, bill karins with a check on the forecast. bill? good morning. you're going to introep deuce me with a smile today, mika, a gorgeous day. this morning one of the coolest mornings in a while, finally relief from the high humidity in all of the eastern half of the country for the most part. 66 in boston right now. we're 59 in pittsburgh. so a few areas a little chilly this morning. it's going to be a great afternoon with highs around 80 to 85 degrees and with a low humidity it's going to be fantastic especially in the shade. now as far as what we're dealing with in the middle of the country, that's where the trouble spot is. we've had some heavy rain this morning and severe thunderstorms from little rock down to greenville, mississippi that will continue to push south down through central mississippi. that's your travel trouble spot. also, oklahoma city has some thunderstorms to deal with. we're going to have another 100-degree day in dallas. that's the one spot in the country we haven't gotten the relief but how perfect st. louis, kansas city, kentucky,

all through ohio, detroit, chicago and minneapolis. this is the type of weather you've been waiting for all summer long. enjoy it while it lasts.

wow, the obama re-election team sees mitt romney as the likeliest republican candidate and plans of attacking personally as a phony and here is the key word, weird. why that word, weird? >> well, it's pseudo to bringing in the whole mormonism issue. >> obama is going to use weird as code for mormon. i am really starting to respect that urban rhythmic kenyan secret muslim. >> wow. joining us now a look at the

"political playbook" with patrick. >> the republican field getting together all on one stage. what do you expect to see? >> well, i think the one thing to really look out for is tim pawlenty. this is his make it or break it moment both this weekend and at the iowa caucus. obviously doing better on that stage but i think if you don't see a debate out of the straw poll and ultimate iowa caucus it is really difficult to see how the map adds up for him to go into new hampshire and into south carolina, so i think a lot of eyes are on tim pawlenty, whether or not he can survive out of iowa. >> and what about michele bachmann, joe? >> i think she'll do very well. sort of home field advantage are for her. i think actually, patrick, there is a guy that's holding a gun -- >> stop. i told him to take that off his twitter page.

m no, i changed it. >> talking about texas' open rick perry. rick perry, isn't he casting a shadow over this entire iowa episode? >> yeah, he certainly is. as you know he is going to basically head to new hampshire right after that straw poll which i think his hope is that he's going to steal the media attention, and i think he'll certainly do that. there's a lot of journalists willing to follow him wherever he goes to see how he plays out in those initial few days. but i think really you guys talked about this before that his first days can't be his best days. i wouldn't put too much focus on exactly what's going to happen with rick perry this weekend, but in the week or two afterwards to see how the nation responds, what kind of stuff reporters dig up. that's really where the meat and p potatoes will happen. >> and we also hear that sarah palin may be making a trip to iowa this weekend. >> she is making a decision maybe. >> riding a bus. >> riding a bus and perry will be in iowa on tuesday.

busy times in iowa. you guys, patrick, have a new report there at politico about mitt romney and the s&p. what's the story? >> you guys remember last week that after the s&p downgraded the united states mitt romney used that opportunity to say during my administration in massachusetts the s&p actually gave us an upgrade. my colleague ben smith through a freedom of information request actually got the romney administration's pitch to s&p and a huge part of that request to their argument to get upgraded was tax increases. and you'll remember that romney had been very much during the debate against tax increases but a huge part of that package had been through fees, through cl e closed loopholes, through a 2002 budget package that was actually before him that raised taxes but then obviously benefited him. you know, he will argue we cut taxes 19 times. he argued this is largely a part of a pattern of fiscal responsibility. >> patrick, you're getting way

down in the weeds. how are your cats the doing? is how are your cats doing? >> you know, i haven't seen them this morning, joe, because unlike dog owners i don't have to get up at 4:00 in the morning to walk them. >> but you couldn't give them a hug before you left the door? >> no, no. they're not awake yet. >> well, say hello to kriss kringle for us and the cats. >> i will. >> we will talk to you soon. greatly appreciate it. >> see you later. >> i saw your eyes rolling. >> i was not rolling my eyes. >> cut him off. >> basically mitt romney lobbied the s&p for credit to keep his credit rating. >> whatever. that's what they're digging up. so what do you think of rick perry? >> rick perry. >> what do you think of him? >> i think he's a very personable man. >> fellow. >> i really do. immensely charming and i think that is a secret weapon here. >> really? >> oh, stop it now. >> you think he has secret -- >> i think a caricature -- there's a caricature of him as,

you know, the gun guy. >> because he shoots guns off the rally. >> there you go. >> that's one reason. >> i think it's going to be more interesting to watch. >> i think obama is going to be just fine. >> what if he is he seeds from the union as he promised to before the election? can he still be president of the united states? >> everybody wants to secede from the union. >> you know he shot a coyote dead once. no, true story. he was out swroging, the coyote came after the family dog, he was jogging with the sidearm. >> could have snapped his neck. coming up -- >> better to wound the coyote. no, i'm not -- i support the move, protecting his dog. he's talking about guns. >> shot a coyote.

willie geist, soft on coyotes. >> i support the death of the coyo coyote. >> one thing about his dress, he dresses really well. do you know what i mean? everything is perfect. i'm sloppy. it's awful. >> you are. speaking of really put together -- >> who? >> coming up, chuck todd. ahead of tonight's republican debate and iowa straw poll. also, david cameron about to face british parliament in an emergency debate over how to handle the riots. the latest when we come back. [ p.a. announcer ] announcing america's favorite cereal is now honey nut cheerios! yup, america's favorite. so we're celebrating the honey sweetness, crunchy oats and... hey! don't forget me!! honey nut cheerios. make it your favorite too! honey nut cheerios. a vacation on a budget with expedia. make it work.

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♪ if you want it come and get it ♪ 32 past the hour. a live shot of capitol hill. in this morning's "new york times," china's government is encouraging its banks to invest overseas, specifically new york city. >> yeah. >> chinese banks and investors have poured more than a billion dollars into real estate loans here in the past year. they've also signed major leases at the empire state building and the one world trade center. the idea is to diverse china's foreign ex change holdings and improve the country's leverage

in international affairs. >> and, by the way, harold ford, it's still -- our system is in chaos but still treasuries, where do you go? treasuries and gold. >> we remain the world's currency. that's an interesting article for a lot of reasons and also speaks to perhaps one other thing, the president and congress can do. one of the things foreign investors are concerned about is the ex tax we place. we have infrastructure challenges across the country. mayor bloomberg and others have articulated it would be great to make it more attractive to foreign investors. why do we want foreigners making this invest lt. if we're concerned about shipping jobs overseas, it would be great to get some of that money back here. >> we want their money. >> continue to make america a magnet for all of this investment. >> this is not hard. >> not at all. >> we want them to give us their money and to buy our products.

>> it creates jobs and sustains the economies across the country. >> going the opposite way right now. at the end of the day it's not that tough. how do you create economic incentives to get other people's money in the united states of america? a lot of these policies would offend people on the left, and i understand, but we're going to have to be aggressive. if we want to yank their money from them, have them invest in the united states of america. and then use that money and build products, sell to them. the circle of love. >> we remain the most entrepreneurial, the freest, the strongest, we remain it shall our rule of law makes this country the most attractive to investors and we should not create barriers or disincentives through our tax policy which is one of the things congress and the president should be back in washington doing it as we speak. >> this is what the japanese did in the late 1980s. there was panic. they bought pebble beach!

rockefeller center is up. again, money flows. japan was having a good decade. they invested in the united states. that helps us. they bust, rich americans and others buy it back. the chinese are commenting right now, buy us out. buy our stuff. we know you're going to bust. you're growing too fast. you're going to slow down. when that happens, it will flush them out and we'll bring other people in. >> creating disincentives this morning. >> in the words of billy preston, that's the way god planned it. that's the way god wants it to be. >> we are going to have an update out of england during must reads because we ran out of time for some reason. >> joe scarborough jumped on the japanese economic right about 89, 90 because he saw a soaring decade. >> let me tell you something, buy it all in the nikkei, everything i've got in the nikkei. don't call me for a decade. >> then he woke up in the year

2000, looked at your statements -- >> it was the same as in 1988. what are you going to do? but i'll tell you what, that eastern stock it's coming back. >> pan am. >> and when it comes back, i feel good about pan am. i feel good about eastern -- i mean, these are sleepers right now. they will be coming back. i'm big into airline stocks. >> tower records. get onboard now. >> i have them all. >> bloomberg, that idea he had about immigration the other day on the show, talked about letting people stay five years. they're creating jobs, let them stay. if not, send them back home. these are the creative ideas we need. >> we need to do that and, also, i'm telling you, we are -- we are killing ourselves when we allow people from india, china, across the world to come get their ph.d.s in our universities, which are the best universities on the planet, and then we have a choice, can we keep them here so they create

jobs in america or do we accepted them back, force them to go back? our policy is get out of here. go back. said i don't want this person from india who got his degree to stay here. send them back to india. would you rather them start a company -- >> remember that? >> would you rather them start a company in india where 10,000 people are employed or would you rather them start a company in north carolina where 10,000 people -- because, make no mistake, they're going to start a company, and i'd rather be hiring americans paying good wages and paying taxes and getting their smart kids into our system. it's the circle of life, jon meacham. if they'd only see "the lion king" they'd understand. >> the only person i think in modern american life who has explained that -- >> me. >> besides you. >> and me. >> and congressman ford, and

willie geist, is bill clinton. >> what is mika, a potted plant? >> she understands these things. >> that's a nervous, chirpy laugh. >> president clinton managed to talk about it in a way that president obama, harold mentioned just a few minutes ago, he's the great professor but he hasn't explained this in any way to get people out of this. it's emotional and right now it feels as though we're having a lost decade and it's about drift and decline. >> jarring mika to business leaders and to a lot of the president's own friends is the fact this is not hard to do. >> bill clinton can do it, he should be able to do it. >> joe can do it. >> in fairness -- >> it's not fair. >> if i can do it -- i haven't learned to ride a bike yet. >> august has been tough but novembers and decembers are good. i hope the white house understands they have a chance if they call people whaback to

this done. >> and speaking of bikes, kate scarborough, no training wheels. just learned. a huge day. got a bike for her birthday. >> she's on her way. >> that's a huge step. that's great. >> no training wheels needed. >> that's great. >> now if i could just learn to ride one. it's hard. >> you still have your trike? >> it's hard. >> you ride a big wheel, don't you? >> i just need a big wheel. >> i can see him on a big wheel. and he uses his feet. >> hot wheels. a little lightning mcqueen. >> alex, we hear you. >> i ride my big wheel, play with my hot wheels and -- >> and take a nap. >> take a nap while i'm watching dora. what's happening in baseball? a.l. central the indians closing the gap on the tigers. they're sticking around. bottom of the second, this rookie is great. in the highlights again a.

two-run home run. he's 5-5 last night. meanwhile jiminez making his first start for cleveland since he was traded to the rockies. he strikes out six across eight innings, his first start at home, i should say. indians win, 10-3. they're now only two games behind those tigers. the red sox/twins -- >> so we show the red sox highlights today. how interesting. >> i department want to show the yankees, they were so dominant. >> the first time the red sox lose. >> a double into left. joe mauer scores. part of a three-run inning. the twins end the sox win streak. >> jim thome only two home runs away from 600. >> and totally clean. >> he's totally clean. >> as far as we know. >> as far as we know. >> boston now a game and a half up on the yankees. >> the yankees just took it. who are they playing? >> anaheim. your guy, the new coach of team usa, they played mexico last night to a 1-1 draw.

>> pretty good. did the braves play yesterday? >> yeah, uggla extended his hitting streak, 31 games now. coming up next the must read opinion pages. there's some good ones. also ahead, an exclusive first look at the new cover of "time" magazine. [ male announcer ] want to achieve more with your money?

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all right. these are live pictures we're monitoring out of parliament. prime minister david cameron speaking one day emergency session this morning after recalling lawmakers from their summer recess in the wake of riots spreading across the country. cam reron is commending the pole force for their work on the street after issuing a stern warning order be restored. he's facing mounting pressure on

police cuts which would be a strain on the police force. the uk so far has been largely quiet after the violence of thousands of extra officers onto the streets. tensions remain high even in the absence of any -- >> you actually had police officers pushing back some of these people? is that a civil rights violation? >> the last couple of days there were some terrible pictures of police standing by and watching people loot stores and burn buildings. i think forest johnson -- when cameron came back, decided it was time to stop messing around and it sounds like it's relatively kwai net london today. >> new york -- >> you're not going to see that. >> and you learn it very quickly once you move here. we moved from washington, d.c., where cops when we were there weren't that well respected, to new york and, you know -- so somebody talked back to a new

york city one time and that was the last time i ever saw it. the last time i saw that guy either. but people figure out what they can get away with, and obviously it's just been far too permissive in london for too long. >> well, there could be other things causing this and there are other things that we should be worried about. let me read from the "new york times," if i may. >> oh, gosh. going to blame these thugs on 0 socioeconomic conditions, the root cause? >> if if you don't think we could have really big social problems because of the direction we are heading -- >> it's not their fault. it's ours, right? they're punching old men in the face and they're kicking in windows and stealing -- >> no, i'm not making any excuses for anyone. i'm worried a little bit about our country. in many ways, this is from "the new york times," just listen, stay with me here, mr. cameron's us austerity program is the tea party's dream come true. but britain is now grappling

with the consequences of those cuts. america is in many ways different from britain -- >> oh, this is such a joke. >> would you please be quiet? >> do we even have to read this nonse nonsense? >> yes, we do. >> even people in britain are saying nobody is trying to make a statement against us. >> can i please finish? >> thugs run amuck. >> i'm going to finish now. >> thugs run amuck. >> but the two countries today are alike in their desire of many politicians to solve economic and social ills by reducing the power of the state. britain's current crisis should cause us to reflect on the fact that a smaller government -- >> it's one of the stupidest editorials i think -- >> can actually increase communal fear and diminish our quality of life. is that a fate america wishes upon itself? >> i hope that was a nameless person for "the new york times." >> richard bennett and sassen. >> would you like another one? >> who was it?

it was a person. i thought i was attacking a faceless bureaucracy. there are some good points in there. no, seriously, i think we need to examine this a little more closely and it's very worrisome. we have some of those trends here in the united states l as well. i think that op-ed makes us stop and think it could happen here, too. >> nice pivot, joe. >> that's all i had. i'm kind of embarrassed. i didn't know there were names attached. i would have never said all of that. i was joking. a good he had editorial. what is this? >> "the washington post." >> is this an editorial or a name attached. >> applebom. >> she is great. >> and so is her husband. >> i love him. >> do you know her husband? >> no. >> who is is her husband? >> this is a polish thing that's going on. >> it's a polish thing. >> be quiet. >> okay. >> the rioters themselves do not

wave signs. they have not sought publicity for their views if they have any and thus have become the ink blot in a maggs rorschach test. >> i love that word. i can never say that. >> jon, a big black ink blot. >> if up see jesus, you're okay. what test? >> rorschach. >> they care about whether it's welfare dependency, budget cuts, the decline of public education or my personal favorite the rise after vulgar and amoral public culture. >> bingo. >> and yet it is their lack of politics that most clearly defines them. if the egyptians in tahrir square wanted democracy and the anarchists wanted more spending, the hooded men in british streets want 46-inch flat-screen

hd televisions. >> there we go. the and there we go. thank you, ann. >> i was giving you balance. you just weren't patient. >> i told you i loved her. >> she wrote a great book. >> we need to have her on the show. do you think she'd come on the show? could you get her on the show? >> i might be able to call her. we'll see. i don't know. if she's watching this morning, maybe not. congressman peter king will be on set. news you can't use, though, is straight ahead. coffee doesn't have vitamins... unless you want it to. new splenda® essentials™ no calorie sweetener with b vitamins, the first and only one to help support a healthy metabolism. three smart new ways to sweeten. same great taste. new splenda® essentials™. but when she got asthma, all i could do was worry ! specialists, lots of doctors, lots of advice... and my hands were full. i couldn't sort through it all. with unitedhealthcare, it's different. we have access to great specialists, and our pediatrician gets all the information.

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oh, please tell me it's time. >> it is. time for news you can't use. mika touched on this earlier in the show right upstairs in this very building about 67 stories from where we're sitting. there was a guy out on the ledge yesterday for about an hour. the streets around our building here at rockefeller center closed after a 23-year-old man climbed a ten-foot glass partition at the top of the rock which is a tourist attraction. you go up to the top of the building, get great views of the city. the ny pd eventually did talk him down off that ledge, brought him back. a guy who lost his job, was distraught about it. people inside this building were following it closely. the roots drummer, quest love, expressing his concern tweeting hey, dude on my building, don't jump. >> he had a twitter feed on top of the rock, perhaps he was

looking at his iphone and that's what brought him back. the cop that was on very top, can we get back to that picture, t.j., because it's much better than me scratching my hair. >> and roll it. >> and we're rolling. >> the guy on the left -- >> yeah, he was on the top of the glass. >> that guy on the left up there up top, what's holding him up? >> he has -- >> they all have -- >> he has a cable on. >> they're all harnessed in. >> they're amazing. even with the cable on that takes incredible bravery. >> let's hear from one of the guys who helped talk the guy down. >> you're always cautious about what you want to say to him, but, you know what, we're being a guided by what he's saying back to us. again, it comes down to it's not his fault he's on the ledge but we want to make sure that the situation is resolved in the best way. >> a great job by the nypd emergency services unit getting

that guy back in. >> very much. lighter news, we talked about "the new york post" cover. they had an interesting way of capturing the dow's wild ride. remember this? t.j., if we could just get a full so we could see it. >> crazy stox like a hooker's drawers, up, counsel, up. that's the way "the new york post" saw it. stephen colbert commenting. >> the dow lost 519 points today. it is the single biggest drop since two days ago. everybody is trying to make sense of these markets. luckily "the new york post" explained it all with today's cover story, crazy stox like a hooker's drawers -- up, down, up. this is analysis that everyone can understand. you get a hooker, everyone is excited that her panties are up. then the underwear starts to drop, people start getting

upset, grown men are crying, clutching their heads. hooker pulls her underwear up, happy days are here again. somebody rings a bell and everybody goes home. if you paid the extra 50 bucks for the bell and it's not a bell. i personally look forward to pour of this kind of analysis such as london like a hooker's genitals burning. and somali refugees like a hooker's libido always hungry. and new york front page like hooker will say anything to get your money. >> daily news with craps, sneaking up behind. there you have it. hey, congressman peter king, "time" magazine's rick sten gallon straight ahead.

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welcome back to "morning joe. "jon meacham is with us and for that a lot of raccoons are grateful. there will be mo no raccoon hunting around the meacham estate. "time" magazine managing editor and a hunting buddy of jon meacham, rick stengel. they are here. we are going to reveal, mika,

the cover of "time" magazine's new issue. i wonder if like "newsweek" they have somebody who is cross eyed. >> i know and in the middle of a live check. >> why is it in the middle of a light check? >> how about a potential presidential canndidate in a tight sweatshirt? no? rick? >> rick perry would look hot. >> all right, joe. >> i'm not even going to go there. >> it has so much to do with our top story so go ahead. >> the cover is the decline and fall of europe. and maybe the west. >> did pat buchanan write this? he wrote this book ten years ago. >> we should have -- yeah, we should have thought of that. what's happening now, the real crisis in the economy around the world is what's going on in europe. europe is the epicenter of the danger. to compare what happened here in 2008-2009 with lehman brothers, et cetera, to what might happen in europe with spain and italy defaulting is just a ridiculous comparison. it's a lot worse.

>> what's happening in europe? >> what's happening in europe -- so the debt crisis in the u.s. was a manufactured thing. we can pay our debts. we can print money, do anything like that. in europe when you have spain, portugal, italy, they truly do not have money. they cannot print money. >> ireland. >> ireland. because they use the euro. the european central bank has everything constricted. and there's real, real danger that europe will come apart. and, in fact, what europe has been depending on basically for the last year is a recovery in the u.s. and the recovery in the u.s. actually, as you see, is not really happening, and europe is depending on that. so it's a cover story for a person who used to work for jon. it's pegged, of course, to what's going on in london. >> is there a fear the eu will blow apart and germany at some point will just say enough, we can't carry five, six, seven countries on our backs? it's what germany is doing. >> and there was a poll in germany, 75% of germans say they

don't care about the euro or the european union. ge germany and france need to actually support the union if it's to survive. and now france. they have their own problems. >> front page of the financial times today, the focus of the e eurozone returns to france. merkel at least had sarkozy and the french to lean on. now it looks like merkel is going to be the last person standing, this economy standing. again, how long do the germans say we're going to carry the rest of europe on our shoulders? >> and, by the way, they don't want to and they don't like to. one of the ironies, all last week and the week before we were talking about what the u.s. debt to gdp ratio and we're now at almost 100. germany, a thriving economy, a manufacturing economy, a growing economy, has a debt to gdp ratio of 87%. it's not how big the debt is. it's about what your growth is and, again, what europe was depending on is american growth like 3% or 4%, not this anemic

less than 2% that we're thinking about. >> let's go to a couple of other stories. does the gop need rick perfery interviewed, the gunslinger? >> mark had an interview with -- oh, you're going to show something? >> we're going to wait and do that in a little bit. >> i think it's a very smart piece. and basically mark is talking about how governor perry catapults himself into the top tier because he fits a slot republicans don't have. and it'll be interesting to see what happens. >> yeah. >> what do you think? harold, rick perry? >> i think -- >> i have a total blind spot on guys that imitate george w. bush. maybe that's what america wants in 2011-2012. maybe it's just me. >> it's a great beginning to the campaign. a lot of mystery around him. i think as you peel some of it back, the country will get a chance to see if they really like what they hear.

we've heard rumors how deep a thinker he is, how his leadership abilities in texas have been overstated. we'll get an opportunity to see that. i have to tell you, his opening act has been pretty good. the question is whether or not he can sustain it. >> and, jon meacham, he had this prayer get together in texas because, of course, we know that jesus said that when you pray, go to the largest auditorium as possible and let people take images of you praying so they will think you're a holy man. >> are you being ironic? >> oh, wait a second, i think the actual quote is jesus said go into a closet and pray. unlike the hypocrites who pray on the street corner for all the world to see. did i get that right? is that what jesus said? >> and give alms in private. >> don't shoot guns on the campaign stump, things like that. >> jesus never shot a coyote. >> he never shot a coyote in reno just to watch him die. >> i have and you have. >> of course we have. >> but we're not like the guy in

that way. >> does the gop need rick perfeperry as "time" magazine asks? >> my question for rick is, this rick, is this -- is there some line of thinking this helps a figure like romney in that it gives the right a place to go that's not bachmann, that's not a little bit more -- less plausible. >> mark reckons with that in the piece but he goes two steps further and basically says perry can do well in the primary. the question is can he attract independent voters to win the presidency. and people have a lot of doubts about that. the classic nixon line, to the center and the general. we know he can run to the right. the question is can he run to the center and will he be appealing to anybody in the center. >> he's proven to be a good campaigner. he was re-elected, ran up against kay bailey hutchison and

some other forces. this is not to doubt the guy. questions remain when you don't know a lot about a guy who has just emerged on the scene, he's going to have to answer tough questions. >> my question is -- >> i don't know -- >> dallas and houston and san antonio, how is he going to play in philadelphia pu bushes, in central florida, how is he going to play in swing states? i don't think he will play well. rick, you have an interesting article by joe kleine how general petraeus sharpened our armed forces. >> he believes petraeus created this new model in the military where the special forces which were once upon a time relegated to the exterior are now at the heart of what the military is doing, the use of military, the use of counter insurgency. a doctrine moving away from the colin powell doctrine of overwhelming force which is something we can't really do anymore. he sees petraeus as the model l and the prophet of that.

>> it's going to be fascinating to see how he does in the cia. i mean, this is -- petraeus is turning, jon, into one of our more fascinating kascharacters r the past five, six years. >> he is. is he a marshall? does he have that kind of t trajectory? he doesn't seem too much the mcarthur problems. >> no. >> doesn't look like he's going to go political and burn out as mcarthur did. but we've always liked having generals around. >> yeah. >> we haven't elected one since eisenhower obviously and before that even further back. >> does kleine think he has that political future? is that in the piece? >> joe hints at it. i think petraeus has been very circumspect about it. but, you know, i can't believe he hasn't thought about it. you could look at him also as a paradigm of this kind of

bipartisan, nonpartisan political figure like generals have been in the past. he served in the republican administration, he served in a democratic administration, you know, people know he's a can-do guy. >> all right. with the straw poll just days away republican presidential hopefuls will participate in a fox news debate tonight. participate apts include michele bachmann, mitt romney, pawlenty, cain, huntsman, santorum and newt gingrich. speaking on fox last night santorum and gingrich explained how they plan to stand out in the debate. >> i'm the only person on that stage who is actually able to author a bill and work it through the united states senate that ended a federal entitlement. if you look at the big issues we're going to have to deal with from national security to our culture to dealing with our federal deficit, i'm the one on the stage that's gotten things done and has been there consistently from the beginning. >> my strategy is to be very

clear about solutions, to focus on solutions now, to suggest that talking about what i would do in january of 2013 in a country that has three wars under way, is faced with a crisis at the united nations in september over the recognition, unilateral recognition of a palestinian state, is faced with the decaying economy. >> front-runner mitt romney has not focused on campaigning in iowa as much as the other candidates but speaking to a roundtable yesterday he seemed confident. >> i imagine you're going to see more of me from time to time between now and some time early in january. you're going to be having this little event here, some caucuses here. and i'd like to do darned well in those caucuses if i'm so fortunate as to be able to do so. i would appreciate your help and look forward to helping you. >> later on fox romney explained his decision not to participate, to miss out on the upcoming straw poll. >> in a major way in the straw poll four years ago and by

virtue of doing so made a lot of friends across the state, established a political structure which will help me in the caucuses coming up, so some of the benefit i already was able to accrue based upon what happened last time around. and i want to use my financial resources and my time this time to actually get delegates. not just straw polls that are nice but don't get you delegates. the and so i'm not going to participate in the straw polls anywhere in the country. >> okay. which brings it to mind one of the must-reads that i picked this morning from "the new york times" by frank rooney. mitt romney's vanishing act. want to know what you think. a couple of romney's low profile with his history of reinvention and you wind up with a candidate who campaigns in it disappearing ink. it's tough to get a read on him and he leaves no strong impression. he did emerge from witness protection and materialized in iowa on wednesday in advance of the debate which he will actually attend but he'll leave before the straw poll on saturday. now you see him, now you don't.

can romney get all the way to the white house like this? there's still plenty of time for him to step it up but for now he's doing something risky and remarkable, asking people to vote for him while encouraging them to look away. is that fair? >> harold, he has been very low key. and, harrelold, they're pleased the republicans who have been out front. michele bachmann does well, they were thrilled when donald trump was out there. >> i think they kind of like his image. he's a business guy. he's smart. he's a governor. he has his weaknesses and shortcomings. they want to see that state fixed. i will say that he -- the most curious thing he's done is make the boneheaded comment about the debt deal the day before the deal, he kept quiet while he injected himself to go against it. a question earlier about perry. i mean, this is why perry has an opening because the front-runner in the race is invisible. and if perry is able to fill

that void, i'm not sure he wins in the general, but he could certainly find himself in a good position in the primary. >> and, by the way, i think the romney strategy is a classic strategy. if you are the front-runner in the republican party, there are a lot of candidates, you want to hide out. you don't want to go out there. >> if he says here is my health care proposal, he will be attacked by everybody. he wants to stay as vegas everybody for as long as possible. >> he must be doing something right if the white house is saying the reports are to be believed. focusing on trying to dismantle team romney. >> i think it's astute because one of my nickel theories of the moment, maybe 2 cent theories, is that one of the things the social media has done is made four years seem like eight. it doesn't feel as though president obama has been president for a long time. eight years of bush felt like 16. and he knows -- i think, at least if i were running on that strategy it would be partly

because you want to keep your party dry and you burn up so fast, so fast, people are, i think right now not paying attention to the race in the tactical sense as much as let's stabilize the market, let's get a deal, and then we'll figure out whether we want to rehire obama. >> just think of the people who have come and gone in the past couple of years on the republican side. sarah palin. a shooting star. >> she is not gone. >> and she's -- she's in an rv now. she's a shooting star now. small meteoroid in the rv. >> she's not gone. >> she's not going to run this year. donald trump, we have the same thing with donald trump for a very long time. michele bachmann is the woman of the year. that's not going to last for lopping. you know, glenn beckon tv, glenn beck was on the cover of "time" magazine. >> he had that big rally last year. >> he had a massive rally. he was one of the most

influential conservatives in america. for the most part he's gone now. >> gone so fast. forgotten but not gone. >> exactly. exactly. all right. >> hey, rick stengel, thank you so much. great cover. >> this is a great cover. the decline and fall of europe. get pat buchanan to autograph mine. >> up next, congressman peter king. also, we're going to bring in chuck todd live from des moines. but first to bill karins for a check on the forecast. bill? sunny and beautiful forecast, mika. good morning, everyone. if you're waking up in the northern half of the country this is one of those days you've been waiting for, lots of sunshine, dry weather, low humidity. the perfect summertime. 80 to 85 degrees. what's so nice, too, all the lakes and the pools and the ocean are still very warm from the hot sunner. very enjoyable to head to the pool or the beach. in texas that's the exception. 40 days in a row with 100-plus temperatures. all the way back to june for the last 90-degree day. friday is the day we're going to

tie the record. saturday we would break it. some clouds around so the high may not get to 100. that would be a close call. the rest of the country showers and thunderstorms likely in the southeast. gorgeous weather from st. louis to chicago up through minneapolis. enjoy what should be a beautiful thursday. in this box is what i need to control my diabetes, to

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a storm is gathering over iowa. a money storm. out-of-state groups like grow pac and jobs for iowa pac are flooding the iowa airwaves telling you to vote rick perry at the ames straw poll. they think they can buy your vote with their unlimited super pack money. but americans for a better tomorrow tomorrow ask what about

our unlimited super pac money? we want to you vote for rick perry, too, but not their rick perry. our rick perry. on august 13th, write in rick perry. that's parry with an "a" for america, with an "a" for iowa. america for a better tomorrow -- >> 21 past the hour. joining us now republican congressman from new york and chair of a house homeland security committee, represe representative peter king. good to have you. >> great to be here. >> a lot of congressman types here. >> what are you talking about? it's a quorum. >> we're not in the quorum, meacham and me. >> let me ask you that question -- >> well, i have to get to chuck. >> chuck is here. >> yes, from des moines, iowa, chief white house correspondent and political director and host

of "the daily rundown" looking good in des moines. >> so there's rick perry. a picture of rick perry here. we'll get the lighting a little better. praying. pray i praying to jesus in front of many political supporters as humanly possible. i'm just wondering, peter king, how is that going to play out on long island when the swing voters come next november, does it work? >> it worked as well as you would have, come to long island. >> i will tell you i do long island and rick perry. >> stop it. >> it is regional. i think that when people in the republican primaries see people in the mainstream media, if you want to call that, maybe ridiculing rick perry or saying too much prayer. that's not my style. catholics don't do that. >> don't pray. >> well, we don't do it that

way. i metric perry a number of times. he's a dynamic personality. a larger than life character. >> yeah. >> people will look at the whole picture. >> by the way, i'm a baptist. we do pray. it looks calculated. >> that's not my style. >> i just have to ask, though, again, the question is, is the republican party going to nominate somebody who can win, who can win in swing districts on long island, who can win in pennsylvania, who can win on the i-4 corridor, or are they going to nominate people like rick perry and michele bachmann who will not win a general election? >> i wouldn't write him off. go back to 1979, they were hoping ronald reagan would run because they knew that he couldn't win. >> do you think rick perry could win long island? >> against barack obama right now he could, yes, depending on how he campaigns over the next year. right now president obama is -- >> so you're a perry man. >> i know governor perry. no, i'd be a chris christie or rudy giuliani man.

>> oh, dear. that's what's going to happen. >> do you fire guns at a rally? >> you told me in congress i was a narrow minded new yorker. scarborough country, i'm just saying rick perry may appear to scarborough country. >> i think a lot of people would be nervous in scarborough country. >> i'm not here for rick perry. >> sounds like you are. >> no. you're putting him in a bad position. >> i remember two years ago in washington everybody said joe scarborough -- that rick perry was gone. that kay bailey hutchison was going to wipe him out. it wasn't even close and he beat her two to one in the primary. don't sell him short. >> good point. >> a ten-second plug. after this i'm going to a funeral for governor kerry. really all of us owe a tremendous debt and thanks. >> thank you. >> a real leader. back in the 1970s. to chuck todd now. fascinating we have a long island congressman who is

getting by rick perry. what's the impact? >> yeah, halves some endorsement. i caught the whole. >> chris: ty aspect of that. >> exactly. >> that said and i think, you know, what's been interesting out here and i heard you talk ing about it earlier, guys, is that here we are, there was a straw poll and it's two candidates not in the debate, not in the straw poll who were cast in the shadow. palin it's more of she found out 700 journalists have shown up so she suddenly wants to, i guess, come over here, drive the bus around iowa. it says something about this field and it goes back to you're going back to are republicans really going to nominate perry. i think there's a battle inside the party right now between republican heads and republican hearts. and romney is sort of the pick you would make if you're using your head, but i don't know if

that's where primary voters are this year. i think they want to vote their hearts. i think they're tired -- i think in their minds they're tired of settling. >> so who is looking strong out there? are you sensing any momentum on the ground? >> well, i'll tell you this, bachmann has all the energy. you remember these rallies and you'd be like, 0 oh, wow, obama has a lot of energy at these things and huckabee has energy. she has the excitement. tim pawlenty. right now you look at the game with the 48 hours it's tim pawlenty versus michele bachmann, right, at this point because of perry getting in it is really only going to be room for who wins the straw poll to grab a little bit of venom out of it at this point. bachmann being the iowa front-runner for all intents and purposes if you look at the poll really has to win in many cases and pawlenty needs to win to sort of charge up the campaign again. he's thrown all his money in. he's going to be broke after the straw poll and so if he doesn't

win, he's really got nowhere to go. the energy level between the two types of rallies, when you see a bachmann, it's night and day. >> unbelievable. so how many people show up at the bachmann rallies right now? >> reporter: well, it is a couple hundred and pawlenty is getting less than 100. that's sort of the difference. it's the demeanor of the candidates. body language matters so you could tell the candidates that are getting a little frustrated and you see it in pawlenty. you see it in rick santorum. he spent a lot of time in iowa, thought he could be the guy that could tap into the social conservative core inside the iowa republican party. he hasn't caught fire at all. and he's lark oshing out at ric perry and some others. you sense just the body language. bachmann is up there having fun. she's enjoying it. she's cheering on her

supporters, very responsive. and so body language can speak -- can tell you a lot sometimes. >> congressman peter king, obviously congress is out of session until september. should the president call everybody back to deal with the economic crisis? >> if he has a plan. i'm not going anywhere. i'd be happy to go back if they want me to go back. to have 435 guys going around and going through what we did for two months leading up to the debt showdown, i would say no. if the president has a plan to put on the tabling. if he did want to do something he and boehner and pelosi should get together beforehand, some sort of parameters, see if they can agree what we'll debate on. other than that just to go back i think would make the situation worse, just go down and have people making speeches and attacking each other. >> what about the possibility of a win, the gun to the head with the debt ceiling being raised. what about now in august, wouldn't that calm the markets? >> i thought john boehner and

president obama were on to something and then both -- the bases in both parties blew that up. i think we can talk about real entitlement reform, we can talk about having new revenues, whether or not you're talking raising taxes or just doing away with certain loopholes, bringing the corporate tax down, doing away with other loopholes. yeah, that's a possibility. i don't see it happening in august. it didn't happen in may or june or july. i don't see it happening now. the hopefully something like that can happen between labor day and thanksgiving. >> couldn't boehner get the same people and nancy pelosi get the same people who voted to increase the debt ceiling in a grand bargain where you had 5 democrats voting for the package? >> 95. >> 95 democrats onboard, a majority of the republicans. it seems to mean that the middle could find a solution here. >> i would like to think so.

again, i don't know. that's up to the speaker. >> but you're on the inside. what is working? 45 people voted no in the tea party. the middle can roll the tea party if they wanted to. >> a lot of others who barely voted yes, very concerned about a 'party. the 95 who voted yes, i don't know how many would if there were real changes made to medicare or social security. i think a lot of them would bail out. this is tough to do during summer months. i thought the speaker and the president were really on to something. give credit to what they tried to do. it's unfortunate that deal fell apart because i think that is where we have to go. >> doesn't it get ever harder, though, congressman, if you haven't done it, if you don't try to do it in august, if you try to think about thanksgiving and you're even closer to the election? >> i would say no. i would say right now you have members of congress back home li listening to what people are saying.

listen, i'm ready to go tomorrow. i'm one of these guys, ask my wife, who doesn't go on vacation. so i have no problem going back. you have to have so much in place for that and what could be more helpful is leadership on both sides, meeting and planning something so when we do come back we have a plan to work off of. >> chuck todd, the white house has brushed aside the idea of bringing congress back, trying to do a grand bargain now. does it look like the president will ride out august, go to martha's vineyard and wait for september to start moving? >> reporter: well, assuming the markets don't do what they keep doing, i think in talking to a couple of aides over the last couple of days about the issue here of this eidea does he have to come out and is it a grand gesture like bringing congress back and i think there are some winning the argument that say that's a little too cute. a little too tactical. but if we have another three days of this and even next

monday or tuesday where it just feels as if the economy, even though it's a global issue in europe, has this fall off the cliff aspect, right, and we're going through these gyrations of the markets and it's creating more uncertainty, you know, what i was told is, yes, over the next 48 hours assuming everything sort of ratchets back to a little bit of normalcy, they're going to ride out august. but don't rule anything out. if this volatility continues. >> chuck todd, thank you very much. we'll see you on "the daily rundown" right after "morning joe." congressman peter king, thank you as well. >> it's always a pleasure. >> up next, dr. cornell west. [ woman ] jogging stroller. you've been stuck in the garage while i took refuge from the pollen that made me sneeze. but with 24-hour zyrtec®, i get prescription strength relief

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the host of the tavis smiley show, tavis smiley, princeton university professor, dr. cornel west. they are the co-hosts of the new radio show smiley and west. i still don't know why west is second in that name because he's the superstar here. but i'm not going to get in the

middle of this. simon and garfunkel, i'm not going to ask why. despite the fact that smiley did west wrong, he agreed to go with smiley on what's called the poverty tour. it's an 18-city tour to highlight the plight of the poor in these difficult economic times and, you know, guys, it just keeps getting worse. the poverty rate, the highest since 1994. extreme poverty, higher this year that it's been in at least three years. you can go down every list and this -- this issue, i believe, is a lot like afghanistan. it's an issue nobody wants to talk about. >> talk about health care, talk about debt, don't talk about deficits. why aren't they talking about poverty, the people who are suffering right in their own neighborhoods? >> first of all, joe, i agree with everything you said and appreciate your analysis.

that said -- >> so, tavis, you agree that the professor's name should be first then? right? >> no, no. i gre with everything except -- i didn't finish. everything except that. as a matter of fact i think we should change the name to morning mika. not morning joe, morning mika. >> i'm with you. i love you, joe. to your question why we don't talk about the poor, because they are a throwaway population. they're disposable. too many poor people, joe, you are right, are more and more invisible in this country every day. it allows suffering to speak. if nobody speaks their truth, then their suffering gets rated invisible. as bad as things are mao and i won't waste your time. you intimate this had a moment ago, as bad as things are now, joe, they're about to get exponentially worse when the cuts start to kick in with this horrible, wretched deal that the white house and congress agreed to on raising the debt ceiling.

so we've raised the ceiling but there's a big hole now in the floor and a lot more poor people are going to fall through it. >> dr. west, the income disparity between the richest in america and the poorest in america has always been bad. it always has been an embarrassment. but it keeps getting worse. and for some reason it's gotten worse since the stock market crash where bankers and hedge fund people, they're making more money than ever before. ceos are getting better bonuses than ever before and yet the workforce is is getting nothing. >> absolutely. >> how does america face up to this reality? >> well, i tell you, thank god brother tavis came up with this idea, we'll keep alive the legacy of martin king. we want to say quite unequivocally one of the results of this you're is that there is a decline and fall of poor and working class americans of all colors and that decline and fall is going to lead to a decline and fall of america if we don't

come to terms with our public interest and common good and that means really coming to terms with those who seem to have an indifference to the plight of homeless veterans, children. this past year one of the great prophetic voices said this year increase in poverty among children is the highest that's ever been recorded since 1959. this is a matter of national emergency, national security. we need a sense of urgency. the yet among our elites oftentimes it's just business as usual. we're upset about that. martin luther king jr. would be upset about that. >> i wonder if we've gone, dr. west, too long without understanding or experiencing as a society as a whole what hopelessness can do and the danger that can ensue and i wonder if the two of you consider the fact this could get dangerous, that what we're

seeing in london could have a year. >> we were just talking, mika, about the fact that -- and this is the part dr. west made on our poverty tour bus on the way to the studio in atlanta. the poor too off only get talked about about -- they only get covered by the media and made a priority when they threaten the personal or economic security of the elite. now that's not a rallying call for people around the kcountry who are poor to raise up with pitchforks. the it is, though, to challenge those of us in the media, those of us in politics to consider what might happen down the road if we don't address this. here is the bottom line. i don't think these numbers are sustainable, specifically that 1% of the people can own and control more wealth than 90% of americans. that's not sustainable. at some point this country may very well get crushed under the weight of its own poverty, hence the time now to talk about how

to eradicate poverty. why not a white house conference on poverty? there are so many things we can do to take this issue seriously if we wanted to make it a priority. when we make things a priority, they get done, joe, even in washington. poverty is just not a priority to the contrary we piled on in this country. >> the greatness of the legacy of martin king and we're going to end up in memphis because of martin. the greatness of the legacy is to channel the righteous indignation toward love and justice and not hatred and revepg but that's a challenge, a major challenge and brother martin got shut down doing that as we know. >> and you know, harold ford jr., even alan greenspan is is saying the difference, the disparity between rich and poor is going to cause an economic challenge, an economic crisis. to american capitalism and he's practically a libertarian. even he's saying this is getting out of hand. >> the strain is enormous. both tavis and dr. west i thank

for doing this. you were touching on the forum on poverty. the conversation about the president calling congress back into session if you were to do that what are one or two things that should be on that agenda to address and to perhaps answer some of the questions that you all are hearing? >> massive job creation. so many have been calling for it but, also, a focus on child poverty. precious children, 21% living in poverty. the richest nation of the world. that's a moral disgrace. 38%, 39% of red, brown and black. we spent time on the reservation. we spent time in the black hood. we actually stayed with our homeless brothers and sisters in washington, d.c., the night before last. those will be the two issues i think they need to come to terms

with. >> willie geist? >> hey, tavis, it's willie. good to see you that morning. you made news over on c-span when you talked about some of your frustrations with the president saying this is the first administration in your career that hasn't invited you to the white house. what is at the core of that frustration you have with the president? what would you like to see him do that he has not done in the first two and a half years? >> i'm glad you asked that. i was surprised at the media attention the economy created. let me ask you a question first, though. first of all, my grandfather put it this way, willie. there are some fights, tavis, that ain't worth fighting. even if you win, there are other fights that you have to fight, son, even if you lose. i think the american people want to see the president fight. too often in these debates, start with health care, go to wall veit, wall street, they get their clock cleaned by the republicans. let's be honest, this is "morning joe," we can be honest. everybody knows, the republicans know this president will

compromise. they know he will capitulate and they have his number and the american people want to see the president fight. draw a line in the sand, tell us what your plan is, mr. president. we will support you. this is not an attack on barack obama. we will support you, but you have to fight. you have to push back this poverty tour is really a love tour as dr. west likes to say. we want the president to fight back. to your question on c-span i have not raised this issue in three years. for three years i have not addressed the issue because nobody asked. on c-span yesterday i was specifically asked about my relationship with the president, who i've never and been a friend -- i've known for years, been a friend for years with him. he's worked over the years as a senator, even in illinois before he got to the u.s. senate. he's worked with the kids in my foundation on leadership developments. i've known him for years. we've been friends. i was asked about my relationship and now my access to the white house. what i said was before he became president he would come on my tv and radio show regularly. when my critique of him about

not being progressive enough, i held him accountable. they won't come on the show. i have two radio shows, no radio show, no he will he vision show. i made it very clear. i'm not complaining. i'm not whining. i wouldn't have even said it yesterday but for the fact that i was specifically asked the question. and as a person in the media, i hate it when people avoid my questions, so i just don't do that. if you ask me, i'm going to tell you the truth. >> with ybut it does say someth a right-ring brother like bill o'reilly can get interviews and tavis smiley or roland martin can't, it's not a personal attack, it's just a question of a pattern here in the white house. we want accountability and most importantly we want to focus on the issues not personality. people are suffering out there. we've got to focus on the suffering. >> so, dr. west, when the white house has debt talks and they're talking about the budgets, what do you think the president of the united states brags about the fact he's willing to cut

home heating oil assistance to the poor along with the republicans, to prove he's getting tough on defense spending? we say it all the time. it's not the poor that's bankrupt in us. it's not. it's middle class entitlements. it's pentagon spending. it's a tax code. everybody knows that this isn't the problem. but what does that say to you about this president? >> we need to put pressure on him based on principle because they have checkmated both parties, republicans, mean-spirited, leading to catastrophe. we want democracy to come alive for working people. >> they're going to do it on the love tour. >> dr. cornel west and tavis smiley. >> by the way, when you guys come in studio, it's going to be west and smiley, all right?

>> gentlemen, thank you very much. >> thanks for having us on morning mika. >> thank you so much. i love that my daughter's part fish. but when she got asthma, all i could do was worry ! specialists, lots of doctors, lots of advice... and my hands were full. i couldn't sort through it all. with unitedhealthcare, it's different. we have access to great specialists, and our pediatrician gets all the information. everyone works as a team.

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and ask how you can defend against and help stop further joint damage with humira. mika, what do you want to do here? some baseball? >> how about the indians. >> the indians? >> you're looking at the a.l. central closely. >> i am. >> let's check it out. the indians and the tigers. cleveland sticking around in this race. the rookie jason kipness, a stud this year. two-run home run, five for five. ubaldo jimenez making his first home start for the indians since he was traded from the rockies. he looked good, striking out six over eight innings. the indians beat detroit 10-3, now two games behind the tigers in the central.

interesting game between the rays and the royals. there has to be a reason we're showing you the rays and the royals. david price, a fine, fine alumnus, getting showered with some sunflower seeds. rays start the ninth inning down 7-3, trying to fight back. with defense like this, this helped their cause. and the royals, evan longoria scores. two outs in the ninth. the tying run is on first. just trying to get the tying run in. but they end up winning it on this swing of the bat. sam fold deep to right center, drops in, tying run scores, that's one thing. fold goes for the triple and kansas city throws the ball away. he dives in, a triple with an error, called the chief inside the park home run. but the game winner. he got the shaving cream pie to the face. >> is longoria doing better now? he was struggling. >> a little bit better.

it is a mystery. he's still struggling. >> how did the yankees do in. >> i'm glad you asked. the yankees won last night 9-3 in a heroic effort. the red sox dropped one. and dan ugly extended his hit streak. he was in the 44, 45. this is for mika. watch the dad at wrigley field catch a foul ball, holding a tiny baby in the left arm and makes the play with the other hand. >> wow. >> what a great snag. mika loves holding a baby. >> i had a friend who saved my daughter from drowning in a pool while holding a drink. that's pretty good too. >> similar with higher stakes, yes. it is multitask. nice play by the dad and your friend for saving her daughter from drowning. senator pat toomey next. instead, they protect tax breaks for big oil.

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♪ we shall walk again the republican candidate, alberta darling, has been declared the winner by the associated press with six contests at stake, the democrats needed to take at least three of the races to take control of the wisconsin state senate, which they have now failed to do. >> it appears that the fight for the people's house, the people have been soundly defeated by other people.

got to feel bad for the people. look, everyone fought a good fight fight. it was a real democracy-strengthening exercise. let's pack it up and everyone will be civil to each other again and be ready for 2012. >> there are two more recall elections in the state. two democrats are on the hot seat. >> next week, two democrats face recalls. >> wisconsin. >> tomorrow on "morning joe," wisconsin governor scott walker will be our guest. also, david axelrod joins us from iowa. more "morning joe" in a moment. introducing the schwab mobile app.

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♪ i'm going to let the music move me around ♪ the fundamental strength of the nation is still there. we're just stuck. we're stuck with all the -- some legitimate. we have problems in europe. we have problems in -- crises, we have uncoordinated policies taking place. people are scared from a bunch of things. but this will pass too. i just -- look, i don't know when. three months, six months, nine months, a year, it will pass. uncoordinated policy. we shot ourselves in the foot. the debt ceiling thing was demoralizing to the american public. we got to stop doing that and we'll get through this. this country has been through far worse, by the way. we should remember that and i'm positive and very optimistic of the long run. >> good morning. it is 8:00 on the east coast as you take a live look at new york

city. >> it sure is pretty in new york city. going to be a great day today. >> yep. back with us on set, john meacham and harold ford jr. >> how are you doing, harold? >> i'm good this morning. >> jamie dimen says things are going to get better. i trust him. what about you? >> the right message, the right tone, and, you know, financial markets had to enjoy hearing him say that. invests her to appreciate hearing him say that. i hope the white house and those in washington heard the message loud and clear. not only do we need to work together, but the tone, the message needs to be more coordinated. the policy needs to be more coordinated. i was pleased to hear him yesterday. i don't think i was alone either. >> no. good to hear him out there. >> a very -- sort of hard to find, but there are bright spots. i was reading -- >> really? >> yes. i heard about tech firms hiring. >> that's good. >> and there are bright spots. >> little bright spots.

>> maybe we'll get there. >> investors fleeing u.s. stocks in droves for the second time this week as concerns about the health of french banks and fears of another global economic downturn led to steep losses on wall street. the dow tumbling 519 points, over 4.6%, wiping out all gains from the previous session. it is the average's fourth triple digit move in five days, the s&p shedding 51 points, a loss of nearly 4.5%. the nasdaq dropping 101 points, finishing with a loss of 4%. as of wednesday's close, the dow lost over 2,000 points since july 21st. the start of the slide of the index is down 15.75% over the last 14 trading sessions. the latest slide comes as president obama met with members of his economic team in addition to fed chair ben bernanke and treasury secretary tim geithner to discuss the outlook for the

the u.s. recovery, jobs and deficit reduction. it was their third meeting this year. and, you know, the super committees, almost all of them have been chosen. >> that's an interesting group. >> yes. >> john meacham, let's talk presidents. this president is taking a pounding from just about all sides. couple of days ago we were comparing it to what cart weaer going through in 1979. are there any other comparisons? >> that's the most apt. you could look at bush '91 and sort of as '91 became '92, heading into the tough new hampshire climate, bush had to deal with primary challenger, obviously, and governor buchanan in '92. but it is a moment of drift in which i think the last thing a president wants to be is part of

the entire scenario that has people worried about drift and decline. either be invisible and get off totally, or, you know, be in charge. the president has, i think interestingly, sort of ended up in the worst possible position. >> as a historian, a presidential historian, looking at real time at this president, how are you, your breed going to be judging this president and his first three -- >> and are we too caught up in the moment by moment? >> well, character has seemed to have formed pretty solidly over the first three years. >> yes, it has. to go to mika's thing quickly, i always resist superlativitis, this is the most this, the worst that, the best that. >> me too, i know. >> at some point there is a point of, you know, a tipping point and it is hard to continue

the argument, if only x, obama would be doing better. it is a political reality. you break it, you own it. and he may not have broken the whole thing, but he didn't put it all back together. >> a new washington post poll has president obama's overall job approval rating at 44%. and disapproval rating at 46%, both are down from three weeks ago. and it is his lowest approval rating since september of 2010 when it was at 46%. we also have other polls to look at. a new reuters poll shows 73% of americans think the country is headed in the wrong direction. and 21% say it is headed in the right direction. that washington post poll also shows 78% are dissatisfied with the u.s. political system. >> that was the number that right track/wrong track, right direction/wrong direction, was the first sign of trouble for

bush in '92. that number was trending in the wrong direction. >> the big problem that the president has right now is that people, i think it has been talked about in some of the columns in the last few days, people are questioning his leadership abilities. it used to be an empathy question, if he fully understood, but they're questioning leadership capacity now which is problematic. i hope he calls the congress back immediately. i hope he lays out a plan for them to vote on. i hope he sticks by that plan and urges all of them who i know, you and i having served there is one thing members of congress understand, the market going up and down. it is easy to understand when you have a 2,000 point loss in the market over a two-week period, a little over a two-week period. you have to have a plan when you call him back. this president had the worst august of any president in history. republicans picked up momentum to win the majority in 2010 and this august with these challenges, but he's proven to

be mr. november and december. he won in '08 and '09, extended the bush tax cuts and he wins to win in november and december of this year. if not, it proves real trouble for next year. i'm a support, a friend. there are real questions now about the leadership capacity. in listening to jamie dimon, what was refreshing to hear him say yesterday and hear the tone, he sounded like a leader. we're going to get out of this and here is how we're going to do it. the president needs to do the same. >> saying yesterday, jon, i'm reading another fdr biography about a privileged youth, a radicalized presidency. >> traitor to his class. >> traitor to his class. >> that's it. you read two or three pages of that, see roosevelt as the bombs are dropping at pearl harbor, just taking it all in, calling his cabinet people in, making tough decisions throughout his

entire presidency. there was this strength and leadership that americans yearned for, willie, and you just had harold talking about needing congress to come back and you look, parliament has come back in the rioting stopped in london, it is starting to stop across england and this president, of course, said, no, he's not going to do that. that wouldn't do any good. it wouldn't do any good if you don't know how to lead. if you know how to lead, it actually would do good. is he planning on going on vacation this august? >> he is. supposed to go to martha's vineyard. i don't know why there is any question if congress should come back. this is a huge crisis. >> this is a massive crisis. >> about as big as it gets. it would be nice if everyone were back working. that's one thing, we talk about the president's style, which is important, we have to think about the substance. why are the markets going up and down? fwlauz a because there are doubts about the economy here and across europe. we know what the problem is. what are we going to do?

we have the super committee. does that get us anywhere? is this a group of people that is going to get together and make serious decisions about what we have to do to reduce our debt, about what we have to do to create jobs. i don't think there is a lot of hope that either. >> right now, though, we don't need a super committee, we need a strong president. and for this president to say, bringing congress back in is not going to do anything, it just makes him -- >> everyone is writing off his super committee. is that because it is a joke? >> we don't know if it is a joke or not. that's not going to -- that's not going to calm the markets in the next week. >> nor is it going to calm voters. the super committee's job is to focus on the cuts in november and december which there is a relationship between that and certain instability in the markets. bringing him back and voting on a moratorium on new regulations over the next two years, bringing them back to vote on a repatriation tax cut or homeland investment act to allow money generated overseas to come back at a much lower rate, to bring them back to vote on a payroll

tax extension for business and employees this is something congress could do, the president would show leadership and have a material impact. >> bring them back to extend unemployment benefits. >> that would be part of it. unemployment benefits would be part of this as well. >> you sound like a wall street guy. all the tax cuts for business own owners. >> main street is wall street. when main street does what wall street does, we have to stop disconnecting them. that was part of jamie's comments yesterday. >> i've got to say, i asked if the president is going on vacation, i said over the past three years, i think there is nothing more important than the president getting away with his family, clearing his mind, going golfing, if he likes golfing, golfing, if he likes bowling, bowling, if he likes cross stitching, cross stitching, whatever you like as a president, do that. >> anyone like cross stitching as a president. >> there was a little cribbage in the fdr years. >> but if we're in this global

economic crisis, which could be just as dangerous as 2008, if not more, and you've got members of congress out on vacation right now, and you've got the president getting on a plane to go up to martha's vineyard, and this crisis is still going on, that is every bit as striking and jarring to americans and to markets as was his refusal to go down to the gulf coast during the bp oil spill. >> i think we can't ignore what is happening in england. i mean, and just because this is -- >> well, the riots in england, economically in france, i fear france is about to get downgraded. that's going to be devastating for the euro zone. we are all connected. the markets crashed yesterday in part because of the fears of what's going on in europe. i'm sorry, members of congress need to be back at work and this president need not fear members of congress being back at work.

he needs to figure out how to talk to them and they need to figure out how to talk. >> everybody should feel a commitment to be there. it just doesn't even -- >> john chambers, as you well know, dramatized the political dysfunction and the political challenges we face in washington. that's clearly a part -- part of the analysis. as part of the analysis globally. that's the reason, if no other, that congress needs to come back and to willie's point demonstrate that they are working to wrap their arms around this challenge and to show and to demonstrate to regulators that our political system is not as dysfunctional as evidenced over the last two to three weeks. >> that's the asset having been away a little bit. the s&p happens, the s.e.a.l.s are killed, the riots in england, i mean it was this incredible period where it felt as though the world was cracking apart. and the president was curiously not making an impression

watching it just as, again, from that sort of -- >> barnacle was so upset, more upset off air than on air yesterday, but, in fact, the fact that the president waited to talk about the s.e.a.l.s and then kind of put that on the end of a press conference. oh, and by the way. somebody in the white house doesn't get it. somebody in the white house is clueless when you have 30 americans die and it is treated that way, when, again, i'm baffled. and i'm rooting for the president. we're all rooting for the president. if rush limbaugh is still rooting against the president, then he's also rooting for america to be in a fast decline, rooting for his stocks to collapse. these are precarious times and we need a president who knows what he's doing and we need a president who has the support of the american people. but right now, this president is

just creating a lot more questions than answers. >> you can call it theater, but it is a question of urgency. people have urgency in their lives now. they don't have jobs, they can't pay their bills, they want to know he's there, they want to know congress is there, not just the president, congress should be there fighting to change this. i think an explicit jobs plan is something they would like to hear from the president. congresswoman jane shakowski came out yesterday and put something on the table. most of it won't get passed but he had said, here is what we should do to get people back to work. it would be nice to have the president come out and say that. >> to go to fdr, we need a spirit of bold, persistent experimentation. if something fails, admit it frankly, but try something. always try something. >> coming up, a week after he voted against the debt ceiling deal, senator pat toomey is now nominated to serve on the debt super committee. >> that's exciting. >> we'll talk to him in a few minutes. also, israel, the latest country to see mass protests over the economic conditions and the cost

of living there. we'll bring in the mayor of jerusalem, nir barkat and mort zuckerman. first to bill karins with a check on the forecast. >> a great forecast, finally. >> a gorgeous weather pattern out there. i'll take a second to talk about the hurricane season upcoming, a tropical season. we haven't had a hurricane yet. that peak period is from august to the middle of october. the next two months is where we ratchet it up, get the big storms. look at the tropical basin, right now, all is quiet. we have probably at least another week until any storms would get close to any land areas, talking about the caribbean, or the united states. we're going to join this quiet period while it lasts. by this time next week, things will be a lot more active. joe mentioned electronic it ee gorgeous forecast. you love 80s after the 90s. 90s and 100s all summer long. this is great weather from indianapolis to st. louis, detroit, chicago, minneapolis,

kansas city. texas, still in the 100s, that looks to continue into the weekend. almost tastes like one of jack's cereals. fiber one. uh, forgot jack's cereal. [ jack ] what's for breakfast? um... try the number one! [ jack ] yeah, this is pretty good. [ male announcer ] half a day's worth of fiber. fiber one. stay healthy - and get on with my life.

it comes from liberty medical. and now, it's not only where i get my diabetes testing supplies - but it's where i get my prescription drugs as well. if you're on medicare, the cost of your diabetes testing supplies as well as your prescription drugs may be covered. liberty takes care of all the paperwork with medicare and sends the prescription forms directly to your doctor for approval. then, on your schedule, packs up this box and sends it right to your door with no charge for shipping. liberty assures you have what you need to manage your diabetes, and that starts with a free meter. call today and get a free meter. plus, when you join you'll get a free cookbook. call liberty. they can help you live a better life. call the number on your screen.

♪ nothing should be off the table. every contingency should be looked at. the police are already authorized to use battling rams and as i said yesterday, while they would not be appropriate now, we do have in place contingency plans for water cannon to be available at 24 hours notice. and on dealing with crowds, we are looking also at the use of

the existing dispersal powers and with any wider power of curfew is necessary. mr. speaker, whenever the police face a new threat, they must have the freedom and the confidence to change tactics as necessary. this government will always make sure they have the backing and political support to do so. the fight back has well and truly begun, but there will be no complacency and we will not stop until this mindless violence and thuggery is defeat and law and order is fully restored on all of our streets. >> david cameron this morning before an emergency session of parliament. joining us now, the mayor of jerusalem, mayor nir barkat and the editor in chief of "u.s. news & world report" and co-publisher of "the new york daily news," mort zuckerman. mr. mayor, first of all, how do you think england and london, specifically the police, is handling the protesting there? and i would like to get to what has been happening in jerusalem. >> i met mayor borris johnson a few weeks ago. i believe they have to get riots

under control. they must use all the measures they have to put back order in london. i believe they're capable and will do that. and you must not let violence get any gains. that's the bottom line. the rioters must gain nothing in this process. >> they were late a little bit, for sure, on reacting. rioting in tel aviv over the past weekend. this over the economic situation, very specific we're looking at our situation, we're looking at what is happening in other countries. give us a sense of where it stands now in israel, and also how it was handled. >> well, first of all, we have -- we're very proud that 250,000, 300,000 demonstrators can go in the streets without fear of tanks. we're talking about a region and era where rioting is not a simple thing or demonstrating and the demonstration is about improving the distribution of the wealth and the opportunity and decreasing the high cost of

living for the middle class in the country, which is a majority of the people. the majority are demonstrating. and it is not against a specific government. it is against a policy of changing the distribution of opportunity and wealth. >> some of the debates are similar to what we're seeing here. >> absolutely. >> in terms of -- it is unbelievable the parallels. >> absolutely. you touched on some of the unrest that surrounds you in the middle east. we see every day it seems like a new report out of syria that people have been shot in the streets in cities like kanaa. what impact does this have on he's sflael. >> first, our economy, we have 5.7% unemployment. we grew last year 4.5%, our gdp, which is much higher, almost higher than the average. so the macro economy in israel is good. we have to maintain that growth. it enables us stability. if you look around us, the countries around us, it is amazing to see the difference in

the quality of the government and the governance. it is amazing to see the double standard in the world, how people look at syria, the slaughter happening in syria, and the world is criticizing at best the situation there. i think i am concerned. i am concerned about stability in the middle east and the focus should be how can the western world help democracy become better in our town -- our surrounding. >> mort, that's a good question. we see statements from secretary of state hillary clinton, from the u.n., condemning it publicly. when do words and condemnation cease to be enough? >> well, it is not enough in that part of the world. i mean, we see what is going on in syria. it is really extraordinary. and it is not enough in libya. we don't know exactly how to deal with that because we have enough on our plate as a country in terms of two wars we're already fighting. it is a difficult challenge for us. i just want to go back to israel for one thing. because it is not just a -- it

is true that israel has had a much larger gdp growth and much lower unemployment rate. but the distribution of wealth as you say produced huge social problems, particularly when the ultra orthodox gets such benefits relative to the people who are working it and as we were saying before, one third of the people work, one third of the people pay taxes and one third of the people serve in the army and it is the same one third. this is a real social issue for israel. how is that going to be dealt with? >> democratically. i think the government now understands. by the way, nobody in the government disagrees with the reasons for the demonstrations. the challenge is how to distribute the wealth differently and enable the future of the country, which is the middle class, which is actually holding the country on its shoulders as you said to give it a better opportunity, to decrease costs of living, to enable living in israel easier and then build a better future. so the government has to struggle with the question how

to do that, how to fix the microeconomy. i believe the government is capable. if not, the change is going to be in the next elections somewhere down at the beginning of 2013. >> mr. mayor, what is the view from israel and from your city of what's happening in the united states right now? you watch the dow go up and down every day, a two-month knockon brawl. what is the thought? >> there is a joke that they said about ben guren, first head of state in israel, there is going to be a drought next year. he said, where? they said here in israel. so he said he was deeply concerned that the drought may be in the u.s., but now he's calm. we're deeply concerned because the relationship between israel and the united states is a strategic relationship. we understand that stability in

the united states is probably one of most important things for us back home in israel. so we are deeply concerned and we would like to see the economy in the u.s. become much better. it is in the best interest of the whole free world and israel is, of course, our ability to influence the u.s. is irrelevant and we really would like to see your economy become much stronger and better. >> interesting thing about israel is you've developed a high tech economy and an export-driven economy. and in part you benefited from russians who were basically expelled from the country and very highly educated and were able to help kick off the high tech boom. our problem is our real unemployment rate is closer to 20% and we are not moving in the direction of a high tech economy nearly enough to employ the kind of people that we have who are unemployed where we are in an industrial economy facing competition from countries like china and india and vietnam, you name it. so we have a much more difficult

issue to try and resolve. >> i agree. our challenge in israel is to make israel attractive for the middle class and businesses to open up businesses and indeed we're doing very well in that process. there the risk that the u.s. is entering is that if it is not attractive, people migrate their business in the global economy to other places. and i already see signs of that. even global companies are reducing their head count in the u.s. and expanding in other places, europe, the far east and israel. the challenge you have is you're not in a vacuum. the u.s. is not in a vacuum. you're plugged into the global marketplace. you are the de facto standard for many, many year and we have the risk of losing that. >> we're the de facto standard? >> we have been. we are the driver of the basically of the western economy. the united states is. we have been -- and we are the -- this is one of the things that people do not really understand about the financial crisis. we hold the world financial crisis together. and if we begin to disintegrate, i mean, it is just going to be a

huge issue for everybody. >> it could be unrecoverable if it continues this way. we would like to see the u.s. continue to lead the world and the world economy. and you have the risk, we all have a risk that you may lose that. everyone is going to pay a price. >> from your view, how close are we to becoming unrecoverable? >> well, it is about leadership. i expect the american dream of leaders and the opportunity -- the land of opportunity to take advantage of the opportunity that you have right now. and jump up to the plate and make a difference. we would like to see that happen. >> mayor nir barkat, thank you for coming back on the show this morning. good to see you again. our next guest is one of the 12 nominated to the debt super committee, senator pat toomey. every day, all around the world, energy is being produced to power our lives.

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i think a lot of policies out of washington have been contributing to the promise we have, especially on the regulatory side. the uncertainty of the size of the deficits and whether that's going to lead to higher interest rates, inflation, higher taxes, that's not constructive. so making some progress here, i think, you know, could go a long

way to encouraging the kind of certainty and confidence that people need. >> i think every member of congress who is elected and sent to washington to represent his or her constituents has a responsibility to act seriously when asked to deal with such a serious issue. and the president expects that the appointed members of this select committee will do so. >> welcome back, joining us now from philadelphia, republican senator from pennsylvania, appointed to be a member of the debt super committee. >> exciting. >> senator pat toomey. >> good morning, guys. >> he's a big spender. your whole career being a big, big, pork barrel -- >> you're not supposed to tell everyone, joe. >> so is there any chance for a deal? you look at the front pages of the newspapers and the markets are thinking, obviously the people are thinking they better get there somehow.

can you do it? >> i sure hope so. based on my preliminary discussions, you know, the membership on our side was announced only yesterday morning, but i can tell you there is a real desire to get something done. i had an encouraging brief conversation with max baucus. i think he's got a great frame of mind he's bringing to this. you know, i think give us a chance. i think we want to do something meaningful. >> i'm not dgoing to have you negotiate against your position. a lot of people asking this question. if you can get $3 trillion in cuts, for $1 trillion in revenue closing loopholes, is that even a possibility with this group? >> you prefaced the question with the right observation, joe. this isn't the format for me to put lines in the sand or to start negotiating, but let me just say this, guiding principles and the guiding principles for me are going to be meaningful deficit reduction in a way that is progrowth. and there sis a lot of opportunity to do that. there should be a lot of

opportunity for common ground. this isn't going to work unless there is some appealing elements for both sides. i understand that. i'm sure everybody does. so i really hope we'll be able to accomplish something. >> what happens if you don't? there is across the board cuts that go into effect. is the enforcement mechanism truly an enforcement mechanism or just going to be more bad news for our economy because nothing happened? >> i think it is both. that's part of why i'm cautiously optimistic we ought to be able to accomplish something. it is automatic cuts that are really hard to swallow for most members of congress. huge cuts in defense that most republicans will find very, very uncomfortable. cuts in nondefense discretionary spending that many of my democrat friends would find very problematic. so that's not appealing. the other element of this, of course, is that it would be -- it would cause further lack of confidence if that's possible. but a further democrat in addition of any remaining

confidence in congress' ability to get things done. so that combination, i think, is going to put a lot of pressure on us to try to reach an agreement. >> mort zuckerman here. >> what is your principle objective here? what do you think is the single most important thing the committee has to do and that you think the committee ought to do? >> i think the most important thing is to make credible reductions in the size of the deficit. i think that's going to come from the spending side. i think there have been a lot of elements to this from other groups. we on the committee probably aren't going to do a whole lot of reinventing wheels. we're going to look at some thoughtful work that's been done by other groups, by other commissions, by other folks that have vetted meaningful ideas, that have demonstrated some political support. i think we ought to look to those opportunities and move with them, some of them. >> a lot of economists think that in the second half of this year there is going to be a lot of diminution of the fiscal

stimulus and one of the objectives might be a short-term fiscal stimulus and long-term fiscal debt reduction or fiscal deficit reduction. is this a theory you think will be helpful in your dialogue with the various other groups? >> well, i would just speak for myself on that, i'm not in the keynesian school of thought that buys into the idea that the government gets some uniquely beneficial multiplier effect on spending. if we make meaningful progress on reductions in spending, and deficit reducks in the near term and going forward with the -- hopefully some structural changes, i think that would be extremely encouraging to markets and confidence building and that would be very constructive for the economy. >> senator toomey, willie geist. good to see you this morning. we hope for the best out of this committee but nancy pelosi said this week, in fact that one of her goals is to protect medicare and medicaid and social security against guys like you. and on the other side, i know you're not going to be very

interested in raising revenues. why should the american people believe that you guys -- these two sides can come together in the middle somewhere to reach a big deal that makes real impact on the economy. >> look, i'm not suggesting this is going to be easy. it is not going to be easy. it is going to be really tough. there have been a lot of good ideas that have been vetted that have political support. there is a lot of pressure on us. as joe can tell you this committee has some unique opportunities because the simple majority within the committee, voting on a piece of legislation, can then force the up or down vote in the house and the senate. leadership can't abstract it. it is not subject to a filibuster, you can't amend it. so that creates a dynamic that is extremely unusual and really ratchets up the incentive of the members of the committee to find some common ground. >> entitlements have to be on the table, right? >> they have to be. look, we all know that the long-term driver of the deficits we have, not the very short-term, frankly in the last few years have been mostly discretionary spending, but in

the medium and long-term, we're not going to change the fiscal course we're on unless we address the big entitlement programs. >> senator pat toomey, thank you so much for being with us. >> thanks for having me, guys. >> we greatly appreciate it. and when is your work supposed to be done? >> november -- before thanksgiving. we need to report out of the committee a product and the congress has to vote on it before christmas. >> okay. so by that time, willie, the red sox will have already beaten the phillies. >> wow. don't be so sure. >> yeah. >> all right. thanks. >> thank you so much. >> we're getting new weekly jobless numbers coming up. business before the bell. >> didn't close the door. >> no, he didn't. >> compromise. i am hopeful. [ male announcer ] notebooks,

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voting to take care of the wealthy. not the middle class. it's time to bring jobs back to america. seiu cope is responsible for the content of this advertising. meet pnc virtual wallet. it comes with a calendar that shows you all your finances at once. it lets you know when your money's going out. and when it's coming in. it even tells you when you're running low. we call that danger days. it's built to help you see your money in a whole new light. experience everything virtual wallet has to offer at pncvirtualwallet.com. pnc bank. for the achiever in you. ♪ welcome back. 44 past. let's bring in cnbc's simon

hobbs live at the new york stock exchan exchange. how is it going? >> weekly jobless figure has come out. it is good news. we have fallen 7,000 below 400,000. it is 395,000. and that's actually a four-month low. in the different environment, we could get quite enthusiastic about that. that's small news, small reductions but our big problem is, of course, is that on tuesday the federal reserve said we're going to give you ultra low interest rates for two years because we has seen that's how bad it is going to be for two years. it is difficult for the market to rally on that. let me come back to just remind you that in just under three weeks we have now lost 2,000 points on the dow. the wealth construction that we this is the equivalent of one fifth of the annual output of the u.s. economy. and yesterday, you know, we really summed it down, 590 points on the session. the volume and volatility we're seeing is really unnerving

people. we still got a problem coming out of europe with some of the french banks. >> massive volatility. >> things are calming down a little bit in streets of london and across the uk. that's good news. what is happening there? >> you probably know more about that than i do. they're having an emergency meeting of parliament today. they recalled parliament to talk about it. a lot of tough action. interestingly enough, in one of rupert murdoch's papers "the sun" they ran a poll and of the readers, the rupert murdoch readers, one in three thought it was about time they use live ammunition on those that were attempting to loot. there is a lot of anger in the uk. >> yes. they're saying basically the driving motivation of these riots has less to do with social justice and more to do with stealing 45 inch wide screen tvs from stores, that it is just pure thuggery.

>> it is. but if you're in government, you still got to work out how you prevent that. i think that does come back to the social issues. that's not a normal society that you're seeing there on your television screen. there are people in london that are appalled. we expected to host the olympic games next year. that's not what you see on the streets of london. yes, it is thuggery. it is absolutely appalling. what do you do if you're in government? how do you deal with that? that's not a normal society. it has to come back surely to social nobility, doesn't it? >> it does. there is no doubt about it. there has to be that. >> be inclusive. so they feel included so they don't actually bang their way through. did you see some of them cueing up incidentally? they're cueing in the streets to loot some of the electronic stores. >> stand in line to steal. >> be polite. >> 14th in the line to steal a

tv. >> simon hobbs. >> excuse me, may i snatch that window? >> tomorrow on "morning joe," wisconsin governor scott walker as well as david axelrod. up next, the best of late night. [ male announcer ] this is the network. a network of possibilities. excuse me? my grandfather was born in this village. [ automated voice speaks foreign language ] [ male announcer ] in here, everyone speaks the same language. ♪ in here, forklifts drive themselves. no, he doesn't have it. yeah, we'll look on that. [ male announcer ] in here, friends leave you messages written in the air. that's it right there. [ male announcer ] it's the at&t network. and what's possible in here is almost impossible to say.

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sees mitt romney as the likeliest republican candidate and plans to strongly attack him personally as a phony and here is the key word, as weird. why that word, weird? >> it is pseudo to bring in the mormonism issue. >> they're going to use weird for code word for mormon i'm starting to respect that urban rhythmic socialist kenyan secret muslim. >> they're making robo calls to voters blaming crede ining demoe credit downgrade. i thought i got a robo call from mitt romney. turns out it was mitt romney. hello, jimmy. vote for me. during a speech this week, michele bachmann said she won't use teleprompters if she's elected president. then she added, and that's a promise from me to -- hang on. hang on. i got it here somewhere. here it is. good afternoon.

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content of this. >> the dow lost 519 points today. it is the single biggest drop since two days ago. everybody is trying to make sense of these markets. luckily, the new york post explained it all with today's cover story, crazy stocks, like a hooker's drawers, up, down, up. this is analysis that everyone can understand. get a hooker, everyone's excited that her panties are up. then the underwear starts to drop, people start getting upset, grown men are crying, worried for their futures and their children, then the hooker pulls her underwear up, happy days are here again, somebody rings a bell and everybody goes home. if you paid the extra 50 bucks for the bell, and it is not a bell. i personally look forward to more of this kind of analysis such as, london, just like a

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joe". time to talk about what we learned today. >> i was reminded yesterday of the excellence of the nypd up on the top of this very building, talking a guy off the ledge. that's the nypd emergency services unit preventing a guy from jumping off the building. fdny chipping in too. >> saved his life. saw at the end, saved his life, holding him. >> okay. >> we need a little more nypd in london. >> oh, stop. bill bratton, will they pick bill bratton. >> i love cueing up the steal in london. that shows you the quality of english culture. >> polite looting. >> what did you learn, mika? >> there is now proof. >> proof of what? >> men can indeed multitask. >> really? >> if it is at a game and they're catching a ball and holding a baby. why can't they clean