at the to have the the show we aed why are you awake. >> mike writes i had to see if gadhafi will be on the new season of "dancing with the stars." >> rob kardashian, gadhafi, that would be a big coup. "way too early" hands things off to "morning joe" right now. why is the president certain that hillary won't run against him? [ laughter ] >> you win the award for originality today.

the president's focused not on any election. he's focused now on the job, growing the economy, create jobs, ensure that americans who are in the path of this hurricane are taken care of. >> i understand, but you're running away from this question. i mean, can you guarantee that -- are you sure that she's not going to run? >> you'd have to ask her. we're fairly confident -- >> that she won't? >> that we need to focus on the task at hand. >> well, good morning. it is tuesday, august 30. welcome to "morning joe." with on us set, the editor for new york magazine, john heilman. you going to have motor mouth, verbal vomit? >> i hope so. >> nbc news's peter alexander, double duty today. >> so exciting. >> welcome. >> and former communications director for president george w. bush, nicole wallace, with us. good to see you. >> how are you doing?

>> all right. >> i watched you while on vacation. you were awesome. >> on vacation? >> like 30 seconds. >> i got to sit next to the reverend al. >> awesome. >> yeah. it was awesome. >> good to have. >> that's interesting. >> well, not for me. >> like ebony and ivory. >> something like that. >> so you -- as you were listening to the clip, jay carney had to endure yesterday the questions, you had to laugh. >> a guffaw, as a reporter who would have found this juicy has to field whether hillary clinton will primary her boss. good stuff. i like it. >> the president, though -- i was surprised, saw something yesterday. obviously his numbers are going down. much like george bush's started to do. only one in four democrats are

disaffected with barack obama. they want him to be their guy again in 2012. he still has a loyal, loyal base. >> throughout the first 2 1/2 years, there's always talk about, you know, the liberals being upset. it -- you have to put aside the left blogosphere and focus on the base of the democratic party -- young voters, black voters, hispanic voters. he's historically had a high level of support from them. there's been slippage in the last couple of months, but not much. he's very popular with democrats. >> and we get this cycling through every year. oh, is hillary going to run, oh, she's not going to run. thenruss feingold going to challenge the president. at the end of the day, john's right -- this one time. the president has an extremely loyal base, they're going nowhere. >> the base isn't going anywhere. clearly the decision that will

be made some by the independents. in the middle of this country in three to five states, they'll decide what happens here. obama's going to need more than just the base to support him but record numbers, i think, of democrats to come out and those independents in the states that give them -- >> where are they going to go? >> the democrats aren't going to go anywhere. it's the independents in the middle need a good alternative. >> his base wasn't the traditional democratic base. the whole obama story, and you talked about this on election day morning, was all of the first-time voters that he animated and excited -- he changed the behavior of millions of voters. >> for sure. >> they were first-time voters. those are not reliable voters. those are people who have probably moved six times since the election. they were college kids. they're not people who know where to go -- will they go through the hassle of figuring out where to vote or ordering an absentee ballot to vote for him again? i think that's a concern. >> and we're talking about two different things. but, you know, peter's exactly right, too. the independents win the general

election. hare in the primary, they're not -- the first-time voters, independents aren't going to play a role. the president is locked down. it happens very rarely, john, when you have an incumbent president being challenged. every time it does happen in a serious way, it always spells doom, whether you're talking about lbj in 1968 with the challenge from gene mccarthy from the left or in 1992, george h.w. bush being challenged by pat buchanan from the right. it always spells doom for the president. that's why the white house obviously has got to make sure this doesn't happen. but the likelihood is minimal. >> specifically as hillary, as you pointed out -- when you get challenged in a primary as incumbent president, you get challenged from the other from the extreme side. from the right, if you're a republican, or the left if you're a democrat. hillary clinton has no pace is in which to challenge barack obama in a democratic primary. she's been lockstep with him on every issue. if anything she's been more conservative. >> isn't that more alarming?

isn't it suggested in the vein of perhaps the more competence nominee? that's more alarming -- >> hillary? >> that's more alarming as a white house staffer than if someone suggested he be challenged from the far left. >> sure, but hill rea's n -- hillary's not going to challenge. >> of course not. >> that would be alarming. how are things going in your hometown? your school got flooded yesterday. is it any better? >> mika's so angry, she's ready to run for mayor. talk about it. >> no. >> preach sister, sister. >> we have no power until saturday. >> we were told we're not going to have power for two weeks. we're going to be talking to certain governors this morning, seeing what he's going to do about it. >> is it one in three homes in the state of connecticut have no power. one in three homes in the entire state. >> a lot of skpeem why that is. if you drive through connecticut, it's gorgeous. there are so many trees, though.

>> that's the problem. >> those gorgeous trees find power lines. >> very wet summer. >> if you're connecticut power and light, where do you start? you've got a lot of towns completely wiped out as far as electricity goes. all along the coastline. we've got none. and inland also. absolutely none. so anyway, are you going to run for mayor of your town? >> i think my daughter is. she did a video on it. >> so angry, though. >> she was excited to go back to school, actually. >> how far under water is the school? >> the first floor, everything. everything. the track, the football field. >> who would have guessed that if you built a school -- >> on a flood plain. and if gets completely covered. down by the river. >> there's the van and -- >> let me tell you something -- >> it rises up -- >> it's been flooded several times. why didn't they know it was going to happen again? i can't help myself. >> guys, this is wayne, new jersey, we're looking at. obviously flooding is going to

be crippling northeast towns this morning. >> unbelievable. >> you're going to have runoff from connecticut, new york, all the way from vermont down. where's that water going to go? >> nowhere. >> there is, it's called new jersey. and new jersey got so much rain -- >> look at that. incredible. >> you heard a meteorologist say if new jersey were flat it would be six, eight inches under water. well, that water's coming to new jersey. we have an ongoing challenge there. we'll be talking to corey booker who -- i love following this guy. seriously -- >> you follow him on twitter? >> if the world comes to an end, i want corey booker in charge because i can tell him, "my town is stuck on the roof due to martians," and he'll tweet, "i'll be right over with a ladder." >> showed one pizza. he'll show up with pizza and get -- >> no one says no to a free pizza. that's what he kept doing. >> he's very good with the social media. >> he does it in real time.

this is upstate new york. >> good lord, harriman. >> you look at the water, not only upstate new york, connecticut, vermont. who would have expected vermont to get hammered the way it did? parts of vermont getting slammed by floods. again, these water are going south. again, that's going to be a great challenge for states in the coming days. >> up and down the east coast they're looking at 40 confirmed deaths. 7.4 million power outages along the east coast. and according to one estimate, up to $10 billion in damage. so it's going to be a long haul for a lot of people. again, you know, this are some areas where they said, oh, the wind wasn't bad. water can be just as devastating for communities. there's nowhere to put it. no way to stop it. >> $7 billion to $10 billion in damage. peter alexander, this storm for

the most part was a lot less than advertised. and this just tells you how deadly and how expensive a northeast storm can be. again, if -- a level 4, category 4 or 5 goes through northwest florida, my home region, it depends on where it hits. it can knock down a lot of pine trees. you have something that devalves into a tropical storm can be devastating. if this had been a cat 2 or cat 3, i hate to think of the number of deaths, and i hate to think of the amount of money it would have cost. >> i think this clearly ends the conversation on was this hurricane overhyped. we think of hurricanes in the hollywood-type version, blown-out windows. we aeched, frankly -- anticipated, frankly, that this was going to be a disaster zone, a mess. while the intensity numbers were off, they can't yet anticipate -- i was with the hurricane hunters. they can't yet record how intense the storm is going to be as well as they would like.

they did anticipate all the water coming down. the fact of the matter is this is going to be one of the ten if not top five worst hurricanes ever to hit this country in terms of damage. numbers are still rising in terms of victims and money being spent. >> i can tell you somebody that obviously had a very keen interest in hurricanes because we followed them for all of my life. you never know what they're going to do. sometimes -- you know, sometimes there are hurricanes that come on shore. in a couple years i -- i think in 2005 it was dennis that came on shore in the middle of the summer. he was a category 4. everybody was underground. and the emergency response, they thought this was going to be worse than ivan. it looked horrific. and we were actually out of town at the time. i was reporting, and i was thinking, my god, this is going destroy us a year after -- it came on shore, and it just collapsed. i mean, it collapsed. it did nothing to the city. there are other times where you have a category 1 or 2 that you don't think is going to do anything, and it's more deadly

because of a storm surge. i'll tell you this -- and this is a great test run for new york officials, for new jersey officials, connecticut officials. if a category 2 had hit new york city, then yes, you would not want anybody within 100 miles of the city because i've seen what 100 or 120 mile-per-hour winds can do. they would have torn this city to pieces. >> vermont hammered by irene. i mean, absolutely -- there are pictures out of vermont. >> can you believe that? >> the water there out of control. it's going to be a tough slog there. >> the whole state built around rivers. it's part of their economic infrastructure from the old mill days. and now it's just -- it's turned out to be their doom. >> absolutely awesome. >> all right. yesterday we presented my husband with a special gift. >> what was that? >> dick cheney's book. >> oh, my lord. he's been a dick cheney fan for years, huh? >> yes.

yes. yes, he let out a loud sound. >> really? so your husband who was covering these hurricanes, jim, suffers through the weekend. >> yes, up all night. >> he's investigative reporter, up two or three nights. you all reward him with -- >> dick cheney's book. >> dick cheney's book. >> you can get it t signed -- >> and stevie nicks tickets. >> he probably liked that. we need to get it signed for him. >> you're right. >> a big fan -- >> i'm going to ask the vice president to sign it. there's not going to be irony involved. i will get it. i will hug it. i may kiss the page where he signs it for my followers twitter who call me awful names for saying nice things about dick cheney. it's a gorgeous day. >> i look forward to interviewing him. i'm going to be here, right? >> no, no, you're not. you're not going to be here because you're disrespectful. if he brings you cupcakes, you can ask a question. >> that was nice of him, okay. >> no.

so what happens -- the book got released, right? jamie had an amazing moment -- >> she's so good. >> see it last night? >> yeah. we've got a little. after weeks of speculation, former dick cheney's memoir hits bookstores today. the book, "in my time," has several jabs at members of bush white house members. cheney discussed his controversial remarks in a "dateline" interview with nbc's jamie gangel last night. >> the portrait you paint of colin powell makes it sound as if he was disloyal and undermining the administration. >> well, those are your words. i don't think i say it as harshly as you have presenteded it. i did neil the state department did not serve the president well. i would hear discussions, for example, that powell had objected to or opposed operations in iraq, but that never happened sitting around the table in the national security council.

it was the kind of thing that seemed to be said to others. >> you felt he was going around you? >> not going around me, but it didn't help the cause. >> some of the phrases you use -- diplomatic failures, misguided approach, train wreck. do you think that condoleezza rice was a competent secretary of state? >> i once offered condy a job when i was a board member before the bush administration got elected -- >> that's not a yes or a no. do you think she was a competent secretary of state? >> in some regard. i didn't make the attack personal, but there were fundamental differences in policy. and i laid those out. >> you also write about condy rice after the two of you had a disagreement. "she came into my office, sat in the chair next to my desk and tearfully admitted i happen right." was she crying?

>> she was tearful. that's what i wrote. if i'd wanted to say she was crying, i would have said she was crying. >> you know that tearfully is a loaded description. >> right. >> for powerful women in high office. it's going to be seen by a lot of people as provocative. could you have left that word out? >> it is an accurate description of what happened and what i saw. >> okay. >> huh. >> nicole, you're in the communications department. went after the communications department for softening up some of the speeches. i want to ask specifically -- obviously it's not personal. but you probably don't love the book yourself. that being said, his criticisms of colin powell are criticisms i've heard time and again. that powell was forever covering his backside. he was the ultimate bureaucrat. he never said anything that could come back and blow up in his face in case iraq went well.

then when it went bad he was leaking quietly that he'd been against it all along. is that something that others in the bush administration were saying other than dick cheney? i'm -- i've heard this criticism time and time again that he was always covering himself. >> right. look, have you seen the jim carrey movie "liar, liar," where a spell is put on him where he cannot tell a lie? >> yes. >> i have. >> that's how dick cheney was last night. dick cheney is unemcumbered by any nicet. >> no filter. >> and what he lays bare is true. it may be his truth, from his perspective. frankly at a time when everyone is hungering for sincerity, for directness, and for some authentic unshielded, unpolite account of what went on during the bush years, i think dick cheney deserves some credit. >> again, you're saying this --

just for our viewers, you're saying this as somebody who was a part of a team that took a lot of his barbs. >> here's the other thing about dick cheney -- he makes clear how he feels and where he stands on a debate when it occurs. and i think that's his points -- his point about colin powell. >> colin powell didn't do that? >> the point i understand the former vice president to be making was that when we sat in a room, colin powell didn't say the same things that highway was sayi -- that he was saying when he left the room. that's his recollection of the way things went down. i wasn't always in those rooms. >> we learned from george w. bush through bob woodward's books that they never had a discussion on whether colin powell, a direct discussion, as to whether colin powell supported the iraq war or not. woodward asked bush, well, why didn't you ask him? and bush said, well, because i already kind of knew what he believed so i wasn't going to ask him anyway. >> did you -- >> i wonder how a guy who was

chairman of the interstatejoint the time the united states of america invaded iraq ten years earlier was not more of a central player in these discussions and why he didn't speak up more than he did. >> in the room. >> the fact that we're hearing that he didn't speak up in the room. and the president -- >> let's let it count, though. what i think is interesting. colin powell and dick cheney and rumsfeld worked together for decades. they knew each other -- their relationships were complicated dynamic between those three men predate george bush's presidency by, you know, two or three more republican administrations. >> right. >> so there's -- i think the interviews i've seen so far, the excerpts i've read, this is a fascinating look at a period in time, a man -- i thought the best part of the interview was when jamie said, you had a 13% approval rating when you left, and he says, was it really that low?

yes! >> guess what, it went up. so john heileman, nicole's right. there had been tough debates between these two even before george w. bush's presidency. >> yes. >> but there are stories of dick cheney having a huge dinner celebrating the fact that colin powell had been rolled after they got approval for the iraq war. this was a deep division in this administration. >> a very deep division, and again, i think -- the story that you told from woodward's book speaks to another interpretation which is that bush didn't ask powell not only because he knew where powell stood but because bush didn't care to hear that dissenting view. he had decided what he wanted to do -- >> the most damning thing about george w. bush's approach -- >> it may be right that powell should have spoken up. but if you believe as nicole says, and it makes sense, that there was tacit understanding in the room that, you know, he didn't ask powell because he didn't want to hear what powell had to say. powell didn't speak up because he didn't think it would do any good. this decision was made. the train was on the tracks and headed that direction.

i don't think that speaks well to a spirit of robust debatin the administration. -- debate within the administration. and there's fault to be placed for that debate. >> he's placing it. i'm stick uck on the character the movie. the person who can't tell a lie is dick cheney? i'm stuck on that. >> you were hateful -- you're not going to be within 100 miles of him during the interview. >> i'm going to be here. >> you don't say insulting things and get to interview. >> no, i'm stuck on it. there are many who feel he's behind one of the biggest lie the country's been in the past two decades. okay. >> there are many -- >> there are many. okay? that's a fair assessment. >> are you legion, as it says in the bible. he -- >> he is public enemy number one, i think, for -- >> on the left, i think he embraces that role in a way that -- i'm just saying -- >> i'm saying she's a hard partisan on the left --

>> i did not. >> i'm saying that. you don't have to say it. i will. >> how dare you? >> no, what i like about dick cheney is that unlike most i think politicians, he's not made uncomfortable by that. >> you know what i like about dick cheney? everything. what do we have coming up next? >> am i am loued to say i like -- am i am loued to say i like him, too? and i like his dog. >> actually, i have great -- >> it's been damaging to this country. i'm sorry. there's a little balance, okay? >> damaging to this country? you know what, i guess then you're not going to be voting for barack obama in 2012 because he's basically moved for the same foreign minister as dick cheney. i guess what dick cheney does darth vader, when barack obama does it, it's hope and change, baby. >> just tell her beelzabub is a

charming character. >> are you legion. i oppose a lot of dick cheney's foreign policy. that's what i look forward to. [ doug ] i want to focus on innovation. but my data is doubling. and my servers are maxed out. [ male announcer ] with efficient i.t. solutions from dell, doug can shift up to 50% of his technology spend to innovation. so his company runs better, and so does doug. dell. the power to do more.

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built so you can rule the air. hurricane irene came whipping through here. 800,000 residents of new jersey still without power. but it's okay. they've hooked them up to governor christie's backup generator and his refrigerator. everything will be fine. [ applause ] >> anyway, good news after hurricane irene. wall street is up and running as usual. the bad news, wall street is up and running as usual. [ applause ] >> 26 past the hour. let's look at the morning papers as we take a shot there was new jersey. still dealing with water problems. "financial times," japan's parliament elected a fiscal conservative today as the country's next prime minister.

yoshi hikanoda, former finance minister, comes to power as they struggle to recover from the march tsunami and nuclear problems and staggering debt load. >> and "the new york times,"" the struggle against the rangers -- been more than eight years since a seat went unsold at fenway park. the streak is almost 250 games longer than the previous record held by the cleveland indians and, of course, next year is a huge year for boston red sox fans as fenway park turns 100 years old. >> thank god they didn't terry it down and -- didn't terry it down and build some modern -- >> unbelievable. i went to the '99 all-star game. they were talking about how they were going to tear it down. one of the reasons that larry laquino and john henry -- >> awesome. >> american heroes. >> they are american heroes -- tom warner. that's one of the reasons they got the team. >> it's amazing that the record

had been held by the cleveland indians. >> don't forget the fans who also wanted to keep the stadium. >> well, the fans -- >> you know? >> they were about to tear it down and fenway is the best of the old and the best of the new. >> amazing. >> you look at the center field signs, the bank of america signs out there. have you been there this year? >> i was just up there about two weeks ago. courtesy of our friend, make barnicut. we sat in mike's seats, like in the dugout. >> they are the best seats in baseball. >> you play cards with terry francona while you watch -- >> looking up at the green monster, the best seats in sports. >> he should be ashamed of himself. and the "usa today," speaking of sports, good news for arsenal fans if there's any such thing as good news for arsenal fans. the great english team is in disrepair. they lost 8-2 sunday. the club announced it's going to offer a free match toikt anyone who traveled to what many

consider to be the team's worst loss in a century. >> all right. let's move on to "politico." joining us patrick gavin with the playbook. how are politicians in washington reacting to the hurricane day two now as we're looking in the rearview mirror? >> well, i think the first thing is that a lot of east coast governors that get talked about in terms of being viable national candidates, chris christie, andrew cuomo, bob mcdonald, they seem to have passed with flying colors in terms of preparing their public. as you have noticed, as the flooding continues to happen, it has yet to be seen what kind of report card these states will get. number two, we are seeing the potential political fallout here in d.c. about the federal aid for this stuff. eric cantor saying that while he certainly and his caucus expects to provide federal aid, they may want to see some cuts when it comes to -- some cuts made to sort of make up for what could be $7 billion to $10 billion. on top of that, two senators

from missouri, mccaskill and blunts, are worried that the aid that they would like to see for the tornadoes and floods in joplin will be on hold as they take care of irene. they do not want to see that happen. they're a little upset about the east coast perhaps getting all this and do not want to be forgotten about. >> all right, patrick. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> take care. >> we'll see you later. ahead, "newsweek" and "daily beast" editor tina brown will be here. and chuck todd with the headlines out of washington, d.c. and of course we'll needle him about the miami hurricanes again.

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34 past the hour. welcome back to "morning joe." another headline. as the white house works to finalize a new jobs initial fifth for next week, president obama is nominating a new member to his economic team that will be charged with carrying out the plan.

yesterday in the rose garden the president announced alan krueger as his choice to replace austin ghouls bee as council of economic advisers. he's a princeton university professor and labor experts who's work with the obama administration in the past. >> in the first two years this administration, as we were dealing with the effects of a fast-moving financial crisis, a crisis that threatened a second great depression, alan's counsel as chief economist at the treasury department proved invaluable. so i am very pleased to appoint alan, and i look forward to working with him. >> now the white house has not released a date for the president's upcoming jobs speech. but republicans are offering a contrasting plan in a memo to his republican colleagues, house majority leader eric cantor is laying out the gop's agenda for the fall. according to kantor, the priorities are, "repealing job-destroying regulations," and "tax relief for small businesses

in federal and state and local governments." it comes as republicans come -- >> what's that? >> what? >> what's that? >> i'm kidding -- >> you start laughing. >> smiling. >> guess what, small businesses, you know what they want? they want regulatory relief and tax relief. you talk to small business owners, and you can shoot the piano player if you want to. >> i'm not. i'm smiling. >> they'll tell you -- >> it's a morning ohio is. >> -- morning show. >> you do it with a sneer. >> i'm sorry. i should be perky. >> you ask 1,000 small business owners, regardless of their ideology, what do you need now, they will say the tax relief and regulatory relief. and you can mock them if you want to. that's how you get them back to work. you're smirking -- >> i was not. i was smiefling in-- smiling a kantor's -- >> i understand. >> thank you. >> maybe they should do something about it. >> i think that what's -- what a lot of people are hoping is that president obama, i think, has

started to talk more about the needs of small businesses. maybe we'll have -- >> that would be lovely. >> i would love agreement. >> i really hope you don't think i'm sneering at that. >> you're sneering. >> i'm a lovely person. >> she wasn't. she was -- >> i've been doing this too long. >> small business owners. i heard you. >> she's mocking small business owners. >> no, she wasn't. she felt like she heard those ideas before. >> she's actually mocking america. >> i think she's happy to be back. >> it's a beautiful morning. mika stirring the pot. >> good morning. >> more marxist diatribe ahead. >> perky. also, we'll bring in eugene robertson who writes without sneer in his voice about the president's jobs plan and what it could do -- >> tired. >> we'll be back. we'll try to keep mika in the middle of the road. not going to be easy. we'll be right back. [ woman ] we take it a day at a time.

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[ applause ] i didn't hear the original

comment. was she joking the first time? >> she said, you know, god is trying to send us a message. we've had a hurricane, we've had an yaek -- an earthquake. god's saying we should listen to the american people and have a smaller government. >> was it a joke? >> i want to listen to the original sound bite. >> i don't know how much god has to do to get the attention of the politics. we've had an earthquake, we've had a hurricane. he said, are you going to start listening to me here? listen to the american people. the american people are roaring right now. because this needs to be done. they know the government is on a morbid obesity diet. it's got to rein in the spending. >> it was a joke. people laughed. i don't think they were laughing at her. do you think it was a joke? >> i do. >> john? >> i don't know. it's something that she -- >> you are such a new yorker.

>> come on. >> i think when she was asked the question, i'm sorry, i'm being too technical here, but i'll be a reporter -- nicole, was that a non-denial denial when she was asked the question? >> i think when she made the original statement, she said it with a little joke in her voice. >> yes. >> i funding she were -- yeah. people laughed. lighten up. >> believe me, she'll give you what you need talk about. you don't need to pull it out of that. >> don't need to make it up. the op-eds? >> there are good ones. >> can you read them straight without a sneer in your voice? >> yeah, i can. "wall street journal," krueger versus obama. the new -- this is austin gouhlsby's new post --

>> they much using roman numerals. it should be -- they were using roman numerals. it should be interesting. >> i think he and goulsguy are interchangeable. he's a mainstream economist and a labor market expert. he did very important work a long time ago that tried to prove that raising the minimum wage does not depress employment. it's regarded very well among his fellow academic economists. i think the question is whether or not he's going to have any effect and whatever policies he advocates, none are going to get passed by this congress.

the question to me is how good an economic spokesman he will be. >> let me ask this question. we're sitting here and everybody said in august, as august winds down and congress goes back to session, the president gets reengaged on this jobs plan. everybody's already pronounced it dead on arrival. let me ask you this -- how did george w. bush get through congress when he got through congress in '07 and '08 when nancy pelosi was speaker? when the democrats and harry reid was running the senate? like the surge, 75% of americans were against a surge. just about everybody in congress was against the surge. he got it through anyway. how did he do it? what does this president need to do to become more relevant legislatively moving forward? right now everybody's pronounced him legislatively at least irrelevant to the house republicans. >> what's interesting about the jobs plan is i don't know that i've seen a president of either

party announce that they would renew policy, give four weeks to build it up and knock it down. i don't know what the strategy was legislatively in announcing it so far in advance. >> i'm not being cynical when i'm saying this. no, no, no. i'm saying he did it before he went to martha's vineyard. and he went on a three-day bus tour in middle america before going to martha's vineyard. and anybody that follows politics on the left or right says you can't just go to martha's vineyard, you need to put out a place holder. >> i don't begrudge the president taking a vacation with his family. >> nor do i. >> but putting out a -- a jobs plan is something had that people on the right and left think that we need. leaving it out there like a pinata for so many weeks to allow ideas to be beat up before they're announced was a devastating legislative strategy. never mind a silly public relations strategy. now, we were giggling a couple

of minutes ago, how presidents gets thing done legislatively after they've suffered major political losses like the one barack obama suffered in the mid storms -- mid terms in 2010 is have agreement and consensus around what you're going to propose. i don't see any signs that the white house is doing that kind of legislative work. hopefully they are. >> his -- the first person he needs to talk to is mcconnell. then he needs to ask john boehner, is there anything we're going to agree on. you're sneering, john -- >> i'm not sneering. >> i'm only saying that because that's the political reality. >> talk to him. that's important. >> i think that's important, too. >> play some golf. >> just as an example, one of the ideas as nicole points out, that has been shot down is the notion of further cuts or expansion of the payroll tax. an ideas that historically republicans have rallied for. it's a tax cuts, right? and who's shot that idea down in the last two weeks? it's clear it's going to be in

the package. eric cantor, they're saying we're against further tax cuts. how are you going to get agreement with the group that is -- that seems to be as dead set against doing anything that the president wants, even things that he historically has been for? >> you know what you do i thought as a man, as a red-blooded male you would have seen this movie. you make them an offer they can't refuse. and you make them an offer, more personally, a "godfather" reference. >> i know. >> i was telling mika that because she hasn't watched a movie her entire life. you make an offer that will be detrimental for them to refuse. you make it so good, so politically strong that their base is calling them, asking why aren't you supporting this deal. and that is possible if you're a skillful politician. bill clinton did it to us all the time. ronald reagan did it to democrats all the time. fdr did it at times in the 1930s to republicans. where when they opposed fdr, they get absolutely destroyed in

the next election. sometimes losing in politics ends up being a huge win. >> i'm not sure that that -- that the history of the debt ceiling debate suggests that that is a possible route toward victory. >> i'll relitigate that. >> maybe went this white house because maybe they're not as skillful -- >> okay, okay. blah, blah, blah. >>y in, no. you don't understand the more intransigent your opponent is, the more opportunities you have to destroy them. let me tell you something -- bill clinton, i will say it again -- bill clinton would have eaten these republicans for breakfast and spit them out before lunch and gone back for a second helping. >> he would have tried to emulate it. he would be sitting down with coburn doing a tax reform will do, close the loopholes, get revenues, and consider lowering rates. bill clinton would have these republicans who have not signed the grover-nor kwift pledge to the white house, and they'd be

working something out. he would triangulate not just with his party but there are republicans who are willing to get something done. >> and bill clinton for instance on this policy would say, "i don't understand why republicans don't want it cut." >> exactly. >> "i want to help small business owners. why won't they let me cut the business tax?" we'd sit and people would start calling saying, hey -- >> we lower everybody's rates? >> let's wait and see what actually happens with whether -- there's plenty of time for barack obama to do that. we will see. let's not prejudge the outcome now. >> i only object to you suggesting that nothing can be done because you believe this republican congress is intractable and has their feet in cement. i'm saying when my political opponent starts behaving that way, that's when they're at the most vulnerable. and you march around them, you march on top of them, and pound them to a pulp. bill clinton did it to us.

ronald reagan did it to democrats. and barack obama can do it to the republican congress if he knew how to do it politically. you disagree? >> i'm saying that the debt ceiling debate does show that this is a different republican party than any republican party you were part of -- >> you focused on the republicans. >> i am. but what makes them focus on getting anything done. which makes them for a democratic president a bigger, fatter target. >> yes, but not a willing partner to get anything passed. >> so you destroy them to get what you want. >> i'm saying that barack obama can still do that. >> we'll see. we will see. >> okay. >> i don't know. still ahead, a live report from the weather channel's jim cantore covering the storm damage in vermont. sports is next, as well. including one player's meltdown at the u.s. open. [ male announcer ] this is the network. a network of possibilities.

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sports highlights for you now. you're talking about a show, "the league." >> "the league," my son got me on to it. one of the funniest shows in a long time. you were telling me to say a show -- >> "the franchise."

showtime, san francisco giants, bay area products. we appreciate that. in highlights, monday night preseason football, new york, jets and giants, post storm. first quarter, eli manning got pressure intercepted by jim leonard. this on the 18 yard line. we move to the second quarter, manning, another questionable toss. picked off by -- what was -- where is he going? dale harris. manning completes 15-30. two interceptions, new tds. the other side shy of the half. finding san antonio holmes in the end zone. >> let's go, jets! >> sanchez looking mid season form. not a lot of highlights otherwise. certainly not from plaxico burress. they win 17-3. buries didn't have a single catch on the day. >> he's going to be okay. i didn't understand the arrest. if he's in the south like where i'm from, nobody shoots themselves in the leg. we take him to the e.r. and give him gun lessons. seriously, the guy shoots himself and gets thrown in jail. >> getting arrested was good for michael vick. got a contract, $100 million

over six years. here's the tennis -- >> vick did. >> $100 million for six years. we were talking earlier about tennis. opening round of the u.s. open, the rains have washed away. venus williams and roger federer advance. one player not advancing, this guy. 19-year-old ryan harrison of louisiana. he appeared to lose his composure a few times during the march. first one. drills into the net. not happy with the racket -- tossed it. >> i like this guy. i like this guy. >> later, joseph debt tosses, okay? >> i got to say i can relate. there it is. the field goal effort by ryan harrison. they're calling him. the tennis channel announcer called harrison mr. cranky pants and a brat. he went on to lose in straight sets. he will be missed in the tournament. 19-year-old ryan harrison, new american sensation. >> i hope he's good so we can have that -- >> have him back next year. >> seriously. there was one other meltdown in tennis which, of course, we were

talking about before. richie tenenbaum. >> there he is. >> richie, of course, had -- gwyneth had just gotten married to -- >> look at that headband and the sunglasses. that was a style. he was a stylish guy. >> style. >> i know you're not good with disappointment. >> we were talking about it before, the royal tenenbaums, i'm sorry, that just may be the greatest movie of the past decade. [ female announcer ] what if your natural beauty could be flawless too? discover aveeno positively radiant tinted moisturizers with scientifically proven soy complex and natural minerals. give you sheer coverage instantly, then go on to even skin tone in four weeks. aveeno tinted moisturizers. and i saw another store's ad for these crayons at a lower price. no problem -- i can match that right here. oops -- i don't have the ad. you don't need it. oh, what about a coupon for these pens? yeah. easy. why does the glue not stick to the glue stick?

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time for a brand new segment, ladies and gentlemen. we call this "hurricane warnings are better in spanish." "hurricane warnings are better in spanish." take a look. ♪ [ speaking spanish ] ♪ >> all right. back it "morning joe." a live look at houses under water in wayne, new jersey, where flooding is obviously devastating the state. the governor there calling the flooding situation unprecedented for the state of new jersey. we're following that as well as the situation in vermont, in connecticut, up and down the eastern seaboard. john heileman and nicole with us. with us editor-in-chief of "newsweek" and "the daily

beast," tina brown joins us. good to have you. >> we've got a lot to talk about. i guess we should talk about it. i want to start by talking about the topic that's on your cover. steve jobs, how he droef apple to victory, how he changed our world. i think 20, 30, 50 years from now, i think we see this man as our thomas edison. he is not only our thomas edison. he's been in a way been our thomas edison, he's been our beatles. he has changed the publishing industry. he's changed the record industry. he has changed the cell phone industry, the computing industry, he's changed movies, he's changed the way we lived. he's changed the way we get information. and the most remarkable thing about his story and few commercials -- i remember 20 years later, i remember actually, i was actually in the house gym.

and i was walking exhausted at 6:30, i'd finished working out. i was going back to work. and a commercial came on. and it was a think different commercial. i froze in my tracks -- this was when microsoft was at the top of the world. i froze in my tracks, looked up at the tv set, and like the lemming i am -- i said to myself at that moment, i have to get an apple. i had never had an apple. i walked -- of course i didn't get it. but he came out with computers of the world, not only is he a genius in technology, he was the master showman in '97, '98. apple was in decline. it's remarkable what he did. the stock has increased, what, 60 fold, 100 fold -- >> don't forget the retail stores. everything he touched, he brought this unbelievably sharp, obsessive 401(k) to excellence which i think -- focus to excellence which i think is one

of the keys to his success. >> and talking about culture -- i promise i'll shut up. that brings up another great point. the stores have become a happening -- you know, i remember when they opened up the store on 59th. central park south. you can't even walk in there, it's so packed. then they opened one on the upper west side. my wife went in yesterday to get a cover for -- she couldn't get in. she said it was so crowded they would have to open another store. it's remarkable what this man has done. >> he had such a connection to people in a sense even though he's a remote, intellectual being. he has an incredible instinct for what people want and how they're going to use it. one of the things that i think emerges from the piece that we have which i admire him for, is his tremendous fearlessness. from failure he takes the next success each time. he's also willing to kind of blight his own products which takes incredible. the iphone cannibalizes the ipad. instead of thinking we don't want that because it

cannibalizes the ipod, they think, no, we'll do it. we'll be fearless enough to say this is better, our user need it, and launch it with the same gusto as he did the ipad. >> and a commercial from 1984. the other thing that a lot of people don't remember today because steve jobs is, of course, seen as the ceo of our time. this is a man who was not respected in his own company. he wasn't respected by his own board. he was fired because they didn't think he was a good businessman. when he came back from what "newsweek" calls a bitter compile, he came back and agreed to work for $1 a year. he recreated not only this company that he started, he recreated, again, american media. >> again, i think that those years in the wilderness for himmal huhhed himself to -- him allowed himself to reinvent.

it's not so much how you go from success to success but what you take from failure and how you then surmount it the next time. and he's done that time and time again. >> he's remote, though. i've never seen a long interview of stephen jobs. i would love to know more about him. i would love to know what did he learn in exile. john, i think he's a fascinating character. what do you know about steve jobs? >> a lot. yes, he's a very remote figure. with all due respect and -- he has never been a pleasant guy. >> right. >> many people -- one of the great mysteries of his leadership style is he was so demanding and so passionate about -- monomaniacal about his ideas, he would make people who worked for him crazy. he was not considered a pleasant person to deal with. and yet he would inspire people to do better work. almost despite the fact that people didn't like him that much

who worked for him. his commitment to quality and his vision was so intense that it would -- bring out the best in people despite a personality that people found, in some ways, repella repellant. >> but they would follow him, and you see this with leadership -- >> fascinating. >> reminds me of what dick cheney said yesterday about donald rumsfeld. basically said he was an s.o.b. but he was his favorite boss because he was so demanding. he pushed. >> in this piece by alan deutscheman that we have this week, he talks about how he is the ultimate willful leader. that he was almost deflectable from his focus. the ferocity of the focus allowed people with him, although it was ferocious and often ripped them to pieces, it nonetheless made them better than they ever could have been alone. and that was in a sense what garnered the laws -- the sense that this man could become almost like a transformative gene in your life to make you better than you ever thought you could be. >> there will be in november an

extraordinary book. walter isaacson who has written great biographies. walter for -- jobs agreed to cooperate on the book. for the first time he's ever agreed to cooperate with an author. the book's publication has moved up to november. he's been extraordinary with jobs the last year and a half. i think the book is going to be amazing. he's spoken with him at extraordinary length with his personal life, rise of apple, personal fall, his redemption and resurrection, leading the company to greatness. it's the book that a lot of people have been waiting for pause jobs has never done this before, opened up to someone fully in the way that he has with walter. >> the book i want to read. >> i think what's interesting about jobs is the influence played by being an adopted child. our writer says he was the harry potter being raised pie mby muggles. he never felt that he was of

that. that he was different. he was a wizard leaving among muggles upon -- muggles. >> good cover. we have new information about the damage caused by hurricane irene. there are at least 40 confirmed deaths in 11 states. more than 7.4 million power outages along the east coast. and according to one estimate, up to $10 billion in damage. in the catskills region, state and local emergency responders have carried out more than 190 rescues since the storm began. one official says vermont is facing a flooding catastrophe, the worst in 83 years, after irene dumped up to 15 inches of rain in the state. roughly 250 roads are washed out, at least three bridges are covered with rainfall. we'll go to the weather channel's report with the little from vermont.

>> reporter: good morning again. when you talk about the water we had flowing through here, this is the kind of water that pretty much does what it wants. as a matter of fact, it came in through here, started to make the bend, obviously under that building, which is just teetering on falling over. as you can see -- look at how the windows are just changed inside the building. i mean, we've even heard a couple of cracks from time to time with this thing. the river, by the way, used to flow on the other side. that tells you the ferocity of the river. this is the worst flooding they've had in vermont in over 80 years in the state. we still had 11 towns that are completely cut off. there are over 250 major roads that have been sliced across and cut out as a result of the ferocity of the rain. it's going to be a long while today. we understand the cavalry is on the way. 30 fema trucks loaded with food, water, generators on, the way to the state of vermont. we understand the fema director himself, fema administrator,

craig fugate, will tour the damage which is extensive. in some cases mind-boggling. back to you. >> it really is. and just give us a sense also in terms of the effect that water can have, especially this amount. and this isn't the first rainfall that a number of these states have seen. i know new york had at least ten inches the week before which leaves a lot of towns with water that has nowhere to go. >> you know, that's really the key to this whole situation. you can take a heavy rain and a flash flood. when you've got the rivers at a certain level, because of excessive rain that's occurred -- for example, new york and philadelphia set all-time record august rainfalls even before the storm got here. that set up there coupled with what happened with irene on such a widespread area. it didn't take much at all. there's this thing we have in meteorology called flash flood guidance. it would only have taken two inches in a 12-hour period to

cause flash flooding. we had two inches in an hour in most cases here. and totals, as you mentioned, 10 to 15 inches. that was a recipe for catastrophe. out of the 15 record crests, the highest the river has ever gotten across the irene spread here, five of them, five occurred here in the state of vermont. >> devastating. jim cantore, thank you very much. a little politics now. after sweweeks of speculation - are we going do the book again? >> you want to? >> i know it would be -- >> it would be nice to do it without smiling. let me try -- >> no. after weeks of speculation, former vice president dick cheney's book hits book stores. "in my time" includes jabs at members of the bush white house. generally -- and at nicole wallace for the shoddy job she did. >> yes, my god. >> all my fault. >> lord. >> the vice president discussed

his controversial remarks in a "dateline" interview with jamie gangel which aired last night. >> the portrait you paint of colin powell make it sound as if he was disloyal and undermining the administration. >> well, those are your words. i don't think i say it as harshly as you have presented it. i did feel that the state department did not serve the president well. i would hear discussions for example that powell had objected to or opposed operations in iraq. but that never happened sitting around the table in the national security council. it was the kind of thing that seemed to be said outside. >> you felt he was going around you? >> not going around me, but it didn't help the cause. >> the vice president opened up about inferences in the book that he had the leading role in the bush white house. >> was he sensitive about the fact that people thought you were running things? >> not as sensitive as i would have expected.

i think some of the staff occasionally more aggravated by a story that's a genius pulling the string behind the scenes. >> nicole, you were there from the beginning. dick cheney was never pulling the strings. george w. bush was in charge from the beginning, right? >> correct. and i think that this book is going to harden the views of -- that people already have of dick cheney. i think for people who found him a very, you know, productive and important ingredient among the white house staff, will feel, you know, heartened that he comes out and tells the truth. this is a guy, i think, who frankly -- you'll have him on tomorrow -- has looked his own mortality in the face. he lays it out. he's not trying to impress anyone. he never was. that's clear in all this. i think if you are a student of dick cheney, if you worked with him, a lot of things are almost shocking in their frankness more than in the substance of what he says and writes.

>> john, this is another piece of the puzzle to what's happened over the past decade. what happened after 9/11. what are you learning about the bush administration as you move forward, donald rumsfeld has his book with revelations, george w. bush, of course, wrote his, dick cheney, colin powell has said he's not going to write a become. i suspect he may change has mind down the road. >> i hope he does. and the -- you know, you put these things together historically and the mosaic becomes clear. the missing voice really now is colin powell's voice. and i hope he writes that -- >> and condy rice. >> she has a book. >> right. >> if you get colin powell -- if colin powell wrote with the kind of frankness and candor that cheney has written -- there's nothing else you can commend cheney's book for being as candid as it is. it does a service for history for him to be this straight forward about what his views are. if colin powell wrote a book that candid, it would help to complete the picture of what internal decisionmaking processes there were in this

period. >> that's such an important historical moment. >> except when there's a glaring, glaring contrast with his version and even the president's at key moments. >> agreed. >> key moments. where you remember every word. you can hear a pin drop, and you bring yourself back there -- >> right. >> they can't remember what they said to each other? they contrast the president and the vice president? i think that's kind of interesting. >> i don't think that powell is going to ever want to write that kind of a book in a way. i mean, i think that we keep seeing books rolling out. all they do in a sense is create a kind of aggravated circle of sound bites. then they disappear. they seem to have offered absolutely nothing of real value it our understanding of those times. i mean, you know, cheney seem to be in denial still about iraq. i mean, totally in denial. you know, he doesn't want to admit that he and rumsfeld were wrong and got it wrong. and we paid a horrendous price for it. he's in total denial. one of the things i springfield just, you know, you are reminded

of what a wrecking ball the guy was in the sense that even the fact that, you know, paul and neil disagreed about the bush tax cuts because it would lead to the deficit. he get bounced out of there. and you think, wait a minute, all these things happened and we're paying the price for them. >> this book, though, lines up with -- the style of the book lines up with the dick cheney that you knew and worked with in the bush administration, right? straightforward -- >> blunt. >> totally unencumbered by political niceties. the book is unique in that what made dick cheney an asset to george w. bush is that he never wanted to run for office himself. you know, i think what made colin powell suspect perhaps was his own vanity. his own deep passionate feeling about how he was depicted in the press. cheney for whatever you think of him couldn't care less. that's why heel love fighting with you -- why he'll love

fighting with you, mika. frankly, it's what makes liz cheney such an asset to the people that want to have arguments, you know, on the right. that they -- they love the fight. they relish the debate. they see iraq the way they see it because that's what they believe. you could call it denial. and i think -- >> by the way, liz and i have had debates. obviously we have great concerns about afghanistan. liz and i have had numerous debates. >> right. >> she is actually -- she supported president obama tripling the number of troops in afghanistan. and wanted to go further. they have -- again, no apologies. >> but it certainly isn't true what he says, though, that colin powell didn't disagree at the table. colin powell is the guy, we know full well, the one who said, "if you break it, you own it." >> he said that. but what's your source of him speaking up? yon that there is a source. that's why i would love to have the book where colin powell, when they're sitting around the table say do we go or not. we've got george bush saying they never had that

conversation. but he did say if you break it you own it. maybe he's yoda. maybe he's yoda. the vice president, former vice president, will be on "morning joe" live this thursday morning. >> mika, what do you plan to do on thursday morning? >> i'll be here. coming up, new poll numbers on the republican presidential field with nbc news political director chuck todd who will be here on thursday. also, newark mayor corey booker and the "washington post" eugene robinson will be on, as well. tweeting all the while. i'm really glad we took this last minute trip! you booked our room right? not yet, thanks for reminding me. wait, what? i have the hotels.com app so we can get a great deal even at the last minute.

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i do not believe -- i do not believe that america should fall subject to a foreign policy of military adventurism. we should only risk shedding american blood and spending american treasure when our vital interests are threatened. we must be willing to act when it is time to act. we cannot concede the moral authority of our nation to multilateral debating societies. and when our interests are threatened, american soldiers should be led by american commanders. >> you know what? that sounds like -- he sounds a lot like barack obama sounded when he ran. >> and george w. bush. >> and george w. bush. and that debate with jim lair in 2000 when george w. bush said the same thing. >> something happens when they get into the white house. something changes. >> something happens. it's fascinating, to every

president. i remember the transformation of bill clinton who -- who evolved from election from an anti-china, an antiwar, son of the '60s, to being sucked in, becoming commander in chief, and suddenly sending troops all over the world. >> suddenly you're in somalia, bosnia -- >> suddenly you're sending ships to haiti. yeah, you're going -- >> dick cheney could argue that we're all cheney-ites now that -- here is obama with guantanamo and the drones. >> triple the number of troops. we're firing drones into somalia. dropping bombs on a country we're not at war at -- yemen. >> he's been validated by obama. >> he has. i said that yesterday. boy, the tweets. whoo! >> all right. for now -- >> it's true. let's bring in now, let's bring in chuck todd? >> why not? the chief white house correspondent. >> and he's also director of "the daily rundown."

>> director -- >> what i said. he shares a commonality with nicole wallace's husband. tell us because -- >> go ahead, nicole. >> you've been getting nasty emails all morning from your husband. >> that i need to defend the miami hurricanes as forcefully as i've been defending dick cheney. i said i can't take on that much water. >> go canes. there's a new cnn research poll out of republican and independent-leading independents showing perry coming in with 27% support. mitt romney down at 14%. it includes republicans who so far haven't officially declared including sarah palin and rudy giuliani. when palin and giuliani were not included in the poll, perry's support surges to 32% over romney at 18%. almost doubles it. and michele bachmann's numbers jump up to 12%. this is -- this is a big foot

that has just stumbled into this race. what -- two questions -- why is rick perry surging? secondly, why can mitt romney just not gain traction? >> well, i think for one thing, watching the rick perry surge, we're learning -- it's a reminder of how easily in this day and age it is to sort of get name i.d. and move up quickly, especially if you're a pretty charismatic figure in presidential politics. and rick perry is that. you know, he's gone glib on the campaign trail. he's been glib on the trail in the first three weeks as a candidate. he's very good at what i call hand-to-hand campaigning. i've seen it in person. others have -- you can see it both on the tv screen. i think that he has made a good first impression with republican primary voters. and remember, right now i think, you know, the perry-romney thing is going to become a cliche. maybe it already is.

is going to be a head versus heart deal for republicans. >> yeah. >> is it the guy that makes him feel good in the moment, that is just -- has given -- making conservative feel as if they've got one of their own? or is it their head and mitt romney saying to themselves, well, he's okay,yon always trust him. but he may be more electable. but right now republicans are not having an argument over electability. >> interesting looking at this poll because i think it was you, chuck, who said at one point that perry has to worry that his first day isn't his best day so to speak. and you might remember that donald trump did quite well in this very same poll. >> that's right. he was in first place in the spring. in this poll. >> well, that's what we've seen. you know, it's another thing. we've seen this over the last three months. there's a boomlet for somebody other than romney every month. >> yeah. >> and it goes away. >> that's the story there. >> now, that's right. this is not -- is it about rick perry, about mitt romney? i'm with you, mika. i think this is about mitt romney, right. he has not closed the sale yet.

that doesn't mean he won't at the end. that doesn't mean if this becomes about electability or you start having the full one-on-one campaign that we all expect. now, rick perry's not donald trump. rick perry's not sarah palin. rick perry's not michele bachmann. this guy is going to be more disciplined as a campaigner, i think, than any of the other boomlets, candidates that we've seen. >> he's quite a fundraiser. >> what do the romney folks say, chuck, about perry picking up support not just when palin's out of the poll but when giuliani's out of the poll? that seems like the bigger threat to romney. that perry's picking up the giuliani voter. >> well, it's interesting, the romney people, nicole, saying, hey, why does everybody think we have to change strategy? why does everyone think -- >> because you're losing? >> look at the poll. >> it does end. you can't stay the course forever. >> that's right. and here we are going in our debate, the next debate is ours,

right? and it's one week from tomorrow. and yet it's another moment in the campaign that's not about mitt romney, right? this debate is going to be the first debate with rick perry. naturally everybody watching, both republican primary voters, the media, it's about gauging, how is rick perry doing on the stage. at some point, mitt romney's got to insert himself into the race. into the primary. right now they don't think it's good politics. i get the strategy because i think they think they cannot sustain a long, drawn-out process. they learned that the hard way. we'll see. >> the interesting thing about perry is that he seems to be not backing away from some of the controversies that a lot of the media has focused on. he seems to be leaning in, saying he stands by everything in his book. do you think that's a sustainable strategy going forward, or is he going to have to somehow deal in a more nuanced way with the controversial things he wrote in "fed up"? >> i think we've all learned

watching presidential politics over the years, if you change who you are and try to change who you are, you'll lose. i think in the grand scheme of things, he's got to stay who he is. that's what's got him this far. why change that? that said, i -- look, i think this ponzi scheme phrase on social security is the most lethal and deadly political statement you could say in presidential politics. i don't care -- whether we're talking a primary which, oh, by the way, flat primary matter. but primary voters in -- i know he has a nuanced explanation. he's talking about it's what younger folks think social security is. explain it to the 52-year-old republican primary voter saying i'm for less government spending, too, but wait a minute, my 401(k)'s collapsed. i'm glad social security's out there. i'm going to need something to come in. i think that's a tough sell even in a republican primary. >> tina?

>> chuck, romney has got to get in now and start attacking perry. how long do you think that romney can hold off and be this kind of absolutely, you know, plastic candidates who doesn't kind of dirty up and get into a fight? don't we now need to see romney attacking perry to get traction over perry? or do you think he's constitutionally unable to be that kind of candidate? >> well, i think -- in fairness, romney, you know, the guy did nothing but engage in '07. he was beating up john mccain every day starting? april and -- you'd get press releases for the south carolina back and forths that would take place between mccain and romney back then. so i think it's more of a lesson learned in their minds the hard way in '07. i think romney himself says, hey, when the field narrows, we'll be engaging. >> thank you very much. >> thank you, chuck. we really -- we didn't say anything about the hurricanes. >> no. >> not a thing.

our "sports illustrated" said absolutely nothing. >> thank you, chuck. >> thank you. >> is that still a magazine? i don't know. >> i'm not sure. >> media bias. coming up, newark mayor cory booker standing by in the green room. we'll be right back.

welcome back to "morning joe." 36 past the hour. look at this. patterson, new jersey, called the great falls. i don't think that's what they meant. we're following the water situation in new jersey which is unprecedented. newark's mayor cory booker straight ahead. first, new developments out of libya. nbc news confirm that one of moammar gadhafi's wives and three of his children have fled to algeria, but libya's interim council leader now says reportly that he believes gadhafi's family members will leave algeria for another country. the latest indication that gadhafi has lost control of power, and the first official word on the whereabouts of any members of the libyan leader's family since he was routed from his tripoli compound by rebel forces last week. it comes as a state department

spokesperson says the u.s. wants to see justice for all of gadhafi's family members but says it will leave it up to libya on how that happens. there are also reports that khamis, one of gadhafi's sons, has been killed. a senior rebel officer says he died in an attack just outside of tripoli. we'll be following that story, as well. up next, again, the mayor of newark, new jersey. tina brown, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> great coverage, "newsweek" on steve jobs, an american genius. we'll be right back. mayor booker as well as eugene robinson. ♪

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inland flooding in several areas that we saw today. >> catskills, mid hudson, where the rainfall set records, the flood levels have set records, and the amount of damage is devastating in some areas. and will get worse before it gets better. >> we have had as a result of this storm and our state is far more complicated than it was in the '50s or even in in 1985. so this is going to take some period of time. >> welcome pack to "morning joe." live look at capitol hill. our 401( our focus is on the tri-state area and jobs. joining us, the mayor of newark, new jersey, mayor cory booker. he says he wants to play poker with me. >> why is that? >> she has one of those faces that you can read easily. when she's disgusted with you, you can tell right away. >> see, i think you

underestimate her. i want to see that game. yeah. yeah. >> we also have gene robinson in washington. editor of the "washington post." also msnbc political analyst. thank you for being with us, gene. >> good morning, joe. >> mr. mayor, let's start with you. i followed your twitter feeds all night as my power was out trying -- >> did you get the kitty off the roof in east newark? >> did you get the kitty off the roof? was it delivered warm? >> you know, we got it delivered warm. there was a lot of heroism during the storm, incredible first responders. i saw, you know, we had to use our zodiacs numerous times to get people stranded in water hazards. you know, residents themselves reaching out to others and taking people in. i just was really, really -- just lifted by seeing all of that. the truth is people are still suffering all around the tri-state area, as well as up and down the east coast without power. people who have critical needs met occasionally, newborns -- >> how's new jersey doing specifically? >> we -- >> the water situation

unbelievable. >> major water situation as of last night, about 100,000 to 200,000 people without power. and you know, my emergency teams, i was in my command center until midnight, still had downed power lines. lines still coming down. trees still are leaning because of -- >> so wet. >> the wet soil. so this is going to be a while for a cleanup. we still have a lot of work to do. i'm grateful to the governor, that he called a state of emergency. i talked to secretary napolitano. she's concerned about this area. a lot of people have a lot of work to. do our hearts should be going out to a lot of folks. >> absolutely. and obviously very clearly a serious situation in new jersey. we were having fun because you, of course, have the art of responding to these disasters down. >> through twitter. >> through social media, twitter. we have a shot of you during the snowstorm that i think other politicians might have missed out on. there's you shoveling snow. that is part of it. >> first of all, you know, social media does not replace boots on the grounds. and we were out there, you know, before the storm knocking on

doors, warning people. it is such a powerful tool. tens of thousands of my residents and i can communicate with on twitter. for me especially now, i could crowd source them. we have eyes on the streets. >> it works. >> the phone's down and cable's out, still -- >> even last night, people were saying, i smell gas, there's power lines down, sitting in my command center i could get things coordinated through social media. >> what i found when hurricanes came through my district, people didn't expect you to do everything. but they expect you to be there. they expect you to be engaged. cory booker gets it. a lot of other politicians don't. but this weekend it seems like the tri-state politicians were fully engaged. >> they certainly seemed to be fully engaged to me. and they did the basic thing. you got to show up when this sort of thing happens. if you don't, you get fired. you know, the -- the list of politicians is very long, who didn't respond to a snowstorm or

didn't respond to a hurricane or in sort of emergency situation the way people expected. so you know, some people have said maybe there was an overresponse. i think when you hear -- it hear mayor booker and others up in the northeast, you understand that while our area here pretty much escaped the storm, we didn't have serious damage, up there it's bad. >> it is bad. it could have been so much worse. anybody that says there's an overreaction obviously doesn't remember what happened with katrina. because you -- i think mike bloomberg said, you never prepare for the best case scenario. you prepare for the worst case scenario. i want to talk about your column today. then i'm going to turn it back to the mayor. the headline, "on jobs it's time to be polled." cory booker, i'm going to ask you in a second about education reform. my question is, what's he going to do with the $100 million he's

getting from zuckerberg. that's a lot of money. the question is, is there a big idea, or is it going to be a series of small ideas that add up to very little like, for instance, i believe the stimulus package and a lot of spending over the past two years. what should this president do to be big, to be bold, to make sure that actually he moves the meter? >> well, it shouldn't -- in my opinion it shouldn't be a bunch of little things that, as you said, don't add up to a lot. it should be two or three big things, infrastructure, it should be job training. and retraining. it should be perhaps some sort of mortgage relief or -- which is not specifically jobs but the economy. i think it is time -- this is the moment to go big. and i think that's the only way to kind of shake up this economy and shake up the situation.

and i also think that's a winning stan politically for the president. i think if the house republicans say no, i think he can take that to the voters. you know, people care about jobs in this economy. and they want bold not, i think, not -- boldness, i think, not timidity. >> gene writes in the "post," "so obama should go big, not small, with his jobs plan. it's hard to overstate how apprehensive most americans are about their future. boldness from the president may or may not get nations' mojo working again, but timidity surely won't. he can offer voters a choice between a pinched, miserly vision of the country's prospects on the one hand and an optimistic, expanse of view on the other. he needs to demand what's right, not what the other side is willing to give." >> that is for sure. >> we go back, we've been talking over the past couple of days about fdr. i've been reading "a traitor to his class." you look what fdr did. it took him a while to move the

needle, but he thought big. and he made sure that people like my mom and dad growing up in the heart of the great depression in the world south knew that better days were coming. >> right. i'm getting frustrated seeing people attack our president with a battle axe, not from the front lines, but from behind in his own party. saying that he hasn't been big. the area which he's been biggest about, hands down -- and i hear republican compliments on this and democratic compliments on this, is what arne duncan is doing and how much money and investment they've been making. and the thing that will have the biggest long term on our economy. if there's one report i wish every american would read, it's done by mckenzie about what's -- what the impact our economy, of our education disparities are. they literally say in it that it's -- the equivalent, disparities in education now are the equivalent of having a permanent recession inflicted upon america. a global, knowledge-based economy. if your populace is not learning, it's not going to be earning. this is something that is a tragedy. >> let me ask you. you going to get $100 million

with mark zuckerberg from facebook. what's the big idea for newark? >> one more point. it's great that we've seen investments in expanding pell grants. it's great that we've seen investments in historically black colleges and others that are serving underserved folks. higher education has got to be a part of the equation. we've got to make college more accessible because, again, a nation that is not producing college graduates, engineers, is not going to be a leading nation in the global economy. as far as k through 12 education, early childhood education, we're really focused on. >> in newark. >> but i have to say, we have an alignment now from the white house to the statehouse down to the city. >> so what's your plan in. >> the plan is to focus on empowering teachers in the classroom. besides a parent, which is still the number one thing, the biggest difference a child will have will be the quality of that teacher.

>> so how do you empower the teacher and ensure the quality? >> through the right training, better accountability, making sure you give them the tools they need to succeed, not beating them over the head with bureaucracy but the right kind of professional development. and there has to be account ability. it if you're not producing and not performing, i don't want my kids to perform adequately, if you can't raise your i had cans to levels of excellence, then we should have real consequences. but a lot of teachers are not supported. and you have to have great school leaders. >> a great principal can make all the difference. >> but you have to will i be rate pins, too. they're not getting the resources to lead. imagine being asked you have to manage something and then you have no controlle over hiring and firing and over how money is spent.

and our kids have got to work harder. we're using some of our zuckerberg grant money to expand learning time to say does this old model of our kids going to school from 8:00 a.m. and then 2:30 and then out of there, missing out two plus months during the summer, our competitor nations are going to school working much harder from us. i came from a country where we said we would outwork everybody else. we're not doing that in our schools. we've got to change that. >> so in the midst of all of this discussion about revive being the job market, improving the education, we're talking about cutting education. and cutting the very hinges that china is doubling down on. i say this as a deficit hawk. i talk about cutting defense, cutting medicare, cutting

medicaid, cutting social security, making this program solvent. but in the short term, we have to invest in education in the cup it keep up with our competitorses. >> we are deinvesting in the future and that's absurd. i just have one question for mayor booker. as you you think about early childhood education, which is so important, do you think in terms of going beyond the class room at all into the home, into families to deal with issues that families might have, issues of nutrition, health, mental health, security, that sort of thing? >> you're absolutely right. you cannot build a home on a faulty foundation. and if our kids zero to six are not getting what they need to succeed, they're not the going to be successful. so you have to address those

issues. i have teachers in my city that are doing four or five different jobs addressing issues that we should be addressing at home and we should be addressing through a community of support. and that's got to be happening as a part of our plan. >> start with nutrition, too. thank you so much. we'll be right back. [ male announcer ] it's been a good year for the chevy silverado. and not because of the awards or the accolades. no, it was good because you told us so. the chevy model year wrap up. get in on our greatest model year yet. just announced -- celebrate labor day with an additional $500 bonus cash. with all other offers, including the all-star edition discount, that's a total value of $6,500. ♪ our greatest model year yet is wrapping up.

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>> you win the award for originality today. the president is focused not on any election. he's focused right now on the growth of the economy, creating jobs, ensure that americans who are in the path of this hurricane are taken care of. >> i understand, but you're running away from this question. can you guarantee that -- i mean, are you sure that hillary is not going to run? >> you'd have to ask her. we're fairly confident -- >> that she won't? >> that we need to focus on the task at hand. >> good morning. it's 8:00 on the east coast. as you take a live look at new york city. welcome back to morning joe. an back with us onset this hour, peter alexander, nicolle wallace, and john halman. >> as you were listening to the clip, you said it is to laugh.

>> that the white house press secretary, a "time" magazine reporter who would have found this juicy, has to field questions about whether hillary clinton will primary her boss. i like it. >> the president, though, i was surprised. i saw something yesterday. his numbers are going down. much like george bush's started to do in 2006. but i saw some poll yesterday, only one in four democrats are disaffected with barack obama, they want him to be their guy again. he still has loyal, loyal base. >> the president throughout the whole first two and a half years, there's apples and you can about the liberals being upset. you have to put aside the left blogosphere and focus on the actual base. young voter, black voter, hispanic voters. he's had high levels of support from them. there and he a little bit of slippage just in the last couple month, but not very much.

>> and we get this cycling through every year. is hillary going to run. no, she's debt definifinitely n. and howard dean is trotted out there. at the end of the day, peter, john's right this one time. he's right the president has an extremely hoil base. they're going nowhere. >> the base isn't going anywhere, but clearly the decision that is made is by the independents in the middle of this country in three to five states that will decide what happens here. so obama will need more than just the base to support him, but record numbers of democrats to come out and those independents to give him -- >> where are they going to go? >> the democrats aren't going to go, but -- >> his base wasn't the traditional democratic base. the whole obama story, and you talked about this on election day morning, was all the first time voters that he animated and excited.

he changed the behavior of millions of voters. they were first time voters. those are not reliable voters. those are people who have probably moved section times since the last election. they were college kids. they're not people who even know where to go to vote. will they go through the hassle to vote for him again. i think that's a certain. >> it's would can different things, but peter is exactly right. independents won the general election, but in the primary, the first time voter, independents aren't going to play a role. it happens rarely, john, when you have an incumbent president being challenged. every time it does happen in a serious way, it always spells doom whether you're talking about lbj in 1968 or in 1992 george h.w. bush being challenged from the right. it always spells doom for the

president. >> as you pointed out, when you get challenged, you get challenged from the extreme side. hillary clinton has no basis on which to challenge barack obama in on democratic primary. she's been lock step or if anything, more conservative. >> isn't it suggested in the vein of perhaps more competent nominee? i mean that's more alarming -- >> hillary? >> that's more alarming -- i would find that more alarming as a white house staffer than if somebody suggest that he be challenged from the far left. >> i think that would be alarming. so how are things going in your hometown, your school got flooded yesterday. is it any better now? >> no. >> mika is ready to run for

mayor. she's so angry. talk about it. >> no. >> preach, sister, preach. >> how far under water -- >> we have no power until next saturday. >> we're talking two weeks. are we going to be talking on to certain governors this morning, seeing what he's going to do about about it. >> isn't it one in three homes in the state of connecticut have no power. >> a lot of people why that is. if you drive through connecticut, it's gorgeous. there's so many trees, though, and those gorgeous trees find power lines. so if you're connecticut power and light, where do you start? you have a lot of towns that are completely wiped out as far as electricity goes. >> and inland. >> inland, also. so are you going to run for mayor of your town? >> my daughter is. she did a little video on it. she really was excited to go back to school actually. >> how far under water is the

school? >> the first floor, everything. up and down the east coast they're looking at 40 confirmed deaths. 7.4 million power outages along the east coast an according to one estimate, up to $10 billion in damage. so it's going to be a long haul for a lot of people. and again, there are some areas where they said the wind wasn't so bad. water can be just as devastating for community. there is nowhere to put it, no way to stop it. >> $7 billion to $10 billion in damages. this storm for the most part was a lot less than advertised and this this just tells you you how deadly and how expensive a northeast storm can be. it if a level 4, category 4 or 5 goes through northwest in a, my home region, it depends where it hits. it can knock down a lot of pine trees. but you have something that even

kree involves in to a tropical storm can be devastating. i hate to think of the number of deaths and amount of money it would cost. >> i think this clearly ends the conversation so was this hurricane overhyped. we think of hurricaneses in the hollywood type version which is blown out windows and we anticipate that the this was requesting to be a mes going to be a mess. but while the intensesity numbers were off, they can't yet record exactly how intense the storm will be, but they did see all this water, they did an miss at a time all the water coming down and this will be one of the ten if not top five worst hurricanes ever to hit this country in terms of damage right now. the numbers are still rising. >> i can tell you somebody that has a very keen interest in hurricanes because we followed them for all of my life, you never know what they're going to do. sometimes there are hurricanes that come on shore and i think in 2005, i think it was dennis

that came on shore in the middle of the summer. a category 4. everybody was under ground. and the emergency response, they thought this was going to be worse than ivan and it looked horrific and we were actually out of town at the time and i was reporting on it. and i was thinking, my god, this is going to destroy us. and it came on shore and just collapsed. i mean it collapsed. it did nothing to the city. there are other times where you have a category 1 or 2 that you don't think will do anything and it's more deadly because of the storm surge. this is a great test run for new york officials, for new jersey officials, for connecticut officials. if a category 2 had hit new york city, then, yes, the flying glass -- you would not want pick within 100 miamis of this city because i've seen what 100 or 120 miles per hour machine winds can do. they would have torn this city to pieces. >> vermont hammered by irene.

i mean absolutely -- these are pictures out of vermont and the water there, out of control. it will be a tough slough there. >> the whole state built around rivers and ponds. >> so yesterday, we presented my husband with a special gift. >> what was that? >> dick cheney's book. >> oh, my lord. he's been a dick cheney fan if years. >> yes. yes, he let out a loud sound. >> so your husband who was covering these hurricanes suffering new the weekend covering these hurricanes. he's an investigative reporter. and you reward him with -- >> dick cheney's book. >> and you can get it signed for him. >> and stevie nicks tickets.

>> you need to get it signed for him. i will get it, i will hug it, and i may even kiss the page where he signs it for my followers on twitter who call me awful names for saying nice things about dick cheney. >> i'm going to be here. >> no, because you're disrespectful. if he brings you cupcakes, you can ask him a question. >> okay. anyhow -- >> so the book got released, right? jamie had an amazing interview. >> she's so good. seriously. we've got a little bit of it here. after weeks of speculation, former vice president dick cheney's memoir hits booksters today. the book "in my time" has several jabs at members of bush white house members before cheney discussed his controversial remarks in a date line interview that aired last

night. >> the portrait you paint of colin powell makes it sound as if he was disloyal and undermining the administration. >> those are your words. i don't think say it as harshly as you have presented it. i did feel that the state department did not serve the president well. i would hear discussions, for example, that general powell had objected to or opposed our operations in iraq. but that never happens sitting around the table. it was the kind of thing that seemed to be said outside to others. >> you felt he was going around you. >> well, not going around me, but it didn't help the cause. >> some of the phraseses you use. diplomatic failures. misguided approach. train wreck. do you think that condoleezza rice was a competent secretary of state? >> i once offered condi a job on a corporate board when i was a board member before the bush

administration ever got elected. >> that's into the a yes or a no. do you think she was a competent tent secretary of state? >> in some regards. i didn't make the attack personal. secretary of state? >> in some regards. i didn't make the attack personal. secretary of state? >> in some regards. i didn't make the attack personal. secretary of state? >> in some regards. i didn't make the attack personal.secretary of state? >> in some regards. i didn't make the attack personal. but there were fundamental differences in policy and i lay those out. >> you also write about condi rice after the two of you had a disagreement. she came into my office, sat down in the chair next to my desk and tearfully admitted i had been right. was she crying? >> she was tearful. that's what i wrote. if i had wanted to say she was crying, would i have said she was crying. >> you you know that tearfully is a loaded description for powerful women in high office, it's going to be seen by a lot of people as provocative. could you have left that word out? >> it is an accurate description of what happened and what i saw. >> okay. so let me ask you, nicole, you're in the communications

different. he went after the communications department for softening up some of the speeches. but i want to ask specifically -- obviously it's not personal. but you probably don't love the book yourself. that being said, his criticisms of colin powell are criticisms i've heard time and again that powell was forever covering his back side, he was the ultimate bureaucrat, he never said anything that could come back and blow up in his face in case a iraq went well. but then when it went bad, he was leaking quietly that he was depends it all along. is that something that others in the bush administration were saying other than dick cheney? i've heard this criticism time and time again that he was always covering himself. >> right. well, look, have you seen the jep kerry movie liar liar where some magic spell is put on jim scary and he cannot tell a lie? that's the feeling i had watching dick chain any last

night. dick cheney is totally unin-consume bettered by any political micity, by any nicety, frankly. >> no filter. >> and what he lays bare is true. now, it may be his truth, may be from his perspective, but frankly at a time when everyone is hungering for sincerity, for directness and for some authentic unshielded account what have went on during the bush year respect epg dick chain any deserves some credit. >> and you're saying this, just for our viewers, you're saying this as somebody who was a part of the team that took a lot of his bashes. >> here's the other thing about dick cheney. he makes clear how he feels and where he stands on a debate when it occurs. and epg that's his point about colin powell. ing coming up next, connecticut governor malloy. would he talk about his new concession deal with state

unions. and business before the bell. but first, michelle grossman with a check on the the forecast. >> thank you so much. yes, we are still looking at a lot of flooding in the middle east. flood warnings all up and down the northeast. we'll see this over the next several days. the good news is we are looking at lots of sunshine through the day. the northeast looking picture per perfect. temperatures in atd the eight and l 80s and low due poips. we'll see drenching downpours in miami and minneapolis. that was a quick look at your weather. "morning joe" is brewed by starbucks. ♪

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one of the hipgs about these types of storm, the death toll may continue to go up through extents a accidents and other things that happen. we urge people to use common accepts, don't drive through flooded areas, a lot of power lines down and as crews are eenergizing, be careful. >> 21 past the hour. joining us now, the democratic

governor of connecticut, governor malloy. how is connecticut holding up? you still have a lot of people without power. >> yeah, we have about 40 a% of residents out of you power. this was a brutal event particularly in the eastern part of the state which had the highest winds. in the western part of the state, we had the most flooding. so it was a tough one. >> governor, the irony here is as the storm approached, we were all concerned about what was going to happen in manhattan, people thought of connecticut as an afterthought. manhattan was spared, connecticut got the brunt certainly on many fronts. you can never prepare enough. >> you can't. and of course we have the long island sound and that's where a lot of our damage occurred right along the shore because what happens is a hurricane fills sound, wi have a massive surge and the further you go down the sound actually as you approach

greenwich or stanford, you get more and more water trapped. so a tremendous amount of flooding along the shore. high winds obviously whipping that up to a froth. i went out to east haven where we lost four or five houses completely, but another 20 were extensively damaged. it was a brutal event. >> so how do you get the state up and running again? obviously you are the governor and not the head of connecticut light and power. but originally we heard that it might be two weeks before power was restored in some starts of the state. nicole walls will saying she's not going to get power back for another week. but i guess can the state do might go on to push the power companies along? >> we are. and we opened up our command center in the middle of last week. and they've been there throughout. they are having a problem getting outside state crews in

about a of the scope of this issue from north carolina through new hampshire, vermont and maine. and quite frankly, quebec got beaten up pretty well. we have a bunch of crews that were supposed to to come in n. from can that today to help out and because of the amount of rain that was received up there, they're slow in responding. i think as massachusetts and new hampshire resolve their problems, we'll see more crews come flowing into the state and hopefully we'll make more progress. but you we've been telling people since mid week last week that they needed -- if they're used to having their power out for a listening period of time in a mormle a storm, hthen you can assume that your power will be out for up to a week. i hope we get people back on. we've come down by about a third of the people that were out of power at the height of the storm. we are making some progress. but this is what i've done. i've told both of our major utilities that they have to be available to the press on a daily basis, take the questions

and give the answers and talk about crew sizes. they're not working 16 hour -- 16 hours on on, eight hours off. and that's really to protect the lines and seeing this from another state, we would very much appreciate our utilities will hire them. >> peter alexander here. i know there's an effort that you'll speak about the plan for small businesses in your state. what do you do for that community? a lot of people without power, but a lot of communities were hoping to take advantage of the last week before labor day for tourism. what do you you do for those businesses right now? >> we have announced a state sponsored plan for small business aid. we've put millions of dollars aside for this. quite frankly, we have to cut other program, but we'll do it. we have to give loan guarantees up to $500,000. and i think most of the loans

will be relatively small because we want to get small business back up and running. that's the east jeiest way to g people employed in the long run is to have small business prosper. now, i have to tell you, i'm hoping that we'll be sdlared a disaster area and that we'll be able to recoup our state funds, but i can't wait around for washington to act. we got to move. >> so this question may not be as relevant to you as other newly elected governors that we have on the show, but we had scott walker on and i asked him what he learned from his wisconsin battle and he learned quite a lot. you've been a mayor for years, but obviously you you had to learn something. this is the first hurricane that you've been through. what it did you learn? for other governors that are watching, what is the key, getting your state ready for something like this? >> hands on and read the weather

reports and get out two, three, four days ahead of it. and that was the great hinge about this storm as we could do that. we head people out of harm's way. we had 32 communities declare mandatory evacuation zones before the storm hit. we had the kinds of vehicles necessary to get through some minor flooding to get people out. so we just did all that preparatory work which is so important. and then communicate, communicate, communicate is the most important thing a governor or a mayor can do in these circumstances. the people who have power need to understand that someone see working on their behalf, someone's giving them appropriate warnings, someone is preparing for the response. and in a state, that falls to the governor. >> what about, first of all, i'm hearing a lot of roadways are out in connecticut. one of my friends lives there and says her road is gone. so i'm wondering how passable major through wuways are, but yd there were some crews coming in

from canada. i've covered hurricanes in connecticut and i remember the key thing for connecticut light and power was bringing this crews from other state. there has to be other plays tce crews can come from. >> the utility is flying in people from washington state. but the scope of this issue, from north carolina through quebec, is making it hard for each of the states to identify those resources. the utilities are competing against one another and then we have some utilities holding back crews. they don't want to release as many people. but i was on on the phone with the assist tarnt secretaant sec, explained the situation, asked to make more people available to our state. on your question about streets,

as of last night, we had about 1,000 streets in the state of connecticut that were still not passable. most of those as a result of downed wires and trees. and we have a tremendous number of trees that went down in connecticut. but you're right, some of those streets were still flooded or washed out. >> hey, governor, thank you so much for being with us. great job. things look look like they're starting to move along and we hope to get you down here onset sometime soon. >> i'd love to. i've got a few thepg ew things this. >> do you really? you seem to hold back. okay. so here we have connecticut recent department nicolle wallace saying get her lights on first and then we'll talk politics. thank you, governor. we really appreciate it. by the way, he's a fighter p i love fighters. chris christie, out of new jersey, a fighter. an dan dannel malloy also a

fighter. great guy an incredible story. >> and voters will forgive a lot of things if they feel like they have a governor or mayor or president who is on their side. >> and i want to see help out there fighting with the other governors to get those utility crews. >> turn my lights on. >> i hear you. all right. up next, will the momentum tip on wall street. business before the bell is next. [ woman ] jogging stroller. you've been stuck in the garage

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even as we deal with this crisis of the moment, our great ongoing challenge as a nation remains how to get this economy growing faster, our challenge is to create a climate where more businesses can post job listings, where folks can find good work that relieves the financial burden they're feeling, where families can regain a sense of economic security in their lives. that's our urgent mission and that's what i'm fighting for every single day. >> let's get a check on business before the bell. simon hobbs, earthquakes,

hurricane, natural disasters, low guscusts from the heavens. what else can get in the way of a recovery for us? >> look, the market has done really well. we're actually up almost 8%. we'll get a lower open today. probably down about 75 points. the issue here is we're trying to work out whether or not the stock market's bottomed about pd we have a number of hurdles. we get the case shiller home price index coming out and that should show house prices have rin for a third straight month, but this did he that last summer, they tend to come down after that, so we still think the trend is down. apparent from that, consumer confidence is out at 10:00 and they surveyed that right in the middle of the market turmoil. so it will be interesting to sea how the market reacts. and then ben bernanke's federal meants will come out.seea how t.

and then ben bernanke's federal meants will come out.see how the market reacts. and then ben bernanke's federal meants will come out. that's the one where they would they would give us ultra low interest rates for two years. but it indicates they're nervous about the economy. >> let's he look at the front page of the "wall street journal." cashed in $8 billion of stock, this follows warren buffett buying about $5 billion of stock in bank of america. have they bought themselves some breathing room? >> yes, and i think that's the way to put it. the irony is they always said they didn't need any extra capital but we're say, oh, yes, you do because of all the problems notably that they have in the house market. don't to get bank of america is still the largest mortgage lender and that's where its problems come from at the moment. and also still a lot of questions about about brian money than an h moynihan and his leadership of bank of america.

a lot wish they had jamie dimon. moynihan has more cash. will that be enough. certainly breathing room for now. >> and so those that sold the stock short, big losers? >> yes, ultimately they have been, but it depends the point at which they covered that. i think for many people the warren buffett intervention was really interesting. he got a really good deal on the investment that he put forward. a lot of people are like shareholders, doctor are we giving buffett such a good deal, but the name carries the cache. and don't forget that lehman refused the buffett offer and look what happened there. >> and then look w45hat happene with goldman sachs. how much money did warren butch at the time make with his investment in goldman sachs in the fall of 2008. they gave him a sweet deal, but

the stock also exploded. that man, he doesn't have enough money to pay his taxes. this man is doing pretty darn well just on that gold man deal. >> what do you mean he didn't have must have money to pay his taxes some he wants to pay more tax. he thinks rich should pay more. >> it would be very easy for him to do that. he's got a checkbook, he's got a pen. why doesn't he calculate up 35% and just pay that to the government. i don't understand the gnashing of teeth. if warren really wants to pay the federal government, i'll give him the address. >> he says may rate of taxation is by far the lowest in the office, don't you think that's a bit odd? >> it is odd. and he can just write the check. write the check if he wants to. all right. simon i think he's crying krk dial tears. >> he could just think that what's going on is wrong.

in europe we have other billionaires are who are doing the same thing. why do you keep on being nice to us just because we're rich, do you really think we're going to leave the country? would warren buffett leave america if taxes were higher? >> no, of course pot. and of course i think he is a gr guy and think he means what he said. i'm just saying nobody's stopping from you writing 35% of his salary every year to the federal government. >> i hear you you. >> free country. all right, simon, thank you so much. from the successful to the scandalous. >> key say i'm going to lead by example, i'm going to pay my 35%. >> next the sweeping chronicle of the 2000 year old.

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recently we spoke with john julius nor witch, author of the new book absolute monarchs. n norwich knew would two popes writes about the most significant pope and what they meant to not just rome, but the entire world. i'm looking at some of the things that you cover in this book. and it's fast thfascinating in terms of egos that popes bring to the table. popes are just as power hungry as our politicians you maintain. >> i think they are. i was very surprised when i was writing the book to fand how few of them really measured up to what they should have been. most of them are very, very

mediocre people, i think. nowhere near as many great men as you would like to think. >> i would think pope john paul ii would be one of the greatest. >> he was, yes, but he's one of 250. >> as long as we've established our favorite. >> talk about how this absolute power corrupts even popes absolutely and some of the more extreme examples of decadence. >> i think one of the real problems is that the pope is elect and that's a dangerous way of choosing a leader. they lived in a tiny restricted community of the vatican and there were a good many of them were hugely amambitious, they

bribed their way to the top in many instances. they actually do d. an enormous amount of good in a spiritual way. spiritually, they were actually zilch. the most perfect example is alexander vi who bought his way in, he bribed his became up to the top. he was hugely intelligent and a lot of people loved him, but he had absolutely not one single trace of religious skrup he wcrl in his body. he was there if what he could get and he got a the lot before he spent his life enriching himself and his family. this is what a great many of them did in the days of the renaissance. >> now let's go to john heilemann. >> you've talked about the popes being corrupt, but the pay palsy

is also very political. we've had a couple of correspondents who go cover the vatican who had previously covered white houses and got there and thought it's not that different. can tayou talk about the politil nature and political aprats tuesday that popes put around them in the vatican? >> you have to admit the vatican was for most of its existence, it was actually not only just spiritual, but it was also a temporal authority. it ruled great tracts of italy. so there was absolutely no question that it could avoid being political. it had to be very, very political indeed. and it had to take its part in all the nightmarish plie isish g that was going on for centuries. so it's 100% political

institution. always has been. and i think it trays to be spiritual inevitably certain popes who have been perhaps better than most of them, more successful than most, have been extremely spiritual people. but i think they were in the minority. i think the very large majority were really very, very -- were hardly more than mediocre. >> who was the worst is this. >> john xii was the worst. he turned the vatican into a co school of prostitution and the matrons of rome were terrified of making adoration to the shrine of st. peter lest they get violated. >> oh, my goodness. >> it was as bad as that. >> that's pretty bad. >> that's pretty bad in the tenth century.

but after that, it got always bet better. but there are all sorts of extraordinary stories and verse there's the story of pope joan. she never actually existed, but the interesting thing is that the church believed that she did exist for something like 300 or 400 years. and her statues can still be seen and pictures can still be seen and there is a street in rome named after her. and she -- in they're she lived in the seventh century and she was an english woman who suddenly came to rome and impressed everybody by her knowledge, managed to conceal her sex, became pope, reigned for two years and would have reigned for longer had she not given birth to a baby on the steps of the vatican.

>> that gave her away. >> which rather gave the game away. >> absolutely fascinating. john julius norwich, thank you so much. the book is absolute monarchs, as history of the papacy. thank very much for being on the show. >> thank you very much for having me.

happy birthday to john mccain who turned 75 years today. back then a dollar was worth 20 cents. today, not nearly as much. he thought hurricane irene was a flapper he had a crush on in the 20s. >> there's other good talk for us this morning. putin, the video files, here's the latest. yesterday the russian prime minister roaring into russia clad in leather to gain support for the approaching russian presidential elections. >> he's just a regular guy cruising around with like $25 billion. >> look at the russian harley-davidson effort. they were called the night wolves. it was a big night last night.

also in reality television. get excited for the fall season. your 2011 lineup for dancing with the stars owing ron artest, ricki lake. >> nancy grace? >> nancy grace, chaz bono, george clooney's ex. >> the really beautiful woman from italy. >> they tried to get gadhafi. unavailable, apparently one audience member asked nancy grace how she plans to deal with the pressure. apparently the answer is not hot pants. >> how do you compare the pressure of doing live news with what the pressure will be of doing live dancing? >> well, i think it will probably be a lot easier to report on the live news than to

be the live news because it's falling on your booty. >> 7 did-2 odds that nancy grace is your winner. chaz bono will be dancing with a female partner and will be good television. >> that was chastity. >> it was. now dancing as chaz. >> love it. [ female announcer ] what if your natural beauty could be flawless too? discover aveeno positively radiant tinted moisturizers with scientifically proven soy complex and natural minerals. give you sheer coverage instantly, then go on to even skin tone in four weeks. aveeno tinted moisturizers.

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welcome back to "morning joe." what did we learn today? >> we learned that the east coast needs utility workers from out west. >> come on, we need you. we are hiring. what did you learn? >> i learned that if i had tw t tweeted cory booker, he would have delivered me pizza. >> i learned that we're in very good company. 40% of our neighbors in connecticut are without power. >> 7 million people across the