the whole time i've known him. romney doesn't change, either. he pretends to. that is what has begun to make this otherwise dignified man look so politically goofy. that is "hardball" thank you for being with us, "the ed show" with ed schultz starts right now. good evening, americans, welcome to "the ed show" tonight from new york. president obama went to ground zero for labor and gave governor scott walker a lesson in creating jobs. this is "the ed show" let's get to work. manufacturing is coming back. companies are starting to bring jobs back. >> it was a tale of two leaders in wisconsin today. one of them has a much better story to tell. >> it is time to stop rewarding companies that ship jobs overseas and start rewarding companies that start companies in the united states. with tom barrett and huffington post, sam stein --

>> barack obama needs to rethink what he has done to the people of america we're rising up on this one. >> the radical republican war on women continues. the nation's katrina vanden heuvel has reaction. rick santorum's hard right turn has him up nine points in michigan. bob sh rum has the latest on the race. lin puts it up, jeremy lin from downtown! >> why didn't anybody see jeremy lin coming? now even the president is caught up in lin-sanity, director and super fan spike lee and bill rhoden will weigh in tonight. good to have you with us, folks, thanks for watching. if there is one governor in the united states of america who represents the complete opposite of what president obama stands for and what he's working for,

it is the guy he came face-to-face with today, his name of course is my good friend scott walker. president obama and the governor of wisconsin were face-to-face for a brief moment today. when president obama arrived in milwaukee, wisconsin. they were supposed to go to milwaukee's masterlock factory together, as kind of a team effort. no, not really. scott walker got sick. think about that packer fans. your governor can't play hurt. dog gone it the president in town he gets the flu. probably he should have the flu, heck he's facing recall election, he can't raise enough money to save his political career, some of of his buddies up on felony charges. it's been a rough run plus he can't do jobs. you know what he's got? cowarditis. he can't face the people of his own state because his job record is really in the tank. he gave the president a brewer's jersey, with the number one on it. the only thing that walker is number one at is killing jobs.

he is the number one governor in the country when it comes to killing jobs. look at private sector job growth in wisconsin. for the last seven months of 2011, holy smokes, that sucker is sinking like a stone, that is bad. instead of creating jobs, walker has focused on let's see tax cuts for the wealthiest wisconsinites and corporations. that is the first thing he did when he got in office. scott walker's policies, my friends are killing jobs in the state and he is suffering for it and so are the people of that state. he's leading the charge, he's the radical governor that has the template to go after unions. here are numbers that are going in the other direction. president obama's job approval is at 50% in the polls. hold it right there. think about all the super pac money out there all the negative publicity that all the righties are throwing at president obama, heck, he's going up in the polls. this shows the average of all national polls, the approval

rating where is it going? trending up. his popularity is going up as the economy improves. president obama went to wisconsin today to basically give everybody a pep talk, get them out of the doldrums, revive the state. the governor there is sinking it. he gave a pep talk to the workers at masterlock factory. >> here's what i want everybody to remember. over the last 23 months, businesses added nearly 3.7 million new jobs. manufacturing is coming back. companies are starting to bring jobs back. the economy is getting stronger. the recovery is speeding up. >> that makes walker sick, doesn't it? the country is only had 23 months of private sector job growth in a row. but wisconsin, you know, that state is not seeing the same success under this radical governor who wants to cut the

middle class to shreds. walker said his crackdown on public sector unions would help the private sector grow but has done the opposite. president obama went to wisconsin today with the different message. it's about people. it's about workers. that's how the private sector companies stay strong. >> and today for the first time in 15 years, this plant is running at full capacity and that is an example of what happens when unions and employers work together to create good jobs. >> that's what happens when unions and employers work together to create good jobs? this is exactly what scott walker does not want to hear. this is what he's trying to destroy. he's modeled his career after ronald reagan. reaganonomics failed, obamanomics works. 23 months of private sector job growth, factory with union worker, where labor was attack. hell of a road trip. don't you think the attitude of the country has changed, that

people who care about the economy, people who are believing in america they are not down in the doldrums the way they were before the mid terms of 2010. one year ago, wisconsinites were protesting scott walker's flat out war on labor. a year later, we can see the american people focusing on what? income inequality and tax fairness. who gets a fair shake in americ anymore? when you have radical governor who goes after middle class, teachers, their pension is too good. their health care plan is too good. scott walker he didn't plan on any of this. the republican party didn't plan on any of this. this is one of the reasons why they caved on the payroll tax cut because they had too many things go against them as of late. heck, now they are trying to tell women what to do with

private parts. that is how screwed up the republican party is right now. president obama, you know what he has done? be cool. stay the course. we got a plan, we'll get there. president obama's kind of like that turtle crossing the road with confidence. there is traffic all over the place, he knows he will get there, nobody is going to run him over. he knows what his plan is, he will get across the road. and he will get us to better ground. and he has the stats to believe it. while all the negativity that is out there is not where america is right now. we're going doing this story later in the show tonight about this basketball player for the new york knicks, that's where america is. america loves the little guy. america loves a success story. america roots for the guy who is on the end of the bench. and the workers have been on the end of the bench with the radical governors that have

attacked unions, that have villified the middle class and seeing ads driving around detroit, here comes mitt, i'm from the middle class i'm right there. yeah, right. the republican party, rick santorum at the top of the list, has nothing for middle class workers in this country. not a thing. and it just happens ground zero fighting for workers is wisconsin. walker's numbers are going way, president obama's numbers going this way. whose car do you want to get in? get your cell phones out. tonight's question, do tax cuts for the rich create jobs? text a for yes, b for no to 622639. our blog at ed.msnbc.com, leave a good comment. we'll bring you results later in the show. joining me tonight, is milwaukee mayor tom barrett. tom, good to have you with us tonight. i appreciate it. first, you were on the tarmac today when the president got off the airplane.

>> i was on the tarmac. >> what did president obama and governor walker have to say to one another? governor walker was really ripping him a new one the other night at the cpac convention, how did this go today? >> they were very cordial, governor walker handed him a jersey, milwaukee brewers jersey, "obama number one" a great day he was endorsing the president for reelection. you nailed it. 23 consecutive months of job growth, nationally. the president has shown real leadership and moving the economy back in the right direction. the challenge we have right here in wisconsin is under governor walker and his policies, at the same time this nation is gaining jobs, we've had six consecutive months of losing jobs, so we're going in the wrong direction and the president came in here, he did come in to give us a pep talk and talked about importance of insourcing, putting people back to work, we have to make

more stuff in the country. he's right on. he's nailing it absolutely all the way up and down the line. >> was walker sick today or was he just phoning it in? what is going on here? the president is in town, you got the masterlock, a great story of insourcing, getting jobs back to america. he couldn't suck it up and play, what is going on here? >> i tell you what i think is going on. obviously he was cordial to the president, that is important, i give him credit for that. but to leave there and to go to this neighborhood that is economically depressed neighborhood five days after he in essence took away $25 million that could have helped people who are hurt by the mortgage foreclosure crisis in that neighborhood, he didn't want to go to that neighborhood, sure didn't want to go to this unionized plant filled with workers in a situation where management and the union worked successfully together. because that is not the approach

he takes. he doesn't want to take that approach. he could have taken that approach here in wisconsin, he chose not to take the approach. >> mayor --. >> it shows what happened. >> did you have a chance to talk to the president about the mortgage issue and the way the money is coming in the state? >> i talked -- you bet i did. i talked to the president i mentioned two things. first, how important i thought his insourcing argument was, i think this is an important economic and patriotic message to tell the american people and after i told him we have a situation here in wisconsin where the republican attorney general, republican governor have decided that they don't want this money that was clearly intended for communities and individuals that were adversely affected by the mortgage foreclosure crisis, he doesn't want them to have the money under his discretion. he wants to put it in the budget problems that he created himself. so i wanted the president to know that, i want to follow up with the staff. i don't know what we can do. what i have been doing is taken

to the court of public opinion to let people know they have to contact this governor and this attorney general and say that money should go to communities and individuals who have been adversely affected by the mortgage foreclosure crisis. >> i got to ask you quickly what did the president say when he found out that that money was going to a state budget and not target forward what it was intended for? >> frankly i think he was surprised. i said i'll follow up with his staff. he doesn't have the time to deal with that head-on he was surprised to hear that. ohio, republican attorney general, republican governor, same labor strife we had in wisconsin they have gotten it there they are putting money in cleveland, toledo those neighborhoods. illinois putting that money in those neighborhoods adversely effected. here in wisconsin you have a governor who doesn't get it. has decided that it's better to pit people against each other, that is wrong. >> milwaukee mayor tom barrett, thank you for joining us tonight. let's turn now to sam stein,

political reporter huffington post, sam, the significance of the president's trip after all of the fights that have taken place in the last year in wisconsin, and now he goes to a factory telling a story about bringing workers jobs back from china. what is the significance of this, do you think? >> i think you laid it out pretty well in the preamble, that wisconsin was for a good chunk of the summer ground zero for basically the fight in terms of vision for the country. you had on the one hand someone who went after public sector unions, went after collective bargaining rights, slashed budgets and you have the president who while he wasn't steadfastly on the front lines of the battles has outlined a vision where it's about investment in the very fabric of the working class fabric of the country, the contrast couldn't have been brighter, and the president has really picked it up in recent months with the american jobs act now a budget that really does abandon what the administration was doing from the beginning of 2011 which

was sort of austerity focus, they pushed that to the side and said now is not the time to do it, we have a slow but improving economy, economic recovery, we need to foster that. >> sam stein, huffington post, you nailed it all, great to have you with us tonight. >> thanks, ed. >> answer the question at the bottom of the screen, share thoughts on twitter @edshow. president obama is laying out a vision how to pump up american manufacturing even more. that is next. senate republicans, they have to go on record in opposition to women's health care in america. the gop war on women's health care continues, that is at a ne level, we'll tell you about it.

koumg the president sounded like john f. kennedy talking about mace lan to bring back jobs to america. a republican senate candidate's racist ad has backfired in the polls. now the actress is apologizing.

even the president is getting in on lynn-sanity that is sweeping the nation. bill rhoden of "the new york times" will join us. that transends sports. share thoughts on twitter #edshow, we will be right back.

ask yourself what you can do to bring jobs back to your country. and your country will do everything we can to help you succeed. >> welcome back to "the ed show." today president obama used the success story of masterlock as a platform to layout his vision on

how to bring more jobs back to america. he wants to reward companies for creating jobs here. >> so we've said from now on every multi-national company should have to pay a basic minimum tax. and every penny should go toward lowering taxes for companies that choose to stay and hire here in the united states of america. >> okay, the republicans are always after the president because he doesn't have a plan. today he offered details. double the tax deduction for companies making products here in america. help finance new plants and equipment, invest in community college training programs, creation of a trade enforcement unit. and he's willing to fund it. president obama's budget calls for more investment in manufacturing, more than we've seen in 25 years in america. the president made the case for manufacturing today again. >> more and more companies like masterlock are now insourcing,

decides that if the cost of doing business here isn't too much different than the cost of doing business in places like china, why wouldn't you rather do it right here in the united states of america? >> appealing to the patriotism of america. scott paul and jim coeberl, gentlemen, good to have you with us. scott, you first. president obama wants more success stories like masterlock. do you think he's put out a blue print that can do that? >> i think it starts to get us where we need to go. you covered the high points there, ed. we have a change in the tax code. we have a more of an emphasis on a level playing field for american workers and businesses. we have investing in a new generation of manufacturing workers, something that has been eviscerated over the last generation. we have more investment in infrastructure, help get some investment in plant and equipment. a good plan and the fact that both the president is talking about this in a way, inviting

companies to bring work back, that is something we haven't seen since the early 1980's and indicates we can make progress if congress will do something. >> let's talk about that the best numbers in 25 years for manufacturing. how? >> well, it does it in a couple of ways. first in the tax code, he would try to expand a deduction for domestic manufacturing, expand a research and development tax credit to help with innovation, invest more in workforce, our technical college system and shop classes, as you know, ed, have been decimated over the last generation and put more of an emphasis on trade enforcement. >> that is the key, isn't it? >> we have $295 billion trailed deficit with china, record last year, we have to get tough we are them. now the leading impediment to getting jobs back in the country, if we have a level playing field as the president

said and i know the workers at masterlock feel this way, we can compete with anyone and bring jobs back but we need the level playing field. >> jim koeberl, what is the significance of the trip, what does it mean he cares and has a mod toll do more of it? >> it meant a great deal it shows come mightment -- shows america that we have the best workforce and working right with the management people there and together with masterlock, we have a lot of places like that in the united auto workers that work with many different people and again it's that collective bargaining that keeps these jobs in america. >> what about the crowd today, jim? were they pretty excited about the president from the standpoint they believe that he is with them? that he is supporting the middle class? what was the sense of the crowd?

>> very excited. they were so pumped up and when he first came in, everybody got glimpse of him coming around the corner the place erupted and they all get it, too. every aspect of everything he talked about, there was just everybody was excite and as he walked out of there, everybody was so excited about having the president come to their facility and to see they could do there. >> insourcing, scott, that is the new term. we have a long way to -- we have lost 50,000 factoies over the last ten years, 25 employees or more. that is a huge number. of course chinese representatives were in town earlier this week meeting with the president, this is a big week for manufacturing. >> it really is, a pivotal week, we haven't seen attention showered on manufacturing like this for a very long time but we have to make it real and there are things that we can do to

clean up our own house and that's what the president proposes to do in the budget, focus on workers, focus on investing in our factories, show that you can do it with unions, the unions aren't the impediment, they make our country stronger. then we have to make sure we have the level playing field, that is where we have progress, we still have the $295 billion trade deficit we need the president to focus on currency, i think he can do it. we need speaker boehner to pass a currency bill, if we do that we send a strong signal it is knee more business as usual, we want to create manufacturing jobs, we'll fight for them, that is the message that will help win for the president in the midwest and any other candidate who chooses to embrace it, a good message. >> scott paul, jim koeberl, thank you so much. bad news for republican congressman peter hoekstra, he ran a racist ad and his poll numbers have dropped. rick santorum's radical turn is riling up the republican base. mitt romney trying to take credit for the auto loan he opposed. bob shrum joins me for the conversation, stay with us.

welcome back to "the ed show." here's justice for you. a republican congressman put out a racist ad and now he has dropped in the polls. peter hoekstra of michigan ran this ad during the super bowl. in his bid to unseat senator debbie stabenow. >> your economy get weak, ours

get good. we get your jobs. >> despite outrage from democrats and republicans, he kept running the ad until five days ago. then his campaign replaced it. he scrubbed a website featuring debbie stabenow on a chinese fan. too late your poll numbers have dropped. stabenow leads the congressman 51 to 37%. most people were familiar with the ad, 45% said it made them less likely to vote for hoekstra, 15% said it made them more likely to vote for the former congressman. the actress in the ad apologized saying i'm dep deeply sorry for any pain the character i portrayed brought to my community. she said more but that is the only sentence we used. one other story we have more on the story out of arizona, the union busting bill in arizona has hit a major road block.

it is failing to get enough support from republicans. the proposed bill would have stripped collective bargaining rights from government workers in the state. republicans control the arizona legislature, and it was expected to pass but then of course the unions pushed back hard, public got involved, now the senate president says there aren't enough votes to move the bill forward. we just saw last week what obamacare looks like effectively one man, the president of the united states, who can be himself a health care czar or dictator. >> the republican war on women is kicking in to yet another gear. katrina van deny hoo val has the latest. rick santorum is surging in michigan. >> we'll have the latest with professor bob shrum. >> lin puts it up, jeremy lin from downtown!

>> spike lee and bill rhoden of "the new york times" will talk about lin-sanity and nobody saw it coming. [ female announcer ] with swiffer wet cleaning better doesn't have to take longer. i'm done. i'm gonna...use these. ♪ give me just a little more time ♪ [ female announcer ] unlike mops, swiffer can maneuver into tight spaces without the hassle and its wet mopping cloths can clean better in half the time,

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republican opposition to the affordable health care act has evolved in an all-out assault on women health care. the latest attack could reach the senate floor tomorrow. harry reid agreed to hold a vote on the blunt amendment which allows any, any employer to opt out of any insurance mandate if it goes against their moral convictions. pick and choose, that is what it sounds like. republican opposition to a measure requiring employees with religious affiliation to provide coverage for birth control. president obama worked on a deal on this measure, and the

compromise, 66% of the american people are good. the hard right wingers are not satisfied. barbara boxer of california makes it clear the blunt amendment is much more than just birth control. >> would have us go back to the medical dark ages. let's talk about what this blunt amendment does. it would allow anyone to deny any health care service for any reason. even the most essential life-saving service. for example if i believe prayer should call all disease that is my belief and i'm an employer, i can deny coverage for any life-saving intervention. anyone. >> senator roy blunt and his buddies are trying to cannibalize health care reform. that is what there is. their ultimate goal take down the framework. affordable care act. their main target now is women.

i'm joined by katrina vanden heuvel, editor of "the nation" i can't believe we're having this conversation. >> yeah. >> what are the republicans doing here, they're going for broke? >> they're doubling down ed in a way i don't understand. it's one thing they have been fighting over abortion for decades. this is taking on health care for men, women, for children. they are taking on contraception, which is wide support. we often talk about 99%ers, i'm reminded of the statistic of the 98% of catholic women who used contraception at some point in their life versus the 271 bishops. but barbara boxer got it right it's going back to the dark ages, it's not just blunt, though, ed. you look at the four candidates remaining in the republican primary, they, too are opposing no cost coverage for cancer screening, or domestic violence as a pre-existing condition.

>> they are using women as a target to take down president obama. >> i mean they are putting a target on the back of women in order to take down a president they don't like and i think it's a losing strategy. women in this country across the political spectrum, particularly independent women, they want to have privacy rights, they want to have liberty, they want the protection of their rights with doctors, we saw an outpouring of grass roots activism, anger at the way planned planned parenthood was targeted by the komen foundation planned parenthood is in women's live. one in six women and their daughters have been helped. it is like apple pie. what we need to think about this could be the year of the woman in the year 1992 was electorally. we're seeing a war on women arouse women and we are looking at five women who are

challengers from five states which have never elected women. we need the outside strategy of movement activism but we need women inside, the any-choicers outnumber pro-choicers, that needs to be looked at closely. >> is this issue and i -- for lack of a better term, i can't think of anything better, is this going to engage soccer moms so to speak? in a way that maybe they have never been politically engaged before? >> they were engaged in 1992, take yourself back to the year, anita hill-clarence thomas hearings, men sitting on the committee room who didn't get what women's lives are like. we're not talking here about abortion. we're talking about the range of health care. >> why are they doing it? >> i think a party moved so far to the extremist right you have rick santorum saying in the case of rape and incest he wouldn't

allow abortion. but i want to mention five women from five states who were never elected elizabeth warren is one, tammy baldwin from wisconsin from connecticut, nevada and hawaii. if this is the year to have women's voices, critical mass heard it's a yhy, women historic year and the republicans are going to make it the overreach, you've seen on it hey bore rights. now seeing on it women's issues. >> heidi from north dakota the former attorney general. >> that's right. >> she was the tobacco lawsuit, fabulous legal mind would be great in the senate. here is senator rand paul from kentucky to make the fight about economics. >> you should not be forced to buy insurance that goes against your religious principles. but i would go one step further obama-care forces you to buy insurance gets your economic freedom.

should a 23-year-old woman who had her tubes tied be forced to buy pregnancy coverage, there is a economic and religious issue this goes to the heart of obama-care why some of us have been opposed. >> what do you think? >> i think they are using women in the war on women to take down obamacare, but they forget the principle lessons of the founding father and the separation of church and state. you go down this route, you are in danger of dismantling the very rights and principles this country is founded on. >> rand is a loose cannon. he connected it all. this has not been about religious freedom, this is going after what they call obamacare this, is about taking down the president -- >> also economic rights. if you're a janitor, a woman janitor working in a religious

institution, or hospital, or you have to have the right to be able to buy affordable birth control they want to make that out of your reach. this is not what america is about and i think this overreach will damage them. >> great to have you with us tonight. rick santorum is surging to the top of the republican field by adopting what i think is harsh rhetoric, and really the absolute tactics. mitt romney is struggling to keep up, bob shrum in the discussion with me next, stay with us.

coming up next, mitt romney tries to patch things up with detroit. will it help him recover in the polls? bob shrum weighs in on that. the big finish jeremy lin is the talk of the sports world. but his story and the lessons from it are much bigger than basketball. new york times columnist willia rhoden explains. tweet us #edshow, we're right

back.

don't you see how they see you? how they look down their nose at the average americans? these elite snobs. >> elite snobs. wage earners are elite snobs. rick santorum is going radical, changing tactics and a hard right turn. that was not what i heard when i was covering santorum in iowa. this guy has changed. he's gone very absolute, trying to appeal to the right wing voters. his goal, i guess to correct a contrast between him and mitt romney and you know what? it's working. he has romney on the ropes. mitt is scrambling to recover. romney tried to repair the damage from a 2008 op-ed he wrote railing against president

obama against the auto loan. it worked the car companies are back at it and romney is left with egg on his face struggling to gain traction in michigan. >> i made the very clear point the companies should have gone through managed bankruptcy. finally the obama administration agreed, i was right. they needed to go through bankruptcy, if part as part of the process they needed a financial help to get out of bankruptcy a bridge loan or guarantees for their sales of cars and so forth, i said the government should be there to provide that. they wasted a lot of money and ended up giving the companies to the uaw. look, i don't imagine that anyone could think i had any interest other than to see the companies thrive and survive. >> this is romney's problem. he's not definitive, he's not absolute. he's far from consistent. he can't give the republican primary voters exactly what they want but this evening, we have breaking news that could help romney in his campaign in michigan. nbc news confirms rick snyder

will endorse mitt romney tomorrow. let's turn to bob shrum democratic strategist and professor at nyu. i want to show you the live shot, rick santorum in fargo, north dakota speaking live. he just said he wants to take state and federal money out of education. now, i didn't know he would say this, my analysis is this guy is going big time radical. bob, what is the strategy, what is happening? >> that is insane, that is not just radical it's insane. anybody who is in college, anybody who wants their kid to go to college, anybody who wants their kids to have good science programs, doesn't want allstate and federal money out of education. that basically means that you would have an education system that was determined by the wealth of the local neighborhood. also means millions of kids couldn't go to college. >> why is he doing better? his rhetoric has gone hard right, the things that he's

saying out there. he's hitting hard on the social issues, week ago tuesday, things turned around for santorum, now he's leading in michigan. what is happening in. >> two thing. first of of all, he is appealing to the hard right, there are a lot of hard right people in michigan. secondly, they don't like romney. there is an in authenticity about romneyromney. you show that auto industry stuff at the beginning of the segment. he said in the new york times in 2008 if the auto industry accepts federal money, they can kiss themselves goodbye they are gone, they are out of business. he can't get around that. what he does is lies with breath taking regularity, ironically, his new tactic against santorum is going to be to try to outspend him by millions in michigan and claim he's not a con conservative. >> is a rick snyder endorsement help him at all? >> might help him a little bit. romney has the endorsements and the money.

nonetheless he struggles and struggles to just maintain his position. at this point in 2000, at this point in 2004, the two obvious nominees, bush and then kerry, were supported by 60, 60, 70%. >> what if he doesn't win michigan? >> it's all up in the air. >> really? it wasn't supposed to be this hard for romney. >> look, i've always thought and i said he is the inevitable nominee at the loses michigan it's up in the air. he has a 29 to 1 advantaging on what he's spending on the air with the super pac in michigan. if he loses under these circumstances in his so-called home state, like george h.b. bush, he has a lot of home states, he's in deep trouble. >> are we seeing the conservatives coalesing behind santorum? he has more wins than anybody else, what are we seeing here?

>> conservatives outside the south coalesce around santorum. you still see gingrich support in places like georgia and north carolina. now whether that is still tll on super tuesday or whether people move toward santorum i don't know. this is a big deal for romney. he needs to win michigan, he needs to win it convincingly, win arizona, then i think he will be okay on super tuesday, go on to the nomination but he has been hurt, now minus 24 in terms of approval, disapproval with in the and swing voters. >> bob shrum, always a pleasure. the lin-sanity continues, jeremy lin is the biggest story in sports but also a great american story. i'll talk with william rhoden about his impact.

brad needs car insurance, but, uh, brad doesn't want to spend too much. who's brad? this is brad. ahh! well, progressive has lots of discounts for a guy like brad. brad's intrigued. paid in full, safe driver, multi-car, going paperless -- all can help brad save a bunch. sign brad up. cool! jamie will ring you up. show brad the way. who's brad? oh, here we go again. discounts that everyone can use. now, that's progressive. call or click today.

ed show survey i asked you if tax cuts create jobs, 4% said

yes, 96 said no. knicks player jeremy lin's under dog story is making headlines. william rhoden joins me for a discussion on his incredible story, next.

lin, puts it up, jeremy lin from downtown, the knicks take the lead. >> he is playing like he has ice

in his veins. nothing affects him at all. guard jeremy lin it continue, game-winning shot last night. many of the skeptics are convinced. okay, i give in, he's legit. he was unknown two weeks ago, hottest story in america, hottest name in new york for sure. only six games but his achievements are impressive, five other players in history have done what this guy has done in six consecutive games. you may heard some of them michael jordan. michael jordan. charles barkley, isiah thomas. he represents what people in this country love. the under dog, who has made the most of his opportunities. but why did his talents go unnoticed until now? we asked one of the world's biggest knick fans, spike lee. he was in the building to day you on producers caught up with him. >> he's not, asian american, played at harvard.

those things don't help. >> we're joined by william rhoden sports columnist for "the new york times." what do you make of this? >> let's get all the positive stuff out of the way first. a great story. really is a great story. my daughter is 21, 22 years old they are kids that age bouncing around trying to find themselves, not finding the right jobs or and what jeremy is doing is finding -- he gets drafted, gets cut, he comes back, comes here, finally he finds his legs and gets an opportunity and he makes the most of it and i think that is what this country, that is what life is about. you work hard, you work hard, go through dips and then when you finally get the shot, you make the most of the shot. so i think that is what i think resonates. >> what about what spike said?

asian american, doesn't fit the mold of an nba player. does that play into it? >> i think a little bit. we like stuff that is different. now, for three decades, the nba has been dominated by african american players. which is pretty incredible in itself, that is another show. so it's nice, particularly in the city like new york, that is so diverse. to have someone different who -- and by the way who can play. >> he can play. >> he can play, but i think like you said, again, the positives. now we're talking about a relatively short sample. >> your daughter's boyfriend played with lin at harvard. >> yeah. >> how could the nba miss this guy? >> the nba misses a lot of of guys. number one, that happens a lot of times in a lot of sports. sometimes you miss out on guys, remember, ed, sometimes people just aren't ready, we all develop differently.

and sometimes systems are different. >> i got to ask you, six games, if this is oklahoma city is this the same story? >> this is new york. of course not. >> the knicks need a positive story. >> the knicks, come on, the knicks need a tremendous story. if this is oklahoma city, it's a good story. but i think that you take it for what it is, okay? but i think the key thing now is that we're talking about a short sample. what i don't want to happen is don't -- now carmelo anthony has been turned in the potential villain, if he comes back, but listen, carmelo anthony has pen averaging 22 points a game for nine-year career. that is a tremendous accomplishment. >> boxer floyd mayweather

tweeted this, jeremy lin is a good player but all the hype is because he's asian, black players do what he does every night and don't get the same praise. does he have a point? >> yeah. >> you said we like stuff that is different. >> that is different. i think sometimes what frustrates particularly african americans is the whole idea of the double standard and it's true, african americans have been dominating in the nba for three decades and i think the frustration is that like i said, i've heard talk now that well would you take jeremy lin or chris paul? and i'm like wait a minute, these guys have been great for a long period of time. i'm not talking seven games or even 50 games. >> we're saying the skills are there now about longevity. >> that is what our business, everything is about can you do it day in, day out. >> we have to go to a knicks game and figure it out. >> i would love to do it. let's go now! >> bill rhoden, great to have