>> over and over we were told, forget it, you can't win. we were winning. we were winning in a different way because we were touching hearts, we were raising issues. even fun things like the sweater vests. amazing thing, that sweater vest. people say, how did this happen? how were you able to come from nowhere? it's because i was smart enough to figure out that if i understood and felt at a very deep level what you were experiencing across america and try to be a witness to that, try to be an incessant interpreter of that, that your voice can be heard and miracles can happen. against all odds, we won 11 states, millions of voters, millions of votes. we made the decision getting into this race at the kitchen table against all odds, and we made the decision over the weekend that while this presidential race for us is over for me, and we will suspend our campaign effective today, we are

not done fighting. we are going to continue to go out there and fight to make sure that we defeat president barack obama, that we win the house back and that we take the united states senate. >> we start with our tuesday mega panel. karen, seussuzie, and jimmy, le break it into two parts. the meaning of today's news, if any. >> it's clearly good for mitt momney -- romney, excuse me. >> i like that better. >> it's clearly better for him and now the republicans can start raising money, which is going to be very important. romney can go ahead and raise more money and gear up for his fight against obama. >> it also means that they can start now to bring the party together. i mean, they're going to need gingrich and santorum's help on that to get people organized behind mitt romney. the party at the grassroots level can start to do more

activities that it needs to do to catch up with obama's infrastructure. >> the gop cost has announced they're going up all over the country, colorado and other swing states. here we are, we're in the general. what will be interesting is for the party to unite behind romney, and the question will be whether he moves to the middle. i suspect he will not do that at first. i suspect he will continue staying on the right, and the longer he does that, the more he continues looking like the current romney. when we get closer to the conventions, he will have to go back to the middle. >> and going really where you're pretty much heading there, relative to the democrats, the santorum -- the elimination of santorum, what does that mean if you're on the president's campaign team? >> it means you're not going to focus -- you have a bull's eye, which is mitt romney and his campaigners. that's all you need to focus on. you wear blinders from now until november 7. >> how much of obama's potential

campaign rhetoric was written for him by newt gingrich, rick santorum and others. >> 100%. >> get a new voiceover, put that thing back up. >> between now and summer, it was romney's to get. >> how much has the republican primary really churned the waters for any candidates. >> it's really this idea of the grassroots and the fractured nature within the party. we still have the sad the same 2008, remember, when hillary dropped out. it will still take some work to get behind mitt romney, having to get more divisive. >> the obama people probably

cried a tear, but now we have more than seven months to get ready. >> probably the most important question. in the scheme of the debate around america's need to seize more efficient, less consumptive energy, reform in the financial sector, you know, reform our educational system, we have -- away from the political theatre, we are a country experiencing a meaningful transition with a wide disparate ity for a lot of different reasons. does santorum's departure and the clarity of the two presidential candidates create an opening for more potential debate that is more rooted in the core issues of our country? >> i think it will be just the opposite, actually, for the next few months, anyway, as president obama has been able to pick and choose his issues when he wants to give a speech. the republicans have been caught

up in these primaries, so they're constantly under the gun, constantly having to do campaigning, and now they won't have to, so they can create more of their own schedule. >> so being candidates means they can focus more on -- >> also the narrative shifts to being about two different people with two different visions and two different sets of ideas, and what will start now is really the back and forth, right? romney will say this, the obama team will say that. they're sort of dueling teleconference calls that we had before, that starts up. to susan's point, the president can continue to do his agenda. his campaign, certainly, will have to take up the cause of taking on that back and forth. but in theory, will we have a timeline to the conversation as you would like any of us to take? >> i love how intrade -- they've had romney forever. i wish there was an intrade

account that said what are the chances, come february 2013, after however much money, $7 billion, the tv networks, like the world series, super bowl and olympics wrapped into one, lots of money is going to fly around. how different will america's problems with unemployment, gross dependence on foreign oil, a massive military industrial complex, dysfunctional educational system, a grossly expensive monopoly, bureaucratic health care system, how many of those problems which is really where everybody is suffering from as far as i can tell when i meet with people, will be affected by the outcome of this presidential race? >> first, between now and february whatever the date is. >> 21st. >> right. i should know these things. nothing is going to happen. perhaps a security bill will go into congress and the president will sign it. lame duck, there will be a bill. there will be a remarkably huge

bill of all kinds of things. tax cuts, appropriations. none of that goes to what you're talking about. point 2 being -- >> it's good to understand basically there will be nothing, and then there will be a cascade of allocations. aren't we going to hit the debt ceiling in 2012, too, i believe? >> the point being, once we have a new president, whether it's this one or the next one, and the congress, whether it changes hands or not, completely totally irrelevant. what's relevant is they will, at that point, have made a decision on the bush tax cuts, and then they will tax immediately to some of the things you're talking about. if the supreme court strikes down all or part of, quote, obamacare, then they will go back and revisit that, especially if mitt romney becomes president. here's why. he has to be for something. >> over here. thoughts in general? >> i disagree with jimmy. what i would say is february 13 either we're going to be under the policies that obama has talked about, the things he's talked about. whether or not that creates the

kind of fundamental systemic change you're talking about, i can't say, but it's a very different vision of what mitt romney is talking about. >> why? how would i see the difference? >> for starters, probably in your taxes. you have president obama talking about the buffett rule, taxing the wealthy a little bit higher, mitt romney saying something different. let's take health care. you've got president obama and you've got obamacare. we would continue down that path. if it were romney, he says he would repeal it. >> either way, health insurance monopolie monopolies, drug monopolies. >> it's how you would experience that as a consumer would be very different. >> it's a fundamental difference. one, you would have a president in the last term and second to last term which does give him a lot more freedom for his agenda. he doesn't have to worry if you have a first term president on reelection. >> what is your point of view, what's your all opinion?

how real is that? how real is the second term as giving people what they want when susan says what she just said. >> i think you have to look at history. who is the last two presidents that had two terms? ronald reagan and bill clinton. reagan's second term was remarkably weak. he was waning to a degree. bill clinton's wasn't. >> he unraveled the banking system and the free trade agreement. >> that was '99. >> maybe obama can steal a bunch of money the second term, too. >> i don't think we can put too fine a point on this. if you believe in mitt romney and you're a woman who relies on planned parenthood, it will potentially not be there because it won't have the same level of funding. there are a lot of real things they're talking about that if they follow through with what they're saying they're going to do could have repercussions. >> the consequence of the most

filthy energy grid in the entire hemisphere, the consequence of the least defensive educational system, the consequence of a banking system that totally lacks transparency and doesn't have a consequence of rules -- >> you have to look to the house and senate for that. >> which goes to the fact that 90% of americans don't vote in congressional primaries, so you can look at the congress all day, but the fact of the matter is nine out of ten of us don't even choose to pick who our political candidates are when we could. >> wropt you i don't want you tr breath. >> at least there's upside. going to something that karen referenced, the president today choosing a political sphere in boca raton, florida, the state's wealthiest county. the president had a message for wealthy americans. he said it's time they pay up. >> we've got to choose the direction we want this country to go. do we want to keep giving those

tax breaks to folks like me who don't need them or give them to bill gates, he doesn't need them, or warren buffett, he definitely doesn't need them, or do we want to keep investing in those things that keep our economy growing and keep feeding our children. that's our choice. >> he called it the buffett rule. it's made out of billionaire investor warren buffett. the idea will be to set a 30% tax on those making more than a million dollars a year. unfortunately, even if you taxed every dollar that everybody makes above $250,000 a year, in the scheme of our multi-hundred-trillion-dollar banking system, our multi-dozen trillion multi-kruptd health care system, our grossly inefficient systems, this type of maneuver, wonderful politics utterly and completely irrelevant when it comes to getting out of the deficit in this country.

regardless of its math, however, it is politically d.o.a. when it hits the senate floor next week. i love the idea of this, i love the spirit of this which it's totally unfair to have rich people not paying taxes and the poor people are paying taxes. it's crazy. our tax code is crazy. jimmy, or anybody who has dealt with a tax, there is a list of things. >> it's endless. >> so the reason this frustrates me is it is wonderful, political fuel. it doesn't address the underlying issue, it demonizes one group of people as if casting rich people -- in some ways it's like saying, oh, if we didn't have those unions and we didn't have to give the rich people that money, our country would be fine, which is a completely utterless statement. i think by changing one tax law to solve our problems -- if it

was a political strategist, i could see where there is a case for it, but it sure does feel hollow. >> number one, i don't think the intention here is to demonize. when you talk about fairness, that shouldn't mean that you're demonizing one group against the other, that should mean, you know what, we all have to share the pain. >> why should we share the pain? >> it certainly teams that -- >> i'm not trying to be difficult, but it's a false paradigm, which is, how are we going to deal with all this pain? we are on the verge of a renaissance. if you look how people are solving problems in this country, costs are coming down 80 or 90% and outputs are exploding and our politicians are in this thing where they're like, who is going to feel the pain? we're supposed to say, how are we going to seize the future? >> well, look, i think that's -- okay, so we can talk about it not as pain but as seizing the future. in order to seize the future, we have some issues we have to deal w. >> like a corrupt political system.

>> that may mean that some of the folks on the top are going to have a slightly different tax structure so we have more resources -- >> that's a nice idea, but there's no evidence -- >> there's no evidence that buffett doesn't pay less taxes? >> there's no evidence. mathematically, if i taxed every wealthy person, everyone who makes over $250,000, a flea on a dog's ass of financial problems, because it is a corrupt system who is indulging health care systems in drug monopolies, that is indulging a multi-trillion-dollar bank subsidies, i'm going to raise taxes and create austerity in order to support the -- >> i don't think anyone is saying it just has to be the buffett rule. it's a political point.

it's a fair point. it's all of the above. >> it's not a policy point. >> sure it is. it's a part of a policy point. >> what problems does it solve? >> you're looking only at the buffett rule. you have to look at the entire -- >> let me hear from susan. what problems does it solve? >> can i finish my thought? i don't have enough time, i'm sorry. >> it doesn't solve the fundamental problems when you have to go and say we need to change the delivery of our system. if you want to talk about a broken political system, we can. if you want to talk about broken health care, we can. but all they want to do is make sure you get what we promised or maybe get a little bit more. if we can't tax the rich people, then there's something fundamentally wrong with the way the benefits are delivered. that's why you have a political -- >> the other side is saying, no, no, no. if you keep it our way where everyone is getting what they want at the top, it will all be

fine. we're in a political environment where both sides have to lay out, here's our mission. >> so bash yourself with a hammer or hit yourself in the back with a sledgehammer, which would you prefer? i would rather have neither, which is why i recommend a different form of debate. a method that could topple a fragile regime. news of the day in north korea. we'll take you inside the border, next. also, courage under fire. a navy s.e.a.l. who trained some of the world's deadliest killers tells us about his journey from surfer to sniper. he's with us. next. this is no joke, however. our specialist is asking whether the gold standard is ready for a comeback. all right, let's decide what to

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today's other story is ready for launch. north korea says its rocket in alaska is ready to roll. the rocket aimed southward causing cargo ships to reroute, people in the phillipines being told to stay inside. japan has missile defense units in position to offset any fragments. the launch is part of a national celebration and will put a satellite into orbit to celebrate. washington and most of the rest of the world fear it is mostly a test of north korea's ballistic missile technology, plus a new

satellite photo that indicates north korea is preparing another separate underground test. all these signs show they have not yet figured out how to make a missile, but these steps could be a dangerous step toward that solution. >> reporter: dylan, north korea seems to have the art of defiance worked out to a tee. today north korea officials here in pyongyang on this rainy day said they would not only go ahead with this rocket test despite condemnation, condemnation particularly strong in the united states and south korea, but they said they are in the process of developing even bigger rockets. so it was a thumbing of the nose, if you will, to the international community. north korea is doing this because it believes it makes the country look strong. it believes it makes the country look independent, self-sufficient, and that is the message that this government is trying to portray during a very sensitive time of political

transition. this is primarily aimed at the domestic audience, the results of an international component, but the domestic audience is very important. kim jong il, the long time leader of this country, died late last year and his still contested son, kim jong un, has recently come to power. he's not very well known here, and it's sort of a coming out party for him, an unsung coronation, a way to appear strong on the worldwide stage, to show that he is a leader to be taken seriously. on the world stage, it also has a significance, because north korea wants food aid. north korea had to ask several countries, including the united states, for food aid. it has trouble feeding its people, it has trouble feeding its army. the united states promised to deliver some, about 240,000 tons per year. north korea wants about four times that much, so north korea is giving this show of strength

so they can prove its bargaining position to say, we are a tough nation. we can't be pushed around, and if we back down from this crisis, perhaps we can get more food aid. dylan? >> the u.s. leading international calls to condemn north korea, even russia, despite its economic times with the regime is joining him, but the nation's biggest ally, and perhaps the country with the most leverage, is china, and they are currently silent. dr. john park is a north korea specialist at the belford career center. how much more influence does china have over its politics than anybody else? >> well, dylan, statistically china does have a disproportionate relationship with north korea when it comes to economic ties, but it's all a question of leverage and how they can use that leverage. they are maintaining stability in pyongyang, so anything that looks like censure or pressure would be a tipping point that north korea would be very hesitant to reenact.

>> at the end of the day, what is the single greatest managed risk in the current diplomatic relationship between the north korean government and the rest of the world? >> it is the unknown. frankly, if you look at the regime structure in pyongyang right now, it's still unclear as to what extent this young guy, kim jong un, has at the reins of power. we know it's a cocoon of structure that protects him. it's a leaf day agreement. the 240,000 tons of assistance on the moratorium of nuclear activity essentially being cast aside is indicative of one round going ahead with the nuclear test. >> if you were to be in a room with some group of people to try to initiate the cooling of the nature of the intensity of these relationships and try to create

a posture to seek a solution, who would you have in the room and where would you start the conversation? >> that is a key question when it comes to negotiating with north korea. if you look at the negotiating behaviors of previous countries, they have actually interacted with different north korean officials. during the period in the early 2000s, the japanese government, through a year of secret negotiations with the north koreans, led up to what was called the pyongyang negotiation. at that time the north koreans were negotiating with someone from the association. in the north korean organization, that was with the north korean administrations. in this post kim jong il structure, who remains in the decision making. that remains the question. >> basically, or what group of people, have their finger on the button, so to speak, in terms of the military aspects of that country?

>> well, in the old structure under kim jong il, and this is a very recent structure because he only passed away in december of last year, the power resided in him and he exercised his power through something called the national defense commission. but towards the end of his time, he instigated a lot of moves towards building up the workers party of korea, and the party to party relationship with the chinese communist party is the very important element of institution building and an effort to build up stability. right now there is an ongoing effort to shore up the power of the party, but whether that process is completed or not, that remains a broad question. this whole role of the military, that is a very troubling set of questions in and of themselves. >> all right. dr. park, thank you for giving us some more insight this afternoon. i appreciate it. john park out of harford's bellford center. coming up here, in gold we trust. our specialist examining the future of money in america.

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breaking news in the trayvon martin case. lawyers for george zimmerman are about to speak. >> reporter: hi, dylan. we're waiting to see what they're going to speak about. they just said they're going to give us a press release which in the old style means they'll hand us a piece of paper, but they may stactually say something on camera. both representing zimmerman, they're not defense attorneys, because as far as we know, george zimmerman is not arrested and is not defending anything except for how he's defending his reputation. we're waiting to hear what it is they're going to announce. of course, yesterday the special prosecutor in this case announced that she was not going to use a grand jury to present her case, which means that,

especially since she took time out of her day to talk with some of the protestors on the phone that she may have concluded much of what she is working towards in terms of gathering evidence and maybe even reaching a decision, she's had it along with agents for 19 days. of course, the shooting of 17-year-old trayvon martin happened here in sanford 46 days ago. so we're waiting to hear what, indeed, these lawyers are going to share with us and whether there is, perhaps, an announcement they have received from the special prosecutor. but i must say, it would be highly, highly unusual if they got some sort of information and released it and it didn't come directly from angela kory, the special prosecutor in this case, dylan. >> thank you for the clarity. we'll take a momentary break here. back with our specialists right after this.

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and should not mandate the gold standard. >> that is presidential candidate ron paul telling us it's time to return to the gold standard. until 1971, gold was the base for the u.s. dollar. 40 years later, could gold or could the concept of gold? we'll get into that. act as a counter to fed money printing, a way to inhibit the capacity our government has to manufacture literally 20, $30 trillion at a time, whenever it's need to do bail out the politicians at the time. the gold standard either literally or conceptually, provides a mechanism to prevent that. matt fisher is a bureaucrat for the money magazine and he has just published an e-book. "in gold we trust" is the title of the book. you're dealing with an age identify old concept. you're delivering the information in a very modern and

cutting edge way, with your e-book. what are you hoping i will understand or we will understand or our audience will understand after we understand what you wrote? >> the reason my coworkers and i wrote "in gold we trust," we felt a ripening in gold over the last 20 years. why did it go up so much? basically it's due to a bunch of crazies like glen beck with their mentality. the people he called the downturn right, people lake ray daleo as well, they are big into gold because they see there is a big crisis coming up about paper money. just like books were destroyed by paper, just like paper money

is going to be destroyed. i think it has to be seen as a ka -- canary to the gold mine. if you're a saver, you don't want to save all your money in dollars, particularly if you're getting a fixed amount in dollars for the future, because they're going to print money rather than actually cut taxes or save on spending. >> or problem solving. definitely not going to happen. >> my question is, when i was growing up, i was always told gold was a hedge risk. my father always told me that in the '70s and '80ls. is gold still considered a hedge or is it worth investing in now? >> it's impossible to tell how it's going to perform, but there is a historical record going

back hundreds and hundreds of years, but there is a very good hedge, particularly when you have high inflation or a real sense or concern about the political system, so i think it is still a hedge. >> but it's also a an indicator of what the feds think about the future. we're off to florida with some breaking news on the trayvon martin case. >> good afternoon. does everyone have their microphone where it will probably work? looks like everyone is all right with that. my name is hal urich, greg is here with me. i'm sure you all recognize us as being the defense team for george zimmerman. we do have what we think is a reasonably important

announcement to make. i'm going to let mr. sonner start first, i'll do a little cleanup and we'll answer some of your questions. >> as of today, we are withdrawing as counsel for mr. zimmerman. we've lost contact with him. up to this point we've had contact every day. he's gone on his own. i'm not sure what he's doing or who he's talking to, but at this point we are withdrawing as counsel. if he wants us to come back as counsel, he will contact us. we had contact as of, i believe, sunday, and the last couple days, he has not returned phone calls or text messages or e-mails, leading me to believe that i can't go forward speaking to the public about george zimmerman and this case as representing him because i've lost contact with him at this point. i still believe that he was acting in self-defense that night. nothing i've said about him or this case is changed in any way. i just can't proceed to represent a client who doesn't stay in contact with me.

>> let me provide a little bit more detail on contacts for that. last thursday before mr. sonner and i went to new york to meet on mr. zimmerman's behalf with a number of media organizations, mr. sonner was employed to the bank by mr. zimmerman's father to hopefully pay for a defense and make a web site. we went to great lengths to see that his father had the signature control rights, not us, so there could be no claiming that we were doing anything untoward about that. mr. zimmerman was aware that we were doing that. his father signed the cards. we left with the expectation of getting that site up in time to announce it for national media. we did, in fact, make that site's name known to the national media and it was publicized to some extent. although for technical reasons,

it didn't get posted up in time. on sunday we lost track of george in that he would not return our calls and we couldn't get ahold of him. we had no reason at that time to believe there was anything suspect. but on monday we began fielding questions about did we know anything about the -- on the real george zimmerman or the georgezimmerman.com web site. and our original response was that's probably bogus. george hasn't talked to us about that, we don't know about it. so we started making inquiries and, frankly, confirmed that he, through friends and family, had, in fact, set that site up and it was legitimate. we immediately began telling the media, disregard the earlier web site we gave you, that we had set up, go with the one we know he set up. cleaner for us, we were happier with that, but disturbed that he had not communicated with us. we started reaching out in every way we knew how to get him. the two new developments are that we learned that he had

called shawn hanity of fox news directly, and i can't confirm this, we believe he spoke directly with shawn off the record, and he's not even willing to tell us what our client told him. the final straw, if you will, of the final decision making point was today we spoke with a special prosecutor's office out of jacksonville. we have been working over the weekend and diligently trying to set up a meeting between mr. zimmerman and the special prosecutor's office, because quite frankly, we continue to believe that once that part of the puzzle is completed, given the evidence as we understand it to exist, and given the rest of the facts and the law -- >> breaking news in the trayvon martin case as his counsel coming out and announcing they will no longer represent him in the context of his failure to communicate with them for two days. why that is a national cable news press conference, i will never know, but it was.

and kerry is there. hello, kerry. >> well, dylan, perhaps it is something to do with the tension that surround us as people are waiting to find out what will happen with george zimmerman, whether he will be continued to basically face no charges or whether he'll face charges. while i'm not sure we actually thought his attorneys were going to announce whether he, indeed, was turning him in or not, we certainly didn't expect to hear what we're hearing now, and that is that the lawyers have lost contact with their client and that they do not have a way to continue to represent him, so they're pulling themselves out of it, for the moment, anyway. we did hear them say during the press conference that there was indication that george zimmerman had been in direct contact with the cable host of fox news, shawn hanity. that is information that nbc news correspondent margaret campo had been developing for msnbc news and we were trying to confirm it. now we have it confirmed with

this news conference. their one-time client was reaching out to somebody on a cable tv news show. the web site, as you heard them commenting, has taken on sort of an unusual twist here because of the way it unfolded. in fact, many people who looked at that web site thought it was sort of an unusual web site with some of the quotes that have been placed on there, from american patriots like thomas pain -- payne and others, and at the end of the day, even that web site is evolving because there are some pictures that were on there that have been removed. george zimmerman, who was not charged with anything, who remains free in the community, now no longer has any lawyers. >> all right, kerry, thanks very much. we'll take a break and be back right after this. carfirmation.

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her doctor recommended aleve. it can relieve pain all day with fewer pills than tylenol. this is lois... who chose two aleve and fewer pills for a day free of pain. [ female announcer ] try aleve d for strong all day sinus and headache relief. welcome back. prior to the big news of the resignation of george zimmerman's lawyers from representing him, we were in the middle of a conversation with matt bishop, an economist. he is the new york bureau chief and publisher of a new book titled "in gold we trust." really, it feels like you're saying, we need to respect what's going on with the price of gold because it is telling you that the smartest financial minds are not confident in paper currency. >> that's the first lesson you

need to take from gold. i think when you hear people like warren buffett say just ignore gold altogether, you shouldn't listen to buffett on that one because it does seem to be something real going on. >> this isn't a conversation should i or should i not buy gold, this is a conversation saying, how should i interpret the movement in gold prices, and what does it tell me about the environment in which i live? >> what it tells you is they're extremely worried about the people in charge of our economy and particularly the tendency to print money. they think two things, one is it's a complete leap in the dark. we don't know if it's going to work or not, we don't know how it's going to end, and history says any time you have a period of printing money like this, it does end with inflation, which is when gold tds ro lly well. i think the second bet is a more interesting one and plays into a lot of what you've said, the way the political system is so

dysfunctional now, that they're not going to take any of the hard places to be taken. >> so it's basically about screwed-up america. >> basically. >> so what do we do? we don't invest in gold? >> i think there is a -- rather than just holding -- putting money into accounts that pay you a fixed rate of dollars, you want to look at assets that are going to be performing in situations where you get inflation, for example. so i think some gold in a portfolio does make sense. but also there's very interesting things going on in the silicon valley where people are trying to design alternative money systems, programs to retain their value over time, the kinds of goods and services you can buy. there is something called a bit coin that's being developed. i think there's going to be other experiments like that that are designed to try and protect us against the risk of

government. they're going to plague their way out of the debt crisis we've got at the moment. >> so in '71 coming out of johnson and into nicks, and obviously we were in a war that was never-ending. we had massive amounts of debt. they tied the dollar to gold, right, and then we had, as you just said, a remarkable period with bush. we had an extended period of inflation that went all the way to carter. let's say we tie it back to gold. gold is a commodity. so are pig belliebellies, so ar anything. so is the weather. you can commodotize anything. pig bellies were the main thing traded. today, not so much. why should we tie any kind of monetary value to something that is a commodity, something that goes up and down, up and down, up and down. wouldn't that wreak havoc?

>> i was talking about the gold standard, because history shows any time you have a period of a gold standard, after a while, it actually creates problems as well, like you don't have enough money to go around sometimes. the first great depression of america in the end of 19th century was due to the gold standard. gold is different than pork bellies because it affects supplies and doesn't really have any other uses. the use of gold in jewelry is pretty low in the gold standard. for me it's different. >> if i was talking to joe on "fast money" i would say if you're long on gold, you're short on america. that is the negative scentimator. >> you should not dismiss it. anyway, "in gold we trust" is

the e-book. you can catch his word at the economist. a rather fabulous publication. coming up on "hardball." chris matthews. chris looking into the debate of whether raising the taxes on the wealthy will be a winning strategy for the president, but first, the flaw for the daily rant. the day . wake up!

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we live in a politically

divided time, but it's also a moment of great importance for the nation when the decisions we make today will have a profound impact on the future of our nation. war, peace, health, the economy, the debt. sometimes it feels like there is great cause for dread. and speaking of dread, i just turned 44. i now am solidly among the middle aged. so today i asked myself, are we in a better or worse position than we were 44 years ago? i was born on april 3rd, 1968 in madison, wisconsin. at the time the vietnam war raged on with no clear end in sight. president johnson announced that he would not seek reelection. democrats engaged in open warfare with each other over whether to operate a non-war candidate. and the public turned to richard nixon. in my hometown, anti-war protests rocked campus as they did on college campuses across the nation. the day after i was born, martin

luther king, jr. was assassinated, riots began in cities, including washington, d.c. bob did i kennedy died at the hands of an assassin, a day after winning the reelection for president. the year after i was born, the united states teetered on an ill- ill-begotten war, racial stresses. we continue to fight in the war in afghanistan, our parliament is in division, and we have shot people by the thousands. our economy favors 1% over 99%. i take a look around and conclude that not much has changed in my lifetime, but i don't. i'm an optimist. i see war ending in iraq and the defense budget coming down compared to the last decade. i see increasing political

consensus that a whole group of americans, gays and lesbians, get equal rights under the law. instead of race riots, i could be the first candidate in history poised to win a second term. and with economic indicators in a heightened disparity, i think we could get back to what you rose. look. i'm middle-aged. 44 years old, right? a lot of triumphs, plenty of mistakes. but you know what? a lot of great years ahead of me. in fact, maybe even the best years. and so it is with my country. dylan? >> well said, david, nice to see you and happy birthday to you. >> thanks, dylan. >>. plus at fwhak week, lookingt