be doing up at this hour. our producer dan has answers. what do you got? >> natasha writes sleep training a toddler. want to switch places? i have complete faith in you. >> no thank you. i've sleep trained two if you s your children, eventually, it will stop. i have a tweet for you here. this comes from tim weeks who calls himself a rancher. rancher and farmer. i'm waiting for the to come back. sending him to hell asap. people waiting on their back porches to shoot mountain lions. "morning joe" starts right now. >> i love corey booker.

he's a great mayor. if my house was on fire, i would hope he's my next door neighbor. in this instance, he was wrong. there are specific instances here that speak to economic theory that isn't the right theory for the country. >> good morning, everyone. it's tuesday, may 22nd. welcome to "morning joe." with us on set, we have mike barnicle. hello, mike. >> morning, mika. >> are you present? >> yes. >> in every way? >> yes. we have the treasury official. >> we don't want to become one these days. >> why? >> we have corey booker on your side. >> you'll be dialed back. >> dialed back? >> yes. >> it's a full backstroke there. it's like a "back to the future"

thing. >> you stop. >> by the way, steve rattner, there's nothing, i think, as invigorating and exciting. it refreshes us and renews us. >> and willie. >> i know willie will agree. there's nothing better than love in the spring, right? >> the best. >> you see a young kid like mark zuckerberg. >> stop it. i don't like what you are saying. >> he put himself out there. getting married. how exciting. >> they have been together a long time. it's sweet. that's all it's about. stop it. >> this guy -- can i get there? >> trying to figure out where we are getting to. >> i don't like this. >> love takes time. so, this story takes time as well because it's about love. so, this guy, willie, we were talking about this.

zuckerberg is portrayed in that movie that he did, "the social network" movie as a -- i knew that wasn't him. i knew it wasn't him. "the new york times" suggests this morning and we are deeply offended by this, that mark zuckerberg decided to get married the day after his stock went public because marriage laws do not allow the spouse to make or take money away that one may have earned before they walked down the aisle. so, cynics would say, he decided to get married on the date his net worth was the highest so she could get no money later on. >> some would say you are jealous. >> she's $11 billion down.

he's worth -- >> his company. >> he's $11 billion down. >> so he lost $2 billion. $2 billion is not much for you. willie, it's a shrewd move. >> one more day and she's going to leave him. >> you are not cynical? >> cynics would be jealous. jealousy over his money. >> i would never suggest this. >> stop it. >> it was a shrewd move on his part. i'm going to get married the day after i know my net worth will be valued at the highest ever. it was a smart business move. >> yesterday, your theory was he hastily arranged a wedding to cover up things didn't go so wrong. >> it's a better theory. >> i think today's theory is correct. he's shrewder than all of us.

there were laughs, scoffs when i was, of course, asked for facebook. i said i think it's going to settle around 28. everybody laughed at me. down to 33 yesterday. dropping faster than the new york yankees. >> don't rub it in. >> by the way -- can i just show you? look at this headline on the post. >> wow. the yankees. they love their yanks. >> big problems. >> huge problems. the yankees are diving, mike. >> back to mark zuckerberg. >> that tax game never applied to me. >> your wife has you on an allowance, mike. >> i don't have the checkbook. i must say, the cynics out there they should know what we all know, you can't put a price on love. mark zuckerberg would never do that. >> he was with that girl for

eight years. he actually loves her. >> exactly. he was with her eight years and he chose to walk down the aisle the day after his net worth is at the all-time peak. thank you. this is perry mason. >> that was on to something interesting. >> thank you. making fun of the fact that you are jealous of mark zuckerberg and you found a way to put boobs on the show. >> do not call the yankees boobs. they are a little old. >> hey, why don't you think of the next cover of "time" magazine while you are at it. >> the little engine that could. check the red sox. holy cow. >> we got shut out by the mighty royals. >> we are at the bottom. yet, we will continue to obsess about things, too. >> both in last place.

>> the agony of everybody in america. >> facebook, why is it tanking? >> the underwriters made a mistake and priced it too high. this was one of the largest in history. very complicated. nobody knew what the demand was. retail investors want a piece of it. at the end of the day, i think it's clear they pushed too hard for too high of a price. >> 38 bucks. >> yeah. or something like that. maybe lower. what you want is, since they weren't selling that much stock, price it low. trade up. make money and trade like google in 2004. instead, they push for the last dollar. the way it works, they try to support the stock. last week, it did trade at the offering price. the underwriters were buying the stock. then, over the weekend, they say we can't hold back the sea so let's let it find its own level. that's where the level is.

>> you should see harold ford's townhouse, stacks of facebook or morgan stanley guys. you know what else is often? when a surrogate goes out and tells the truth about you. >> it's not good. >> no, it's not. >> speaking at a news conference, president obama argued that mitt romney's record as a corporate ceo at bain capital is open to debate. the president says while venture capitalism plays an important role in the economy doesn't necessarily translate to the role of president. >> my view of private equity is that it is -- it is set up to maximize profits. that's not always going to be good for communities or businesses or workers. the reason this is relevant to the campaign is because my opponent, governor romney, his main calling card for why he thinks he should be president is

his business experience. when you are president, as opposed to the head of a private equity firm, your job is simply not to maximize profits. your job is to figure out how everybody in the country has a fair shot. if your main argument for how to grow the economy is, i knew how to make a lot of money for investors, then you are missing what this job is about. >> we are going get into how all this started. first of all, fair argument to look at bane. >> i know he's mad at corey booker. they planned a nato conference in his hometown, goes to chicago. they have big thoughts, big ideas, big problems and the first question he's asked in his press conference by the international press corps, about

corey booker. >> he's not happy, but is the argument a fair one? >> in his statements, he found the right place to be. i think what he's basically saying, i hope, i think, is that private equity is a legitimate business but it's to maximize profit, not create jobs. >> why do you say you hope? >> it's what i believe. >> you are an obama supporter. booker was speaking to democrats that like this president, right? >> a lot of us share this concern. we are all in favor of questioning romney. have private equity we think is a legitimate business activity. we don't want to see private equity dragged down with it along with mitt romney. they are two separate issues. one is private equity.

i would argue it's a legitimate activity. it's focused on creating wealth, not jobs. it's fair, in my opinion, for the president to say mitt romney was engaged in creating wealth, not jobs while at bain capital. that is the argument. >> what his priorities would be. >> phil griffin loved that thing where you were running through the streets, i was passed out. he's been asking us to do something. >> you are not talking reality? >> when you are going to do another promo? it comes when it comes. i can coast another six months. did you see this reel they did on "morning joe"? >> you made an rnc ad, by the way. >> i'm aware of that. >> now they are seizing on what mayor corey booker said on "meet the press" with a campaign

called, "i stand with corey." romney is out defending the bain attacks. >> have you had enough of president obama's attacks on free enterprise? his own key supporters have. democrat mayor cory booker of new jersey. >> from a personal level, i'm not about to indict a private equity. former congressman harold ford jr., democrat from tennessee. >> it's not a bad thing. private equity is a good thing. >> former obama economic adviser, steve rattner, a leading democrat. >> i don't think there's anything bain capital did that they need to be embarrassed about. >> very good. we need a little background music. >> hear the eerie music? >> that was scary music. ominous. >> ominous. i'm a scary guy. >> yes, that's always what i

think. >> so, cory continues to backtrack and backtrack. >> i'm not sure he did. >> oh, come on. >> he clarified. >> he made a youtube video. you take 30 seconds out of it. >> why do they have allah behind him and a sign with two crosses. >> stop it! stop it! you know he just clarified. willie? >> he was good last night. >> was he? >> he was agitated. he was angry. he was on with rachel. >> did he blame republicans for twisting his words? >> let's watch. >> anybody who watched the entire "meet the press" saw not only was i defending obama on numerous issues, i talked super pac money. my outrage and frustration was about the cynical, negative campaign, the manipulating of the truth. here they are plucking

soundbytes out of that interview to manipulate them in a cynical manner and use them for their own purposes. that slogan is really what had me and my entire staff fit to be tied. >> the slogan, i stand with c y cory. he said if you stand with me, come to newark and stand with me, not this one issue on "meet the press." >> picking up garbage, tweeting. >> saving people. standing under windows. >> okay, joe. really. >> tweeting while the baby is coming down. >> you seem face nated with this. it takes one to know one. sometimes things come out of your mouth. >> mike, were the words wretched from their proper context or did cory get busted? >> we're going to show you mayor booker. you tell the truth, you have to backtrack for three or four days in a row.

>> you are killing him. >> let's take a look at the polls this morning. >> he's up and coming. >> yes, he is. thank you. >> he really was. >> he is. oh, please. come on. >> i promise you, over the next 48 to 72 hours, he's fighting for his political life. you don't want this -- this view of yourself setting in stone in the middle of a presidential campaign. it's not only the rank and file that are angry with him, it's the people that give money and write checks. he goes on "meet the press," one of the most important political shows. he's on as an obama surrogate. he actually undercuts the central premise of the obama campaign's argument for re-election, why romney is not fit as a president. i'm serious, this is politically a crisis for cory booker.

>> i don't disagree. having said that, if you are from newark, if you are impressed with what he's done there -- >> i'm impressed. >> and the money he's brought in. >> he was saying there's a way to point out that mitt romney is not experienced or qualified at creating jobs. that's all he was trying to say. >> i don't think it's what he said. i think he said he was disgusted with people attacking private equity. >> i agree with that. i don't think he wants to see it as a business attack. he's perfectly comfortable at romney's record of creating jobs. >> he compared though, david gregory asked a question about it. he lumped it in. he can't back off that. the attacks against private equity just like republicans using jeremiah wright. >> in doing that, he pointed to

an ultimate truth about the campaign. democrats and republicans, he used the word, we have used it before, it is going to be nauseating, back and forth. the attack ads back and forth. it's going to be such a turn off to multiples of people. people will be hoping the world series extends itself so they don't have to pay attention. >> by jumping jeremiah right and bain together, it doesn't make sense. focus on people who don't have jobs. the bain thing doesn't matter to people in the country. i do think, outside washington and outside the donor class, you see him giving credit for speaking the truth and the backlash saying wait, he's getting in trouble for what he believes? he's an independent. maybe in washington, it's a problem. for voters, they learned about who cory booker was on sunday. >> let me say, willie and i said

this, i stand with cory. >> we ran out of cigarettes. >> i had some. >> do we all stand with cory? >> i do. >> no. >> i stand with what i said a minute ago. >> do you stand with cory? >> i stand with what i said a minute ago. you are not going to do this to me. >> i knew it. he would be on an rnc ad. >> i stand with what i said a few minutes ago. >> instead of making fun of it because it will come back to bite you in the butt, try to characterize what happened with booker. what was he trying to say about bain and the criticisms about bain and the vampire and the different characterizations that take things too far. >> the good point is, you just brought up vampire. republicans have been doing it, too. newt gingrich did it. rick perry did it. there's been shameless

demography with it. i was disgusted with republicans doing it. democrats are disgusted that barack obama is doing it. it comes to the point there are a lot of people, a lot of people that run the democratic party who are concerned about the populous campaign that team obama is running. you voice that. listen, if cory booker wasn't hearing that at every fund-raiser he went to, if he wasn't hearing that from people who run businesses in knnewark,e wouldn't have said that. it is not booker who is alone in the democratic party. it is barack obama and team obama alone among the people who run the democratic party. >> you put your finger on something that is critical here in terms of the back and forth. he's the mayor of newark, new

jersey. guess what? the department of agriculture is not going to rebuild newark. it's going to be companies that come in and -- >> invest. >> yes! >> that come in and invest. >> yes. that's what he's talking about. >> he's had a lot of donors from the private equity for the things he's trying to do this. he appreciates the fact that private equity and hedge funds play a roll. >> i saw a string of tweets saying cory booker got x amount of money from bain capital. do these supporters of barack obama want to play this game? barack obama's campaign of hope and change is funded by the very likes of the bain capital people and steve rattner, what is so remarkable to most americans, i think this is a problem for the president. the real problem is, even while he attacks venture capitalists,

he's going into their homes every week and raising money from them. it is a -- >> 40 grand a pop. >> 40 grand a pop. he's asking the same people he vilifies during the day to write him $40,000 checks at night. it's not good. >> actually, the same day we had the discussion, he went to the home of tony james and asked for the $40,000 checks. >> wow. that takes a certain level of something that i just don't have. >> right. >> no, i could never do that in a billion years. that's unbelievable. >> steve -- >> you attack him by day and take their money at night. it's like gypsies and thieves. we need to get them raped. >> since i'm not invited to the dinners, what do they say to president obama at the dinners? cool it? >> he has been asked repeatedly,

shall we say by the private equity to not attack them. i think his argument is he's not attacking them. he's, again, attacking mitt romney's job creation record. he's trying to do it successfully or unsuccessfully. >> every night the men come and lay their money down. there's a call out to our good friend mark. congratulations on your saturday marriage. $11 billion poorer. >> two. two. >> oh, two billion. coming up, we talk to tom coburn. you want to make everything dirty. you just do. it's awful. also, dr. emanuel and nancy snyderman will join us to talk about two medical stories. the alarming increase of teens

with diabetes. we'll get to the stories. plus, eugene robinson joins us. up next, the top stories from the political play book. first, here is bill karins with a check on the forecast. bill? >> a dreary morning. it's still a light drizzle and light rain event. it will last through much of the morning rush hour. it will be slow. on this map, the blue is the drizzle, the green is rain. it's primarily new york city. up to boston is dealing with bet weather. late this afternoon, a thunderstorm or two around pittsburgh and d.c. and baltimore. the majority of the day will be dry. get ready, a hot weekend is headed your way. temperatures in the upper 80s and 90s. the hot weather is around the corner. right now, it's in dallas, denver and phoenix. phoenix, 108. near record heat in the southwest.

denver up to 93 degrees today. as i mentioned, a lot of hot weather is going to spread across the country. you are watching "morning joe," brewed by starbucks.

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get a droid razr maxx by motorola for only $199.99. 26 past the hour. time to take a look at the morning papers. we'll get there. new york times, more than 40 catholic universities and religious groups filed lawsuits to overturn the obama administration hhs birth control mandate. they claim the mandate infringes on their first amendment right of freedom forcing them to provide contraceptives to employees. the church rejected a compromise offered earlier this year. it ensures insurance companies,

not the institutions pay for the birth control. >> thank you for reading the entire paper there. mika, the surprising verdict out of new jersey. >> yeah, also in the times a former rutgers university student will spend 30 dayings in jail for the harassment of tyler clemente. 20-year-old dharun ravi faced up to 20 years in prison after facing all 15 counts against him of invasion of privacy and tampering with a witness. he received three years probation and must pay $10,000 to victims of hate crimes. >> willie, this is your home state. i don't want to see the kid sent up the river forever, but 30 days? i don't know. i'm surprised. the judge didn't at least give him six months. >> it was interesting, too. tyler clemente is from my

hometown. great, great family. it's terrible on both sides. tyler clemente lost his life. how much responsibility do you put on this 18-year-old kid in his dorm room? the judge was harsh in speaking with ravi during the sentencing. then he gave him the 30 days at the end. some people think it's too light. >> kids do really, really stupid things. they really do. >> boy does the technological age give them the ability to be stupid. >> it does. i just wonder, though, whether a six-month sentence wouldn't have sent a stronger message to kids across america and their parents. >> i agree with you. i think 30 days seems -- considering the magnitude of this and the poor kid he was doing it to. i think 30 days is too little. >> i don't think ten years was

appropriate, but a few more months. tyler clemente's problems were bigger than one incident. you can't put all this on ravi but a few months would have been more appropriate. >> let's go to politico. i think cat man is back. >> patrick gavin is back with a look at the play book. good morning. >> good morning, everybody. let's talk mitt romney. they are calling themselves the underdogs. up in new york city trying to raise cash. how is it going? >> you were talking act the president's relationship with wall street. romney did wrap up four events in new york and connecticut and brought in a total of $10 million. pretty impressive. even romney's chief fund-raiser took to the stage saying we love this money. we actually thought we would be at a 4-1 disadvantage to president barack obama. at this point, we are at a 2-1

disadvantage. they look at it as a positive sign. romney certainly still is, the republican super pac is doing well. the romney campaign is happy with how they see things playing out with how much money wall street is or is not giving president obama. >> the campaign dnc and the friendly super pacs won $144 million. romney, 175. steve, real quickly, romney has a relationship with a lot of guys on wall street. when you combine it with the fact president obama is going after private equity, does some of the money swing to romney? >> i think it's already happening. obama did well on wall street against mccain who was not as popular. it's going to be the other way this time. obama has to make it up with the small donors. wall street is not going to be as supportive.

it's a fact. >> a new york times article today suggests team obama is nervous because between super pacs, rnc and the romney campaign raising money. look at the actual numbers, obama is $100 million ahead of romney. they had such a massive advantage four years ago financially -- >> the reason that obama is so far ahead is romney has not been able to raise the big checks for the rnc. he was not the presumed nominee. you are going to see the gap close. >> thank you, patrick. >> see you guys. >> he's got the widest teeth at politico. >> they are nice. >> did you see the picture of emma? >> i did. it's nice to know all my cigarettes and red wine aren't tainting my white teeth. >> go get those bleached. >> i think he has. >> the mayor of pensacola.

kobe bryant goes off for 42 points. was the one-man show good enough to save the lakers season? sports is next. plus, rested and ready. >> i saw this. it's funny. we'll be right back. [ male announcer ] the inspiring story of how a shipping giant can befriend a forest may seem like the stuff of fairy tales. but if you take away the faces on the trees... take away the pixie dust. take away the singing animals, and the storybook narrator... [ man ] you're left with more electric trucks. more recycled shipping materials... and a growing number of lower emissions planes... which still makes for a pretty enchanted tale. ♪ la la la [ man ] whoops, forgot one... [ male announcer ] sustainable solutions. fedex. solutions that matter.

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all right. let's do a little sports. oklahoma city thunder with a chance to clinch a spot in the finals last night in front of the home crowd. they had to get through ckolby and the lakers. he has 42 points his 13th career playoff with 40 or more points. zero assists. russell westbrook. throws it up for grabs. and the foul. giving his team the lead. part of a 14-3 run to turn it around. kevin durant in transition. a long three. they are up 11 at that point. the lakers never recover. 53 points combined. the thunder move on with a win over the lakers. they get the top seated spurs with an 18-game winning streak

that dates back to early april. game one should be great. the 1-2 seed starts sunday night. the celtics beat the sixers. bass finished with a playoff career high. 27 points. that's him with the dunk. the celtics try to close out the series tomorrow in philly. >> even the series as two games a piece. they don't like each other. they are wrestling around in front of the rangers goal. the devils up, 1-0. travis, beautiful. 2-0 devils. rangers down 3-0 late. they decided to start punching people to keep things interesting. >> holy cow! oh, my gosh, you can't do that? >> why not? why not?

ejected from the game. the coaches are yelling at each other. >> what a series this is. >> they go back and forth across the river. tomorrow, game five. >> that is a great sport. red sox -- absolute bomb from him. out to the warehouse. 442 feet. >> oh my god! >> look at that. will middlebrook. puts boston up two runs. tied with the new york yankees, i can't believe i'm saying this for last place in the a.l. east. the red sox going the other way. they won 8 of 10. right after the sox blew that huge lead to the yankees, three months ago now.

everybody is calling the radio shows talking about how the yankees were great. hey, hey, hey, we are old guys. we are old. basically said i would rather be in the red sox position than the yankees with all the senior citizens we are carrying. >> i'm not ready to write them off, yet. the bats, they could score seven in a night. they were shut out last night by the royals. it's not good. >> the braves and the reds played yesterday in cincinnati. watch the guy who catches the ball. good for him. he comes up with the ball. once in a lifetime. how about the very next batter. >> it's never happened. >> the next batter goes to the same spot. same guy. >> oh, come on! you are kidding me? >> no. >> caleb returned the ball to the pitcher because it was his first career home run. same guy gets the home run ball. >> you are kidding me.

>> unbelievable. >> we are waiting for the sports bureau to confirm it's the first time it happened. ♪ ♪ [ lauer ] this is our team. and unlike other countries, it's built by your donations, not government funding. and now, to support our athletes, you can donate a stitch in america's flag for the 2012 olympic games in london. help raise our flag, add your stitch at teamusa.org. mcallen, texas. in here, heavy rental equipment in the middle of nowhere, is always headed somewhere. to give it a sense of direction, at&t created a mobile asset solution to protect and track everything. so every piece of equipment knows where it is, how it's doing or where it goes next. ♪

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sadly, no. oh. but i did pick up your dry cleaning and had your shoes shined. well, i made you a reservation at the sushi place around the corner. well, in that case, i better get back to these invoices... which i'll do right after making your favorite pancakes. you know what? i'm going to tidy up your side of the office. i can't hear you because i'm also making you a smoothie.

[ male announcer ] marriott hotels & resorts knows it's better for xerox to automate their global invoice process so they can focus on serving their customers. with xerox, you're ready for real business. beautiful shot of washington, d.c. the sun has come up over washington. wake up, everybody. 44 past the hour. european leaders will meet today to discuss the economic troubles plaguing the euro zone with france. a depressed germany with the euro bonds. austerity versus growth. >> what do you have, steve? >> yes. where are you going to start? >> austerity versus growth is not that simple.

the program started today -- >> i know, as simple as it gets. >> let's start with the fact it's not as simple as austerity versus growth. it gets to the heart of the economy in europe and the performance of them. what you see in the first chart is the enormous divergence. it's how efficient the economy is. what do workers get paid. over the last ten years, germ y germany, the black line at the bottom is bumping along. they are very productive. the workers have not got huge pay increases. if you look at the companies that are now in trouble, spain, porch gull, italy and ireland, their labor costs have gone up enormously. that means these companies are not competitive with germany anymore. that is the heart of their economic problems. >> how do unions play? >> unions are a piece of it.

>>d piece of it or smaller piece of it? >> they are a material piece of it. a lot of it is historic practices. >> it's a little bit like, if you tied mike's leg to willie's leg and tell mem to run a race together, what would happen? >> that would be attractive. germany is dragging them along. they are not able to compete. talk asterty and growth but they have to be competitive. >> you can compare, let's say rhode island, which has a work force rules and high taxes with say south carolina where bmw -- i mean -- >> it's similar to that. >> are you built to go? >> it's similar. it's worse because they don't have an integrated government to provide financing and other things. look at other things. the bond market. if you go back into the

2006-2007-2008-2009 period, the debts are traded at the same level. portugal, germany, france. >> then the market woke up and said they are not the same countries. greece is off the charts. portugal is up there. italy and spain is there. germany is at historic lows in terms of interest rates. what does it mean for austerity versus growth? the weak countries say hey, we are going spend more money, have a higher budget deficit to grow. the bond market may wake up and say we are not going finance you anymore. you are playing with fire. >> by the way, steve, this morning, the wall street journal, the organization for economic cooperation and development got the forecast across the euro zone and warned

them not to do what you are suggesting. not to try to artificially jack up growth in their country because -- >> it will backfire on them. >> it will backfire on them. >> what is their option? >> look, their option, what they have to do, ireland has done it to some degree. they have to restructure their own economies. they have to loosen up labor practices and get more competitive. they have to reduce their wages. ireland is adjusting successfully to this. these countries, not so successful. the only other option is leave the euro. they cannot compete the way you saw on the first chart when they are tied to germany and the other countries as well. >> mike, look at france. you had a guy just get elected promising to lower the retirement age to 60 and to fight for a 35-hour workweek. i mean, you go to most buildings on sixth avenue here and you can

look up and most of those buildings there are americans who are working 35 hours in two days. they work six days a week. >> 35 hour workweek in france would be an increase. >> right. plus the two-hour lunch. >> as we leave -- let's go to joe's -- >> this comes from a guy who works 31 weeks a year. >> i want to show one of your charts. >> oh, good. here we go. >> show the chart. >> this is the deficit but we'll do this one. if you look at the deficit it's -- >> sorry, go ahead. >> our deficit 8.2 gdp. spain 8.5 and portugal 4.2. i know it's a subject near and dear to your heart. >> explain why the united states

has more flexibility than the european countries. >> put the third slide up for a half second if you can. you'll see. here you go. we have lower debt to gdp. these countries are all over 100%. we have not crossed the rubicon in terms of too much debt. our deficits are too high. >> we have a vibrant economy. >> and we have a vibrant economy. >> nobody is running away from the dollar despite the massive deficits. it looks like germany and the united states right now are the two safe bets on the planet. >> correct. germany interest rates and u.s. interest rates are all-time lows. we are considered the safe haven. >> what are the odds the greeks get out of the euro? >> the odds are 50%. a little over 50%. yesterday, they said we want to keep them in. there's pressure to keep them in.

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it's time for news you can't use. i argue this is useful news. the channel 4 news team is getting back together. they announced on conan soefrl weeks ago, "anchorman 2" coming

out. your first trailer, right here. >> in the age when the dinosaurs greeted the dawn and apes road the winged horse across the valley of eli, there was a lone stranger that offered wisdom. it was said he would one day return. that day has come. >> hey, america. did you miss my hot breath in your ear? >> there's going to be machine guns. >> why me? >> it's going to get stinky. >> now, it's my turn to talk. >> rick, give a nice message to the people. >> in this movie, we play witches. >> brick, what are you possibly describing? look, it's -- it's going to be a fun movie. it's time to do it again. this time, i'm on top.

>> wait another year to see it. they got together -- >> christina applegate is going to be in it. >> i have studies this. they are all back except for her. >> she's got to be back. >> she's not back yet. >> christina. >> she's hard to get. >> do the right thing. it's not the same without you. >> it's for america. don't you love america? there are soldiers overseas -- >> that are waiting for you. >> do not let our men and -- >> i can't wait. wait a minute, i watch it every day. >> there are sick children. for one day, enjoy laughter if they saw this film. >> for two hours. >> three hours every morning. >> up next, "the washington post," eugene robinson and chuck todd live from the white house. keep it on "morning joe."

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in this commercial for mitt romney, he's showing you and telling you exactly what would happen the day after he was elected. the day after. day one. >> what would a romney presidency be like? day one, president romney

approves the keystone pipeline, introduces tax cuts and reforms and issues the order to replace care. romney is reminded by ann he lost to president obama by a landslide. it's what a romney presidency will be like. >> i'm mitt romney and i approve this message. top of the hour. welcome back to "morning joe." >> you are hyper today. maybe it's too much green tea. >> stephen fitzgerald writes married couple who stays together for the sake of the kids routine. >> better believe it. >> we are doing it for you, willie. >> we would not -- >> you have no idea how much we appreciate you, willie. >> wow. >> wow. be nice to mike. >> mike is all right. >> mike is my stepbrother.

>> steve rattner is with us. he's a financer who doesn't want to be called that. >> we shouldn't call him -- stop it. stop it with that. we are going to start with the polls. >> in washington d.c., associate editor of the washington post, political analyst, eugene robinson. never has the cynical definition of gaffe applied more tightly than it does here. where in washington, d.c., a gaffe is where you accidentally tell the truth. >> when you accidentally say what is on your mind. this could be a gaffe, yes. but gaffes, there are gaffes and there are gaffes. when you go out as a surrogate for a campaign and undermine its central message for the summer, that's a whole different -- >> not good.

>> -- order of gaffe, i think. >> not good at all when your president, your candidate goes to a nato conference in his hometown and the first question has to do with what cory booker says on "meet the press." not good. >> not a good appearance. one assumes in the obama campaign they have been polling the other surrogates since sunday. let's get this straight. what do you think about this? what do you think about that? just to make sure everyone is on the same page. >> gene you wrote about naacp about same-sex marriage. i thought it was a fascinating announcement. the african-american community not exactly the most open to the idea of gay marriage. just look at california in 2008. >> you know, it has been -- the

african-american community has been much more skeptical about gay marriage than say black democrats have been more skeptical than white. however, i think there's a very rapid evolution taking place. more rapid than president obama's within the black community. actually, what fascinated me was the naacp went beyond where president obama was and says this is not just a matter to be left to the states. this is a civil right that should be protected under the 14th amendment, which takes it out of the hands of the states. number two, it's interesting with the naacp, which has been trying to figure out its role. it has jumped into what it now calls a civil rights issue and defines it as the civil rights issue of the day.

>> there's a danger, is there not, in a disconnect between the naacp and african-american preachers? >> i think there would be. with the preachers, certainly. i think the disconnect is growing between the preachers and their parishioners as well. i think, for example, here in the district of columbia, there is gay marriage and gay marriage in maryland. there's a huge black middle class community in prince george's county. there's been a lot of interesting discussion there with preachers on both sides of the issue. i think these attitudes are changing pretty rapidly. >> all right. >> all right. gene, thanks for that. we are going get to the news now. i also urge people to use twitter to be a part of the conversation. instead of you getting strippers, people telling me to

hang myself with my scarf. >> i have people telling me i'm a puppet. >> calling you the red-headed stepchild. all right. a new poll out this morning. really, it's good to join the conversation. how about what we are talking about, perhaps? >> it's impossible. >> new poll finds president obama and mitt romney in a dead heat among american voters. according to "the washington post," abc news poll, the president is up three points on the republican nominee within the margin of error. when asked who was better to handle the economy, voters are split at 47% for each candidate. the poll finds by an overwhelming margin at 52%, jobs in the economy are the number one issue voters are considering when making their decision on who to vote for this november. the poll finds 83% of americans finding the state of the economy is not so good or poor.

30% of voters believe they are worse off since president obama took office. >> mike you have run significant campaigns before. i want to go down the list in the washington post. did you run one out in california? >> no. >> never mind. go along with me, okay? >> so, here are numbers. who is better at handling the economy? it's 47/47. creating jobs, 46-45. personal values, 47-44. they are all within margin of error. here we go, on personal issues, though, understanding economic problems people are having, 48 obama, 40 romney. being more likely to stand-up for what he believes in. obama 50, romney 39. having better personal character to serve as president. obama 52, romney 39. there still is a wide gap on character issues between romney and barack obama in the polls.

how does that translate? >> i would expect those numbers to be the way they were. the ones you just read. the number that was surprising to me, if i were playing a part in the president's campaign is the 47-47 number. in terms of, you know, the economy is okay. i mean he's tied with mitt romney. the whole card that he's playing is i'm the guy who can turn around the economy. they are even on this. >> there are a couple other numbers i found interesting. by 49% to 56% margin, people blame bush for this problem rather than obama. >> what is the number again? >> 49% blame bush, 56 blame obama. the enthusiasm rating for obama versus romney. it's similar to what obama versus mccain was like four years ago.

>> wow. >> go ahead, mike. >> best fit to handle the economy. obama 47. romney 47. it's a huge positive number. >> we have seen a trend on the woman vote. there's been so much among romney's supporters he was down 20 to 30 points. there was a poll a couple weeks ago that showed he's down. how is he going to win back women? that is one place romney can look for optimism. >> we have chuck todd at the white house. new numbers from "the washington post." >> yep. >> it seems to confirm what a tight race this is. there is still a golf between personal character issues and right now, barack obama has a double digit lead over romney in a lot of these areas. what is the romney campaign planning to do? >> it's funny you say that. they continue to say

semiprivately, i don't want to say publicly. they continue to believe they don't have to worry about this that much. there has to be enough of an alternative. they will eventually win the last argument. this is about the economy. all this likability stuff, all the issues about whether romney can connect will fade as long as the voter goes into the booth, voting on the economy. they think we overemphasize this. they think they understand why the obama campaign is going after them personally. they think it's their way to disqualify him. but, you know, they continue to poo-poo it. they think the overwhelming frustration on the economy will get them there. i tell you, when you see the bain attacks and you realize where -- it's a very specific place we are going to see. they are running ads, guess where? toledo, ohio. you are going to see it in wisconsin. these are not accidents.

it's where the bain argument is going to take place from ohio to wisconsin. >> remember when the poll came out saying romney was up three percentage points against women? remember what the real number was? >> that's abc. >> i'm sorry. i'm asking, do you remember? >> i know. brother, you said seven and it's seven. wait a minute. you said it for the nbc wall street journal poll. >> yeah. >> tomorrow morning, we'll find out how you did. >> okay. >> tomorrow morning, we'll find out how you did. >> if it's not seven, you are cooking the books, mr. "jeopardy." i am after you. >> i'm being accurate. we have the gold standard poll. we are talking about the silver standard today. >> wow. >> hello to my friends over

there. it's a good poll. >> trash talk, huh? bring it on. "jeopardy" question for chuck. >> he was so good there's been talk there was a quiz show situation. he was getting stuff in his ear. i'm just throwing that out. >> wait, what? >> somebody was popping in the answer to your question. >> i want to show the david axelrod byte to -- >> david axelrod? >> yeah. >> he bit somebody? >> no. what did you drink this morning? no more green tea. you tried that for five minutes. is it too hard to get that? >> i'm sure the new york post headline was axed -- >> we are not doing that. stop it. stop it. >> that is an important story. >> women in the workplace, mika. >> it's war against women.

i care. maybe i care too much. >> it may not be worth it for you two to stay together for the kids. >> sometimes it's better just to walk away. >> chuck todd, here is the david axelrod byte. >> i love cory booker. he's a great mayor. if my house were on fire, i wish he was my neighbor. in this case, he was wrong. there are instances that speak to an economic theory that isn't right for the country. >> can you believe he made that reference to a burning house? >> i'm thinking maybe -- >> oh, that's cold. >> that is unbelievable. if my house was on fire -- >> somebody on twitter last night said cory booker ran into a burning fire to rescue himself. that's what he's been doing. watching cory booker on this, tough wonder, is he doing the bidding of the obama campaign or worrying about cory booker,

2014, 2016 or whatever it is? >> i think he thooz worry about both. >> i would start worrying about cory. >> i like him a lot. >> we like him a lot, too. i was saying last hour, seriously, for cory booker, one of the top rising stars in the democratic party, this is a real crisis for him. if i'm a democratic fund-raiser and i see a potential national candidate go on "meet the press" and he uses that opportunity to undermine the message for the summer, i don't know if i'm going to write him a check for future c futu future campaigns until he cleans it up. >> it was an extraordinary moment. it was at the central argument. everybody understands why a democrat in the new york metropolitan area is going to be nice to private equity. >> exactly. >> not that nice. >> yeah. t.j., thank you so much for

putting the shallow mic on eugene robinson. >> sorry about that. >> you're back now. >> i'm having technical difficulties this morning, as are you, apparently. >> yes, he is. >> it's all taken care of. >> t.j. only turns off your microphone when it's your turn to talk. >> how angry is the white house at booker? >> they were very upset. it's not a small thing. it was interesting to hear him say he heard from the campaign. there were multiple conversations. they were upset. what is interesting here, i get the impression, this goes, you know how in years past, joe, before a party representative shows up on sunday shows, they used to get calls or whatever it is during the campaign season. whether the bush campaign or kerry campaign, you hear about the conference calls they do with various people going on, what is the message. you get the impression that

didn't happen. the obama campaign, they haven't done that a lot. i'm guessing that's going to be a new policy that gets changed. >> the dodgers won last night, chuck. >> they are on a roll. that lineup, they are all on the injured list. you know, they are still rolling. >> come back east. >> whatever. hey, all i know is golfing is good for beckett. he's pitching well. >> he's played golf every day since then. >> they are well managed. he's starting to look like torey. have you seen the way he leans? he's getting that expressionless face. itis neat. >> chuck, thank you very much. >> you got it. >> appreciate it. >> gold standard tomorrow. >> we'll settle the bet. >> don't cook the books. >> i haven't looked yet. i have the numbers but i haven't looked yet. >> gene, we'll look for your

column in the washington post. what does the exit path from afghanistan look like? first, bill karins with a check on the forecast. bill? >> don't be so excited mika. the forecast is nothing to be excited about. airport delays building and the rain is coming down once again. lots of light rain out there. we are not seeing the torrential downpours like yesterday. visibility is low. 45 minute delays at newark and laguardia. other weather story, very hot conditions continue in arizona. 108 is the forecast high in phoenix. watch in the southeast. a few strong thunderstorms around atlanta. the forecast for today, west coast you look okay. heating up. going to feel like summer, shortly. you are watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks.

there is genuine improvement in the performance of afghan national security forces. but, the taliban is still robust enemy. the games are still fragile. i don't think there's ever going to be an optimal point where we say this is all done. this is perfect. this is just the way we wanted it. now, we can wrap up all our equipment and go home. there's a process. it's sometimes a messy process. >> welcome back to "morning joe." 21 past the hour. with us now, the secretary of the u.s. navy, ray mabus. >> great to have you, mr. secretary.

we just found out something important about you. the men and women of the navy are in capable hands. he's a red sox fan. >> i was going to say his daughter is graduating from harvard. >> both of them. >> they are close. you are a red sox fan, that's fantastic. so, let's talk about -- let's talk about the united states navy and specifically, you know, i represented pensacola, obviously, we have a close tie to the navy. it seemed like in the '80s and '90s, every time america got in trouble, it was the navy and the air force on the front lines. not so since 9/11. talk about the navy's roll from iraq to afghanistan to iran, all over the world right now. >> the navy has a huge role. i'll give you one day in the navy. picked a day from last year. on one day, we had 20,000

marines fighting in afghanistan. we had another 4,000 sailors on the ground in afghanistan supporting the 12,000 sailors at sea flying combat air over afghanistan. that same day, we had submarines and destroyers launching tomahawk missiles in libya. we had a ship with marine air going over libya. >> right. >> same day, fighting on foot off the coast of africa, the same day the ronald reagan strike group delivered assistance to japan, same day going around africa, south american south pacific. the navy is everywhere. we are america's away team. when we are doing a job, we are a long, long way from home. people don't understand how good the navy is. just how good the marines are. just how skilled and dedicated they are. >> obviously, the marines are the tip of the spear.

the army has been spread thin. talk about the marines, have they been stretched thin by the challenges? >> we ask a lot of the services. a lot of the marines and the navy. the navy, the rotations are getting longer, getting more often. we are beginning to stress both our ships and our people but we have the most resilient force we have ever had. >> let's talk about that. talk about the repeat tours of duty and what it means for the children. the spouses of those serving our country. for marines, what -- what -- how many tours of duty have they had, repeat tours have they had? >> marines have a different model. they want you to come in, stay four years and go home. go do something. be a leader. you do two tours if you join the marines. that's normal in four years. >> the navy?

>> the navy, the rotation. it's the operational tempo. how many times you leave port. how long you stay gone. those are getting longer and the rotations are getting closer together. but, we have this incredibly resilient force. the families are resilient. the children are resilient. we are worried. if the president and first lady -- >> it's a readiness concern at this point. >> but we are ready. we have the best force we have ever had. the best educated. the best trained. the most skilled. i was in the navy 40 years ago. we rarely left port without leaving a couple guys back in jail. that doesn't happen today. it doesn't happen. we got too good a force. >> mr. secretary, you listed all the places the navy is active and doing a great job. the next thing coming in washington are budget cuts. everybody recognizes there are going to be cuts in the defense budget. where does that leave the navy?

how much cut can you stand? how much margin do you have to be able to do the things you were talking about? >> clearly, the military has to play their part in getting the financial house in order. but, from 9/11 until i took office, eight years later, the fleet went from 318 to 242 ships. in one of the great military defense build ups, the navy got smaller. we have reversed that. by the end of this decade, we'll be back to 300 ships. we are building more ships, even in this very constrained military environment and budget environment. we are going to have the fleet and we have the fleet today. to do all the missions that we have been given, to do it all over the world, we are using our ships differently. we are putting ships in singapore and spain so we don't have to go these long distances.

we have the fleet we need and we have the capabilities we need. in particular, we have the sailors and marines we need to run these incredibly expensive missions. >> we have the fleet we need now. take it from bahrain to tokyo. do we have enough ships five years down the road? >> absolutely. we are growing the fleet. we reversed a presip dus decline. a year before this administration came in, in 2008 we built ships. today, we have 39 under contract. >> now, we are focused on the budge it cuts. isn't that going to have some impact on you deploying forces? >> the numbers i'm talking about count for retiring seven cruisers early and others into reserve status and not building 17 ships we planned to build

over the next five years. deferring those. even with that, we are building the fleet and increasing the number of ships we have and increasing the capabilities. very versatile and flexible ships that can do any mission and can meet anything coming over the horizon. the one thing certain when a carrier strike group leaves port, the one thing certain is they are going to face something it did not expect. >> speaking of facing something they don't expect, obviously tensions are as high as ever in the persian gulf. are we having to prepare, is the navy preparing for a possible war with iran? >> the new defense strategy we have that the president announced in january says we are going to have particular focus on two areas, the person pacific and the arabian gulf. we have been in those two areas for decades now.

we are prepared for anything that comes either in the western pacific or the arabian gulf or anywhere else on earth. we have -- we have the right kinds of warships but i'm just going to keep circling back. the weapon that we have that is our ace in the hole are the people manning these ships, the marines that are on deployment. these people have been asked over and over again over the last decade to sacrifice, to serve and they have stepped up every single time. they continue to do that. that's the great part of my job is getting to deal with people who are that dedicated, that patriotic. 1% of america, fewer than 1% serves in uniform, protects the other 99%. that represents the best of

america. >> all right. >> to highlight the point you made, there is always a way. always working to serve this country, tens of thousands of men and women you represent. we thank you. and them for your service. thank you very much. >> ray mabus, good to have you on the show. on tomorrow's show, colin powell will be here on set. "morning joe" is back in a moment. i'm more of an absentee plant parent.

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up next, the doctors are in. doctor emanuel and nancy snyderman pay us a house call with alarming new numbers on diabetes. why they are telling men not to get tested for prostate cancer is next on "morning joe." dogs are the best of the best of the best.

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surprisingly, nowhere to be found. nowhere. here with us now, dr. nancy snyderman. you stop it mike barnicle. >> don't go there. >> we are going there. >> in washington, former white house adviser and chair of the department of medical ethics and health policy at the school of medicine, dr. emanuel. good to have you on the show this morning, zeke. >> this news about prostate screening being not such a good thing. >> this is a controversy that is going to make the breast cancer guidelines we talked about two years ago like a blip. basically, the news is this. the u.s. preventive task force, their goal is, their charge is, crunch the numbers. do some screening tests make sense. they have come to the conclusion the psa men get for routine

screening for prostate cancer is very sensitive, but not specific and 80% of the time is wrong. it's a false positive. look, mike marbarnicle is alrea tense. it is not a great screening test. they are saying they gave it a "d." they said don't use it for men unless they are high risk, strong family history, already had it. >> monitoring it. >> or african-american men with higher incidents. >> you don't want a rectal exam. >> yes, i don't. >> joe is back. joe is back. >> that's a great screening. it's great screening for prostate problems. men would say no, no, no, please take my blood. >> wimps, get used to it. >> why not have both? >> the real issue is that you get a psa, you have a high

number, you then get a bunch of biopsies and nothing is benign. that's an important thing to remember. it's not as if taking the biopsies has no consequence. a lot of men get surgery. they find something small and surgery has its own consequences or radiation therapy has consequences which are not pleasant including impotence and incontinence. you prevent very few deaths when you go through all of that. that's been the main feeling about the screening. >> how do you prevent deaths? >> it's obviously one of the top killers for men. >> it is a -- it's one of the top five. one has to remember that the consequences of getting a lot of surgery, even if it was never going to be a problem turn out to be trivial for most men,

being impotent or incontinence. we have rectal screening and rectal exam before. if you felt a nodule, go after it. most men who get it diagnosed will die with it, not from it. something else will intervene, whether it's heart disease or some other problem. >> let's clear this up. what do men my age, mike's age do? >> my age. >> go in for a rectal exam. the reality is, the mass screening with this blood test is really not a great screener. we have to remember, zeke just touched on it, not all prostate tumors are the same. joe, you could have one that is aggressive. mike barnicle could have one that is going to be there forever and ever. we throw it all together with chemo and radiation.

frankly, overtreating people. warren buffett was diagnosed with stage one cancer. now he's going to get treated. i would say really? are you sure you want to get treated? >> especially at his age. >> sit tight. don't do anything. >> yeah. >> there's obviously no problem, though, with getting the blood test. >> yes, there is. >> no, hold on a sec. having that information and weighing that along with -- >> no, there is. >> that's the problem, joe. nobody weigh that is with anything. you get the blood test, go oh my god, it's me. then the locomotive leaves the station. zeke, what do you think? >> it leaves the station before you get the blood test. five years ago, i went to a urologist. he said we should get you the psa. i said i don't want it. we had a ten-minute argument.

i am no wall flower. >> that must have been attractive. >> what happened? i got the psa test. when he called me with the results, i said i don't want to know. you took it for you, not for me. >> talk about a difficult patient. >> ari sounds like you. >> no, ari would have gotten the test three times. >> this is not clarifying. you are all saying don't do it. this is not clarifying at all. >> first of all, joe, we don't know your family history, in all fairness. the second thing is, i think that while a digital rectal exam sounds terrible, especially early in the morning we shouldn't be talking about it. you can have that before you go off and get a blood test. >> that's the advice. >> a simple rectal xamp. women and men grow up in different trajectories. you and i have had rectal exams

and grown up in stir rups. willie is gnawing on his fingernails. >> i'm not. i'm confused. >> this is part of your body. this is normal -- is it just once? joe, i think you are right. it's going to be controversial and confusing for people. >> that's why you should definitely talk to your doctor but you should also don't only ask, you know, is it going to diagnose cancer. if you go down the path where it's high, marginally high at four or something and what is going to be the consequences of that test. the one important thing for americans to remember here is, no test. no medical intervention is benign. everything has some level of side effects. you need to know that before you go down that course. >> mika, we'll move on to your

topic. the reason this is so confusing, we have all been touched with someone in your family with prostate cancer. the question you ask is what is the number? when it goes from two to three to five to ten. you know, in many cases, it's a march toward death. it just is. >> not necessarily. >> okay. i can tell you with the three or four people close to me who died, when that number goes up, nobody is blowing out birthday candles excited about it. >> that's true, joe. that is the minority of men who have had the biopsy. a very small minority. >> okay. >> let's move to diabetes. >> can we, please. >> we might have to have them come back tomorrow. we are running out of time. >> okay. >> the number of diabetes and pre-diabetes for teenagers has

skyrocketed. tell us what this is about and what can be done. we have been coupling this story with other health problems in children that is prevalent and growing in high number. >> as you can see, the number of adolescence has more than doubled in one decade. gone up two and a half fold. it's an extremely scary number. for one thing, a lot of them are going to have a lifetime of having to inject themselves, having to battle this disease. >> incredible. >> the second problem, as everyone knows, very serious consequences. narrowing of the arteries, heart disease, problems with feeling your toes. problems with infection. it is as meriad of adverse consequenc consequences. kids having it so early speaks to the epidemic we have of

obesity and low exercise in this country. we have to focus as the first lady has told us, on kids and reverse this epidemic in the next generation. otherwise, we are going to have a typhoon we cannot handle in terms of adverse consequences and health care costs. >> nancy, unlike other diseases, diabetes, the multiplier effect. >> cancer, heart disease, stroke. now, we are talking gastric by pass surgery and banding in teenagers. the surgery we talked about in 50, 60, 70-year-olds. it's to save their lives, not a quick fix. we are looking at a national epidemic where there's not enough money in the bank to treat it and a generation of youngsters who are not going live as long as we are. suck talk about health care costs? come on. >> i would like to emphasize two point that is nancy made.

one is, a lot of people don't associate diabetes and being overweight with an increase in cancer. one of the big predictors of a rise or increasing your risk of cancer is overweighed. people know about the association of heart disease and other problems. obesity is related to increase risk in cancer. the second thing, one of the most scary parts of the data is the fact that young women who get overweight and are obese and then get pregnant begin to pass on these problems to their kids, even before the kids are being delivered. we now know that an increased amount of glucose circulating in the blood changes our genes and changes them not in a good way in terms of how the body is going to regulate. the kids they have are already predisposed to be obese as well. you have multigenerational problem. that is the scary consequence.

>> we are running up against our break. we need to talk about this tomorrow. can you come on tomorrow? we need to. >> i always like talking to you, joe and mika. you know that. >> yeah. >> i think you just like talking, zeke. >> true. >> zeke has a piece on social security, how to save it. >> they'll be back tomorrow. i want to talk about this tomorrow. i'm a small government conservative. let me tell you something, we are in the business of medicare and medicaid. those are the two biggest drivers of the national debt. diabetes is one of the biggest drivers of those expenses. >> that's exactly right. >> medicare and medicaid. i can give you a lot of personal examples of that. we have to talk about this. the federal government, state and local government have to get their arms around this and declare a war on it. >> i would argue that we have to become very comfortable talking about obesity, all the time

until we have gotten -- we have to embrace the word fat and talk about it. >> all right. zeke, thank you so much. nancy, thank you so much. >> see you tomorrow. >> dr. daniels teaching a free online course. dr. nancy, see you tomorrow. >> we'll be right back. we'll s you tomorrow. >> it's a date. >> you're the doc. [ male announcer ] if you have yet to master the quiet sneeze... [ sneezes ] [ male announcer ] you may be an allergy muddler. try zyrtec® for powerful allergy relief.

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welcome back. 53 past. are we having fun already? tony nominated actress judith light and playwright. featured actress. >> it's going great. >> absolutely fantastic. >> now, you play a crazed liberal, just out of rehab. how fun is that? >> fantastic. it's actually -- the play itself is extraordinary. really, deference to you, true linch. not just because you're here. this character has all the things you just described, that's all on the surface. underneath, a great deal of conflict and sorrow and grief that actually comes out at the play goes on. >> a rich couple.

are they annoying? >> no. >> not at all! >> let me just tell you -- >> tell me about their life. describe them to me. >> actually -- >> they're all pride, primmer and reason. in that order. >> yes, exactly. >> where does this story come from, for you? >> just from, i spent a lot of my childhood growing up out there around that. not coming from it particularly, but i always found it incredibly fascinating and wondered as the party was changing its identity, what sort of, some of those old guard people felt, and, you know, old cadillacs driving through pasadena and picking up groceries at jurgensen's market and stuff. what were they to make of all this new -- this new kind of republicanism. >> all right. >> and the story, very personal story about this rich republican hollywood couple. that seems to have it all, but they keep their son's suicide

under wrap until -- >> secrets that get revealed as the placeplay goes on. fascinating about this, i find that no one tells the secret of the play. no one gives it away. so that when people come back afterwards -- >> so complicated it would take an hour to do that. it takes an act. >> it does. and constructed so beautifully it really -- it begins to unravel and then it really explodes at the end of the play. >> so, jon, what's the secret? >> just say, right here. >> i won't let him tell you. >> you play an alcoholic? >> yes, and alcoholic just out of rehab. >> how did you tap into that, the character? >> ah -- >> what is this? notes? >> i drank a lot. that's not true. >> asking you this because she's -- no. she started in the green room -- >> late this morning. no. actually, i had a wonderful gentleman, whose name is paldernadi part of the rehab

program. i went there and he took me through. >> see? isn't that interesting. what's wrong with that question? >> i'm glad you asked that. you go through the creative process. you're driving your car. you get an idea. it starts. are starts writing things down and scribble it out and then, bam, here we are. a year later. >> it's so slow -- >> so subtle. by the end a soul-crushing experience you just wish it were over. right? >> it's just a dream every day. it's the greatest thing in the world. i mean, i -- you know, i had no idea how much fun theater could be. i thought was grueling and difficult, but it's been fantastic. >> i can't wait to see it. >> it's also fantastic to play it, i have to say. i mean it is a very difficult piece to do, emotionally, but it is a great joy. i mean, we're all having a wonderful time. >> we're going to come out see you. when we do, will you give us a a

sign? >> you mean like carol burnett? i have all kind of leeway, i'll talk to the director and i'll threat stockard and others know i'll be doing something. >> i've seen the show. very heavy moments and her character comes up and just immediately brightens it. >> i can't wait to see it. >> she's a scene stealer. >> i can't wait to see it. a light in the darkness. >> judith light, thank you so much. >> thank you for having us. >> come back after. >> we shall. still ahead, senator tom coburn from oklahoma on diffusing what he calls the nation's debt bomb. >> and colin powell tomorrow morning. >> that will be good. keep it here on "morning joe." r, not in this economy. we also have zero free time, and my dad moving in. so we went to fidelity.

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good morning. it's 8:00 on the east coast. 5:00 on the west coast. welcome back to "morning joe" as you take a live look at new york city. back with us on set we have mike barnicle and steve rattner. >> willie geist would agree, hollywood on 57th. lovin' the spring. nothing better. right? lovin' the spring. right? >> yes. >> willie, you old me last nim. you see a young kid like mark zuckerberg. >> stop it. i don't like what you're saying. >> no. he put himself out there. >> no. huh-uh. >> and getting married. exciting. >> sweet. they've been together a long

time. >> they love each other. >> that's all that it's about. stop it. >> no. can i get there? can i just get there? >> what are we getting to? >> i don't like this. >> let me tell you something. as orlings once said, love takes time. so this story takes time as well, because it's about love. so -- so this guy, you know, willie, we were talking about this. this guy zuckerberg is portrayed in that movie with aaron sorgen. the social network movie as such a bastard. calculating. i knew that wasn't him. i knew that wasn't him. now, cynics would say, the "new york times" suggests this morning, and we're deeply offended by this, that mark zuckerberg decided to get married the day after his stock went public, because marriage laws do not allow the spouse to

make, take any money away that when they've earned before they walked down the aisle. so -- cynics would say that he decided to get married on the date that his networth was the highest so she could get no money later on. he's already -- by the way, she's already $11 billion down. you know? he's worth -- his company. it's already $11 billion. okay. so we lost $2 billion. i know for finance, treasury people like you, $2 billion is not much, but, willie a good move on this part? >> one more day she's going to have to leave him. you can't lose $2 billion in a day. >> you don't -- >> you're not a cynic. >> the "new york times" suggests this. i would never suggest this. but -- >> just stop it. >> it was a pretty shrewd move on his part. >> leave him alone. >> the day after i know my net

worth will be valued at the highest point ever. >> you could argue, he's a smart businessman. >> yesterday your other conspiracy theory, was that he hastily arranged a wedding to cover up something that didn't go so well. >> i was wrong pap better theory today. i think today's here tosy correct. he's shrewder than all of us. i will say this, though, there were laughs, mike barnicle, scoffs when i was, of course, asked about facebook. i said settle around $28. everybody laughed at me. boom. $33 yesterday. dropping faster than the new york yankees. >> well, don't rub it in. >> they're in last place. >> by the way -- >> actually at .500. >> can i just show you? look at this -- look at this headline on the pope! >> yeah. wow. i mean -- >> the yanks. >> big problems. >> huge problems. the yankees are diving, mike. >> back to mark zuckerberg, well

that particular tax game is never applied to me. >> no. >> your wife has you on an alliance, mike. it's just the opposite. >> with a check mark. but i must say, the cynics out there, they should know that what we all know, you can't put a price on love. >> no, you can't. >> and mark zuckerberg would never -- >> he would never. not that calculated. >> he was with that girl for eight years. >> exactly. >> you just made my point. whip her eight years and just walked down the aisle the day after his personal net worth would be at its all-time peak. thank you. >> they also -- >> thank you. this is perry mason. whatperry mason say? >> making fun of the fact you're jealous of mark zuckerberg and found a way to put -- boobs on

the top of the show. >> do not call the yankees boobs. i got, one, two, three, four -- oh. the little engine that could. those red sox. >> check the outfield last night. >> we got shut out by the mighty royals at home last night. >> in the bottom. yet we will continue to objections about them still in the east coast. >> the agony of everybody else in america. so facebook. why is it tanking? >> the underwriters obviously made a mistake and priced it too high. only until their defense, one of the largest deals in history, very complicated. nobody really knew the demand. people throwing in orders. retail investors want add piece of it. the end of the day, it's clear the company pushed too hard for too high a price. or something like that. maybe a little lower. what you really want -- they weren't selling that much stock. price it low. let it trade up. everybody make money and feel good about it, the way it

happened with, say, google back in 2004. but instead they pushed for the last dollar. the way it works, underwriters try to support the stocks. arrest has week it did trade at offering price, because underwriters were buying the stock and over the weekend saved themselves. can't pull back to sea like king kanute. and now the levels. >> you should see ford. when the surrogate goes out and tells the truth about you. >> it's not good. not good when surrogates don't follow the line. mitt romney's record as a corporate ceo at bain capital is open to debate. the president says, well, venture capitalism plays an important role in the economy it doesn't necessarily translate to the role of president. >> my view of private equity is

that it is -- it is set up to maximize profits and that's not always going to be good for communities or businesses or workers. and the reason this is relevant to the campaign is because my opponent, governor in romney, his main calming card why he should be president is his business experience. and when you're president as opposed to the head of at private equity firm, then your job is not simply to maximize profits. your job is to figure out how everybody in the country has a fair shot. if your main argument for how to grow the economy is, i knew how to -- make a lot of money for investors, then you're missing what this job is about. >> we're going to get into how this all started, but first of

all, fair argument to look at bain and look at it that way. >> a don't know, but i do know this. planned this nato conference in his hometown. goes to chicago and they have these big thoughts, big ideas, big problems, and the first question he's asked in his press conference -- by the international press corps. what do you think about cory booker? not good. >> he's not happy, but the argument he's making, steve rattner, is it a fair one? >> yeah. i think in his statements yesterday he found the right place to be, because i think the worst of concerns about where he stood on private equity. what he's now basically saying, i hope, i think, is that private equity is a legitimate business, but its business is maximize profits not create jobs. >> you say, you hope? >> that's what i believe. >> but you're an obama supporter. cory booker was speaking to the concerns of a lot of democrats who support this president. right? >> yes. and i think a lot of us share

the same concerns. we do not want to see in the course of questioning mitt romney's record, which we're all in favor of doing, how private equity, which we think is a legitimate business activity, not, not without its own flaws like every activity but legitimate, we don't want to see private equity dragged down with it along with mitt romney. they are two separate issue iss. one is, private equity, focused on creating wealth not on creating jobs, and the second part of it is that it's entirely fair, in my opinion, for the president to say mitt romney was engaged in creating wealth, not in-of-in creating jobs while at bain capital, which raises questions about whether he is qualified to be president. that is the argument. >> what his priorities would be. >> you know what? so phil griffin, he loved that thing where you were running through it's streets and i was passed out, willie in nightclubs, so he's been asking us to do like, another promo. >> you're not talking about reality. >> when will you do another

promo? when you doing another promo? well, i'm an artist. it comes when it comes. fortunately, the republican national committee has done my work for me. >> they have. >> i can coast another six months's did you see this promo ream they did on "morning joe"? >> you made it, by the way. >> i'm aware of t republican n committee is seizing on what mayor korpikorpi -- mayor cory booker. friend harold ford jr. and rattner. >> have you had enough on free enterprise? democrats have. korpi booker. >> from a personal level i'm not about to indict private equity. >> former congressman harold ford jr., democrat from tennessee. >> equity is not a bad thing. private equity sat good thing in many, many instances. >> former -- a leading democrat.

>> i don't think there's anything bain capital did that they need to be embarrassed about. >> never said there was, to an extent, just -- >> pretty good. just need a little background music. >> take care of that music. >> other people left out. >> that was some xarp secury yy music. >> made a formative video, take 30 seconds out of it -- >> what about behind the -- >> stop it. >> signed with a -- >> stop it. stop it. >> scary. >> you know he just clarified. willie? >> he was good last night. >> was he? >> agitated, angry. >> was he -- >> he was on with rachel, and -- >> did he blame republicans for

twisting his words? >> let's watch. >> okay. >> anybody watch the entire "meet the press" saw not only was i defending obama's positions on numerous issues but also talked about super pac money and negative campaigning and my outrage and really frustration was about the cynical, negative campaigning, the manipulating of the truth, and so here they are plucking sound bites out of that interview to be, to manipulate them in a cynical manner to use them for their own purposes, and that slogan is really what had me and basically my entire staff really fit to the tied. >> the slogan, i stand with cory. if you want to stand with me, come to newark and stand with me on the things that matter, people, not on this one issue on "meet the press." >> picking up garage. tweeting. saving people from fires. >> saving people. >> okay, joe. >> they drop -- >> really. >> and tweeting while the baby's coming down. >> fascinated with this. maybe it takes one to know one.

>> what are you talking about? >> i don't know. blah. sometimes things come out of your mouth. >> anyway, so -- mike, were the words lifted from the proper context? >> painted a horrific -- telling the truth. isn't he? we're going to show you, mayor booker. you tell the truth, you're going to have to backtrack three, four days in a row. >> they're killing him. killing him. >> let's look at the new polls -- >> by the way, i mean, he's an up and comer. >> he is. thank you. >> he really was. >> he is. oh, please. >> no. serious. he's fighting, i promise you, over the next 48 to 72 hours the guy is fighting for his political life. you don't want this, this view of yourself setting in stone in the middle of a presidential campaign, because it's not only the rank and file that will be angry with him, it's the people that give money that write checks and they're thinking,

okay. he goes on "meet the press." one of the most important political shows. he's an obama surrogate and actually undercuts the central premise of the obama campaign's argument for re-election, for beating mitt romney. why he's not fit as a president. this -- i'm serious. this is a, politically an existential crisis for cory booker. >> i don't disagree. if you are from newark, i think you are impressed with what he's been able to do there. >> what he was saying was that there's a way and an entirely appropriate, accurate way positive point out that mitt romney is not experienced or qualified in creating jobs without denigrating private equity. >> i don't think. disgusted with people attacking private equity. >> i'm agreeing. i don't think he wants to see private equity as a business attack but is perfectly

comfortable, as i certainly would be, questioning mitt romney's record of creating jobs. they are two somewhat separate issues. >> he compared, though -- david gregory asked a question and he lumped. in with jeremiah wright attacks. he can't back off of that. the attack against private equity were disgusting just like republicans using jeremiah wright. >> and in doing that, pointed to an ultimate point of kpant. used the word, you'ded it here before. it is going to it be nauseating, the back and forth. the attack ads back and forth. i mean, it's going to be such a turnoff to multiple numbers of people in this country, by the middle of the september people will be hoping the world series extends itself through december 7th. >> coming up, we're going to bring in republican senator tom coburn of oklahoma. also ahead, the arctic oil rush. a rapid shift in ice, between nations jockeying for positions with trillions of dollars at

stake. is it worth the risk drilling can bring to this fragile environment? >> the forecast? >> do the segment. yes, said and done. good morning, everyone. another miserable day for air travel in new england. airport delays piling up. a lot of fog and low visibility out there. rain and drizzle. moving up through rhode island. the boston area. airport delays building. an hour and a half in newark. one hour in philly and 45 in laguardia. some could spread to logan airport through the morning. the other concern, severe thunderstorms linked today around atlanta. possibly around south carolina, through the areas in birmingham and montgomery. otherwise, the big story in the western half of the country. the heat. it's going to be 108 degrees today in phoenix, arizona. that warm air is spreading. denver at 93. dallas at 93. eventually all that warm air heads towards chicago and even the east coast towards the upcoming weekend. so just be prepared. even d.c. could see 90 degrees by saturday.

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get this. a new study found that most members of congress can only speak at a tenth grade level. in response, congress issued a statement saying that is totally redonkulous. 22 wachlt the houpast the h.

joining us, senator tom coburn from oklahoma author of the new book "the debt bomb." >> earlier we had steve rattner on who comes armed with charts. one chart he showed this morning, particularly disturbing as we hear about europe's collapse, the chart salve the budget deficit as a percentage of the gdp and shows that actually the united states percentage is higher than germany's, italy's and portugal's and right next to spain's, and not so far from greece. we are doing worse than a lot of these european countries that are about to fall off a cliff. >> i agree. the question people ought to be asking is, why are we not doing something about it? and that's the frustrating thing with washington right now is the the very real problems that are in front of us, none of the legislation that's in front of congress, especially the senate,

is addressing any of those issues. >> why not? >> well, it's all about election, and nobody wants to take those hard votes. it's the typical delay is, i'll make the hard votes after i get the next election passed, and then once we're past the next election the rationalization comes back, i don't want to take those hard votes. i'll make it the next time i get past the next election. we're short-term thinkers running crisis from crisis and the biggest problem in our country is leadership. >> so what's the impact of that, and at what point are washington leaders forced to actually lead on the debt? >> well, eventually, you know, we just saw it downgrades, right, by fitch on japan. two points down to a plus. we're going get another downgrade. you know, treasury secretary will deny that but he can't say

anything but that. but it's going to come, and we deserve it. we have not done what wep ne neo do to put our country in a position to secure the future. if we were paying historical interest rates right now on our debt we would be spending $700 billion a year on interest. more than we spend on defense. that's near what we spend on social security -- i mean, medicare and medicaid. so the point is, as we're at great risk for rising interest, and that will happen when people no longer have the confidence that we're going to fix our problem. and that's why leadership is so important. bringing our country together. you know, we have a disparate country with lots of points of view. what we lack is leadership to say, here's the problem. let's debate the solutions to the problem, but let's quit denying the problem. the problem is, our government's out of control. it's twice the size it was ten years ago. our deficit last year was bigger

than our budget 15 years ago. so we -- it's not that we can't solve the problems and we lack the political will and leadership to solve them. >> here we again. mike barnicle. >> senator a couple things occurred to me listening to your initial comments here this morning. one is that the perennial conflict between campaign and governing seems to be there's no conflict anymore. campaigning out an extension that lapses over into governing, and, again, listening to your comments, you seem to be making a plea, a quiet plea, perhaps, for term limits? you know -- >> i believe in them, absolutely. >> i mean, if we have a majority, or i don't know how many in both the house and the senate, who refuse to address the reality of the issues that confront us, the debt in particular, because they always say, well, we'll take the next vote amp the next election and there never seems to be a time when there's the next election. >> yeah. it's a barrage over the hill i'm

going to get there and fix it and it just doesn't happen. now, term limits will never happen, because it requires a constitutional amendment as long as you have a career politician. it's not as much term limits as it is the lack of perspective outside of politics, and outside of government, in terms of the application of making critical judgments on issues, and what we have is a large number of members of congress that have no real world experience, and so if -- if we're eventually going to solve the problems because nobody's going to loan us the money for us to keep acting the way we're acting, but the pain is that is much too great and why should we submit america to that much pain when we can solve our problems now? nobody wants to take the hard votes, because they're afraid they may not get re-elected, and what i'm telling you is, the point is, the best thing that can happen is to take the hard

votes and lose so the country's better off. >> willie? >> no real world experience. >> none. >> that's right. they don't live in the world. senator coburn, it's willie. i want to ask you about the urgency that should be created about this problem, and i think part of the problem is, people don't see the sequences, or they maybe don't understand the consequences of rising debt. sounds like a macro problem, and our lives are still chugging along, there's still milk on the shelves and money in the atms, and this is some far away problem. can you explain to people watching today how debt impacts their daily lives, and if it doesn't yet, how it may down the road? >> well, i certainly can, and thanks for asking that question. if you're a college student today, one in two can't find a full-time job. that's going to been three out of four. if you have a 401(k) or i.r.a. and think you have retirement set with the debasement of our

currency and high interest rate and inflation will come with that, what you will see is, a decreased purchasing power, which is the typical political cowardly way of raising taxes on everybody is you just inflate your way out of the debt. you can't borrow your way out of the debt, so the non-courageous thing is to allow inflation to take over so that your purchasing power declines, and so the impact on -- personally on individuals especially in in 40s and 50s is going to be devastating. finally, the very programs we have out there in terms of the safety net to really help those people who can't help themselves, that's going to be devastated as well. so from both sides of the aisle, whether you're far right or far left, the ultimate answer of doing nothing is terrible for america, and doing something and addressing this issue now is very beneficial for america,

even though it's painful and we all will have to sacrifice a little bit. >> senator tom coburn author of "the debt bomb." >> a great boom. a must-read. >> good to see you again. coming up next, best selling author and journalist bob reiss takes it us inside the oil rush, plus get the birthday boy on the phone. keep. right here on "morning joe."

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welcome back to "morning joe." joining us now, best selling author and journalist bob reiss, out with a new book "theesq "th and the oil man." very good to have you on the show. >> how are you? >> tell us about the battle and what sdp it come down to? >> the battle goes beyond oil. about three years ago i began to become aware of a lot of fascinating things coming out of northern alaska. 27 billion barrels of oil is what they think is under the sea. trillions of cubic feet of gas, land rush under the sea. the russians have started buzzing us with bombers in alaska, and i met the -- the shell executive who's in charge of their operations in alaska, and got access to shell over a

year's time. and also got access to the eskimo mayor, which is a, a county the size of wyoming, where all of alaska's oil is. the offshore oil. by following the relationship between the shell exec. and the eskimo over a year's time i got the big picture of the whole actic openiac arctic opening up. >> wow. what's the impact, if the arctic is opened up? >> imagine a whole new -- sorry. imagine a whole ocean appearing on earth that didn't appear before? was there before but covered by ice. suddenly, you have millions of square mimes that are accessible, which the russians are taking advantage of big time. suddenly, minerals are accessible there. you have the coast guard and the navy will have to deal with possible ships sinking. the navy war games in september, in which the navy was anticipating possible terrorism in the arctic. in the northwest passage.

ships with nukes in them, north of alaska coming out of korea. possible oil spills. >> hmm. >> and the just logistics of having to move a fleet from the california to virginia, and going over the top instead of the panama canal. >> you travelled extensively to alaska, and beyond, researching the book, and spoke to people on all sides of this. name the types of books you talk to because it's not black and white, one side versus the other? >> you had a great show recently about compromise. that's what this book ends up being in the end. and problem, the other thing this book is about. as far as alaska and the oil man goes, start as antagonists and morph into unofficial allies against their government, as far as doing nothing goes, that's where we hit the government. so i was fly on the wall at shell and also spent time on the north slope with the whale hunters and eskimo politician, businessmen up there in

washington, with senators, spoke to white house officials in the bush white house, and also the obama white house. went to the norway to look at their gas operations. and then had fun on dark sleds and coast guard ice breaker foreseveral weekfor for several weeks. it was great. >> how do you think this sorts out jt hot button issue for environmentalists, too pristine, don't touch it. people who want to tap into that resource say, boy, that's where the oil is. how does this settle out, do you think? >> if you ask most in upx, the north slope, what they think, they would rather see oil development there. they fear offshore oil development, yet they need the income that comes from oil. 100% of the north slopes project comes from taxes oil infrastructure, burt the alaska pipeline is running one-third full now and the oil revenue has dropped. they need it from somewhere. if they can't get it from our

water what do they do about offshore? >> you're talking about the mystery of ice, and the movement of ice, and the danger of ice. what is the degree of difficulty of extracting these huge oil and energy reserves through ice? through -- through, you know, the difficulty of the enenvironment up there? >> ice is incredible, like an animal, the way it performs. ivu, referring to an ice mountain that can almost appear out of nowhere in minutes and crush people. ice -- well, first what shell wants to do this summer doesn't involve ice. they just want to the see if the oil is there. shell wants to go up before the ice season and leave before it forms. when just analyzing shell's plan this summer that plan takes place when there's no ice. but later, in terms of production, which is what you're talking about, here's the irony. nobody knows if you can clean up

oil under ice. and all sides of fighting over whether you can clean up oil under ice but the government prohibits a test. >> ah. >> it's the dumbest thing that i -- >> unbelievably stupid. who might have an opinion on this. >> i think he works especially since his big day, his birthday, we're talking about boone pickens. and we told you that we would call you on your birthday, boone pickens. are you there? >> i'm right here. >> happy birthday. >> thank you. >> how old are you? >> 84. >> oh, my goodness. >> 84 years young. >> how does it feel, boone? >> it feels just like it did yesterday. >> okay. good. so jump into the conversation. shall we? >> we're talking about -- talking to bob reiss as the eskimo and oil man and extraordinary opportunities for energy exploration in alaska. >> i've been listening intently on what you're saying. >> what do you think about it?

bench birthday boy? >> first, you haven't mentioned costs and we're running those deep water rigs at $500,000, $600,000 a day. i expect with all services included up there in the arctic you're looking at $1 million a day. so you're, you know, it's going to be expensive. you're not talking about finding cheap oil. >> is it worth the investment, though? at the end of the day, boone? >> well, i mean -- you know, shell wants to do it. i think, sure. i'd love to see them do it. i'd like to see the results of it. they're spending their stockholders' money. it's not government money. so, you know, we're in the system where if want to spend your money to look for something, it's up to you, but you know, shell has the best scientists in the world. the oil and gas industry, i think harks done a fantastic job finding oil for the world and, sure, i'd like to see them do it. >> what do you think. bob said it was stupid and i

think we all agreed, that the federal government will not let anybody run techts on whether you can clean up oil spills under ice. what do you think about that? >> well, oil spills under ice. you haven't had any yet, and there's no history of it. but if you look back over the last 50 years, there have been two oil spills i recall. mckonda, last year, two years ago and santa bash rbara. the united states does a fantastic job looking after the environment. they aren't perfect. nobody's perfect but i think they've done a great job. look at the biggest for north america extends from midland texas to the south dakota border. goes across eight states. 800,000 oil wells drilled through that aquaford down to a producing zone, and then fractured. and i know of no record of the

aquifer being damaged. nobody ever said anything about that. over eastern pennsylvania that you're messing up something over there. i had a guy in eastern pennsylvania tell me the other day the salt of a the well was getting into the creeks and killing the fish. and i said, the oil -- the salt out of the well. i said, you guys pile salt on the highways up here in the winter. where do you think that salt goes? he said, oh, that's a different kind. so -- you know -- if you want an answer, you can get one. >> yes, you can. >> yes, you can. that is for sure. boone pickens, happy birthday. very nice to talk to you this morning. >> thanks. thanks for calling me. i just got off the treadmill. >> good. get back o. happy birthday. bob, quick response to what boone said? >> well, he was talking about expense. shell certainly feels like the expense is worth it, but $2 billion for the leases there, they've sunk $4 billion into it altogether. conoco philip has leases, others have leases, norwegian company

has leases. all of those companies are bullish in the arctic, not just in the united states, russia, oil is big. >> yeah. >> bob reiss, the book "the eskimo and the oil man." thank you very much. >> as boone said if shell wants to invest there, they probably know what they're doing. >> okay. thank you. up next, this is just a weird term. i'm trying to make it -- inside the world of manscaping. >> what? >> we apparently dispatch -- i thinking that actually louis dispatched himself, to find out what supplied the boom -- yeah, thank you -- in men's beauty products. oh, my god. dp he tear himself away from the mirror for this? we'll be right back. >> looking pretty, boy. [ male announcer ] you sprayed them.

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okay. a few weeks ago, cnbc's brian sullivan told us about the boom in male grooming products. yeah. the industry. this got to be good. um, it's called manscaping. >> oh, no. >> just had a bit of a visual image. it's now even the subject of a new documentary by award-winning filmmaker morgan spurlock. as we would with any story on male grooming -- did louis write this for himself? we sense "morning joe" -- >> on investigative report, here. shocking information that he came back with. >> i hate shaving. i hate using a razor. i've never been shaved by a barber in my life. i'm a guy. >> hard to believe, as you said, my immaculate look, from the

time i wake up, out of the shower, dressed, boom. seven minutes. >> do i exfoliate? i'll punch you for asking me that. no, i don't exfoliate. >> women spend over $2 billion annually on citizencare products alone in the u.s., ironically, it's the men's grooming industry that's the largest emerging market. >> on the front page of the "wall street journal." big story. 25%, one in every four men in the united states use some sort of skin care product. >> in fact, 84.7 million spent on men's skin care products last year an annual increase of 13%. >> this is happening everywhere. this is news. come on. in the "wall street journal." >> academy award nominated documentarian morgan spurlock, bet known for super size me, took a journey into male grooming in his new droumtry mansome. >> what do you think makes a man? >> your manly voice. >> if you are mansome, then you are both manly and handsome.

>> i tracked down some of "morning joe's" most elegant men to find out how far they go to stay so mansome. >> i don't need any of that. i save the money. i groom myself. take peek. >> i set the trend for men's fashion. to one that -- >> a lot of grooming? >> no. >> willie geist manages to look okay. [ laughter ] even though he has a tendency to look at if he's always on the verge of spring break. >> i'm a hairless ger. manic. i don't have back hair. i don't get the unibrow. i can go a day without shaving and you probably wouldn't notice. donny deutsch is truly pathetic. more grease in his hair than you'll find in a mcdonald's myalater. >> you know he's waxes. >> the secret for the hair simple, towel dry, put on

product. boom, boom, boom. i'm not a products guy. it's whatever's there. >> it saddens me when you see guy at the beach and up see a guy with full chest hair completely denuded. >> get waxed into brozilians, as they call it. >> my wife wants me to get a brozilians. between that and child delivery, i would take child delivery every time. >> brush your hair, comb your hair and go to work. >> we're good. it's a wrap. ♪ i'm sexy and i know it >> barnicle. >> what just happened? >> good job by louis. >> it's a good job, but let's just -- donny is such a lie. >> such a lie. >> i roll out of bed like this. >> come on. after this, the hey gel a couple sets on the bench.

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senior high. what the organizers didn't know was that another decidedly less wholesome organization was having a very different event there at the same time. >> a corn convention. it was going on right next to a high school prom in miami beach. >> what do you think about the porn convention being in the same -- >> it's a shame. >> oh my -- that is terrible. i don't like it. >> i didn't even know about this whole convention thing. >> this isn't a mixup. this is the greatest night of my life. >> tomorrow, "morning joe," former secretary of state colin powell will be here on set to talk about his new book. up next, what, if anything, did we learn today? dude you don't understand, this is my dad's car. look at the car!

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[ all ] shh! ♪ why tell the trees what ain't so? ♪ [ male announcer ] dow solutions use vibration reduction technology to help reduce track noise so trains move quieter through urban areas all over the world. together, the elements of science and the human element can solve anything. [ all ] shh! [ male announcer ] solutionism. the new optimism. joe." >> get it over with. >> i learned that manscaping piece, that mike barnicle didn't protest too much. weekly brozilian. >> what did you learn, mike? >> that steve rattner was a little leery of saying, i stand with cory booker. >> leery? >> scared. >> scared. what did you learn, mika? >> i don't think we let louis out again. i'm not sure. i don't want to the hear about mapi