the big chill. let's play "hardball." let me start with this horrific day for the american economy. the stock market dropped 275 points today wiping out all of the gains of the year, and we have fallen back to where we were in january. why? because the jobless rate rose today for the first time in the year that vital number went up instead of down. the underlying news is worse. the american economy created 69,000 jobs last month, and less than half than predicted and it turns out the economy produced less than a third that number in the combined two months earlier.

this recovery has run out of steam. we're in a stall. got it? what's the political power of this? what will the president do? what will the fed do? what will the american people demand they do? action. that's the word i'm interested in, action. what action can we expect? what action can we hope for? let's get to the two people who should know the answer. robert reich, who authored the book "beyond outrage" and ed rendell. robert reich, if you were running the show, in the presidents's and had the power to set or recommend economic policy action steps what would they be? >> number one, chris, i'd say i the president am going to propose number one that the first $20,000 of income be exempted from payroll taxes effective immediately. a shot in the arm for consumers. number two, i'm going to propose that we as a country, we use the

fact that borrowing costs are unprecedented at a low point because everybody else in the world is pouring their money into dollars. that means we can borrow and have a major infrastructure program to fix our crumbling highways and roads and bridges and ports. i'm going to hire and make sure that all -- that a large portion of the people, 23 million people who are now unemployed or underemployed, i'm going to hire as many of them to fix america as possible. we'll have a wpa works project administration and civilian conservation corps to take the long-time unemployed and put them to work in our parks, our playgrounds, assistant teachers, whatever. if the republicans want to be called the nabobs of negativism, that is fine. i want the american people to understand i'm going to move forward on this. >> ed rendell, how can you beat

that? that sounds like music to me. let's go out there and do it, the republicans may oppose it. the idea you've been talking about for years now, i hate the word infrastructure but everybody knows what it means. we're behind the europeans. they have the chunnel, the trains that go 300 miles aen hour. we ride that wild west buck board called the amtrak, which is nice but is certainly yesterday. put a big tunnel in new york from new jersey. tell that governor to get out of the way and put that thing in. we have bullet trains in asia. everybody's ahead of us now. and we're put-putting along like it's 1953. your thoughts, governor? >> secretary reich is absolutely right. it's the time for action. and the president should understand what the american people, i think, are looking for in this election is what's next. what are the plans? we know the economy's improved but it's stalled. what's next? governor romney is suggesting that we cut taxes. first of all, that's never worked in the last 60 years.

even if it were to work, its two, three, four years down the road. we need action now. i think bob's plan is a good one, particularly infrastructure. 25,000 jobs are produced for every billion dollars of infrastructure spending. every expert agrees with that. chris, if we did a $200 billion infrastructure improvement program, i'm not just talking about roads and bridges, our electrical grid, broadband, dams, levees, everything we need to fix, we're falling apart. number one it would make us more economically competitive, safer and number three, if you do the math, 5 million good, well-paying jobs on the job sites and back in american manufacturing factories. >> today the president told congress -- >> let's go. >> i have to call it limited jobs ajen da. >> limited. >> let's watch what he said. >> my message to congress is, now's not the time to play

politics. now's not the time to sit on your hands. the american people expect their leaders to work hard no matter what year it is. congress should pass a bill to help states prevent more layoffs so we can put thousands of teachers, firefighters and police officers back on the job. congress should have passed a bill a long time ago to put thousands of construction workers back on the job rebuilding our roads and our bridges and our runways. instead of talking about job creators, congress should give small business owners a tax break for hiring more workers and paying them higher wages. >> well, robert reich, let's get to the politics. why is he -- if the congress and the republican side, boehner and the rest of them are going to say no to spam, why not ask for steak? if they're going to say no, go all the way. i hate to use the word. you know what i'm saying, the chicken. go for something big. if they're going to say no, make them say no to something worthwhile. >> that's exactly right.

what the president needs to do is is form a clear contrast in the public's mind between his desire to go frd and create jobs and what the republicans want to do is basically award tax breaks to the very rich. they're not the job creators. award tax breaks to big corporations who are sitting on $2 trillion of cash they don't know what to do with. the reason they're not creating jobs, there's not adequate consumer demand. what the republicans want to the do is cut the budget already. that's austerity. austerity economics. we saw that what got europeans in terms of making that european situation even worse and creating a recession in all of europe because of those budget cuts. so what the president needs to do is say that's what their agenda is. here's what my agenda is. i'm going to get jobs back. if they want to say no, you make sure i have a senate and house of representatives that will say yes. >> here they are, boehner and canter, the joy boys here with strong words for the president. let's watch them in action.

this is easy stuff for opposition. >> these job numbers are pathetic. the american people really deserve better and i think on the right leadership we can do better. >> it's clear that the policies that we've seen are not working. >> i'm not an economist. all i can say is that if they would have taken our advice and worked with us, the economy would be better. >> well, governor, he's not crying there. i have to tell you, boehner, this is something that's not bringing tears to his eyes. it's probably put a spring in the step of romney. you were in the news today. i don't know how many in the last several hours you made. bill clinton made the news, saying don't go after bain capital, the massachusetts experience of romney. in other words, defend your own record, build on your own record. don't go negative. are you sticking with that? is the former president -- let's hear it. let's hear bill clinton speak for himself. he was out there with harvey weinstein the other night. let's watch him. >> i don't think that we ought

to get into the position where we say this is bad work. this is good work. no question in terms of getting up to go to the office, and you know basically performing the essential functions of the office, a man a who's been governor and had a sterling business career crosses the qualification threshold. >> there you go. mr. clinton, i don't know what he is doing, and governor, you know him well, and he is saying don't go down the negative road, go the positive road. you can't win by bashing this guy on bain capital and what he did as governor several years ago. you have to win this positively. >> i think the president's doing two things. number one, exactly what you said, chris, get out there and talk about what we're going to do. we do have good plans. the plans that bob just outlined, the plans the president outline. you're dead right. don't do just $50 billion of infrastructure improvements over the next 18 months. the cbo says we could afford almost $200 billion of new

spending for the next ten years. let's have a plan that will transform america, make us economically competitive, ten years of 5 million jobs each year, good well-paying jobs. do something bold. that's what the american people are looking for. the second thing the president is doing is very smart. he's going to be, of course, for president obama. he's building up credibility by saying mitt romney was a good businessman, et cetera. when he does differentiate, when he does give the american people reasons to support president obama, they're going to say, well, bill clinton, he didn't try to trash the other guy. he just gave us arguments why barack obama is better. it's great politics. >> you know, i wouldn't have agreed with that two or three days ago, robert reich, but i think now with the depths this economy has fallen to, the fact that we're seeing a rising unemployment rate, pathetic creation of new jobs, revised look at what happened the previous two months where it looks like we created hardly any

jobs. you have to say this recovery shouldn't be called a recovery anymore. we're not into a second dip technically. we haven't had two quarters of declining gdp. if the president doesn't do anything between now and november, nothing will happen. is that fair? >> i think it's clear the president has to put forward an affirmative, clear, concrete message, how he's going to get jobs back. paint the republicans as negative but i think he also has to go after romney. with all due respect to my former boss, i think my former boss is dead wrong. bain capital is part of the jp morgan, the wall streetification of the economy. you have entrepreneurs. one reason this economy is having such a difficult time getting out of it. >> you say play offense and also develop a strong program for the future? >> absolutely. >> you have to do both. >> you remember what they said 75 years ago when they said we'll build a bridge, the golden

gate bridge. people said you can't do it, it's too dangerogeroudangerous, to be too expensive. we have to get back to doing it. >> i have to tell you, the golden gauge bridge, i offer it as example in the one case in which mankind has improved on nature, the golden gate bridge. it's stunning today every time i go near it. thank you, robert reich and ed rendell. coming up, john edwards hints at a comeback. could he actually rise again after such a dramatic fall? this is "hardball." with prilosec otc. and don't get heartburn in the first place! [ male announcer ] one pill a day. 24 hours. zero heartburn. ♪ ♪

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well, john edwards may have gone free yesterday, but can he rebuild his political career? three jurors who spoke with matt lauer this morning said they believed he was guilty of the crimes he was accused of, but didn't have the evidence to convict. >> i think he had some knowledge. i think he definitely had some

knowledge of where the money was going. >> he was just smart enough to hide it. we could not find the evidence. >> raise your hands if you think that john edwards was guilty on at least some of the counts against him. okay. raise your hands if you think john edwards is a bad guy. interesting. >> well, they chose wisely there. is edwards planning a comeback or out of touch with public opinion on that? let's ask bob shrum a long time democratic strategist who first met john edwards in 1997 while working on his '98 senate campaign, which he won. and we also have an msnbc contributor. now, what's wrong with john edwards? is he all delusion? a guy with so much optimism he does not really connect with reality and like yesterday talking about how god has a plan for me and all that? what is all that about after basically beating the judge by a few feet? >> well, the people don't have a plan for him. look, he can maybe redeem

himself as a person if he does not talk about himself. that's what was wrong yesterday. whenever he does, it can't be about him. he has to quietly give himself to a cause he genuinely cares about. he has to stay in the valley, no oprah-like interviews. he has to do something good, and not because it is good for the image, but because it is right. and maybe he can never undo the nonjudicial verdict that is rendered on him, but he might change some people's lives, but if he looks like he is manipulating this, he will tarnish himself even further. >> i wondered if he was making a call to the rich contributors there, and you have to wonder about a guy who describes god's plans are. that's a strange thing to talk about, because god wants to make his own plans and doesn't want somebody to basically predict them. >> yes. >> and your thoughts, joan, about the strange egotistical

moment when he began acting narcissistically. >> it was a terrible moment, chris. i could not believe it. i am someone who supported him in 2007, and i speak as someone who voted to put him a heartbeat away from the presidency in 2004 and i apologize to the american people for that. we didn't know. but when he started speaking, like bob says, yesterday, i really couldn't believe it. i knew he was a narcissist but it was so wrong. and it was so wrong from the minute he started. maybe a thank you to the judge and the jury for standing by him, maybe, but that performance showed a man who is so out of touch with the world, with himself, and he is just so full of himself. i mean, love your children and go out and love your children and be a good father, and go out to help the children and the children of the world, god bless you, do that, but don't tell us about it. >> don't tell us your favorite kid was the one you had with your girlfriend.

that was too strange. >> so bizarre. >> i have to say he was speaking in a narcissistic fashion yesterday. >> i don't think that god's through with me. i really believe he thinks that there's still some good things i can do, and whatever happens with this legal stuff going forward, what i'm hopeful about is all of those kids that i've seen, you know, in the poorest parts of this country, and in some of the poorest places in the world, that i can help them. in whatever way i'm still capable of helping them. i want to dedicate my life to being the best dad i can be and to helping those kids who i think deserve help. >> well, the public opinion in this country is not in john edwards' side. in times" poll said that only 3% of the country has a favorable view of hill and 41% negative.

and he has not been talking to the poor children of the country, but hanging around in the bars of chapel hill, and it is great, but it is not one of the things that gets you to be one of the 12 apostles. >> well, he is not trying out for the 12 apostles. he'd be lucky to get into the lower ranks of heaven. >> i want to go after you, mr. shrum, because you believed in the guy, and people fell for this guy. bunny mellon believed in him. it was the cute manner, and that sort of little boy manner, and why did you fall for him? >> when i met for him in 1997, i thought he was a person of extraordinary talent. >> why? >> because he was articulate and smart. look, nobody thought he could beat locke faircloth in north carolina, and he went out and did it, and then john mccain was impressed with him and ted kennedy and then over time, he never fulfilled the potential. >> did he ever read a book? ever read a newspaper? >> i think he read a newspaper. >> i don't believe that. i don't believe he reads anything. >> i don't believe he worked very hard at being a senator.

i watched him in the 2004 campaign when quite frankly we should have picked dick gephardt for vice president. i went up to his debate practice. he wasn't ready for that debate. he had to go back to his room. and elizabeth had to make him study. >> and anyway, thank you, bob shrum, and i love when you are sympathetic to the young people of the world. >> oh, stop. >> i'm off i know it. but bob rumsfeld is back, and he is wanting the president to get to policy, and i believe that the president has a better foreign policy than rummy. this is "hardball," a place for politics. come from any faucet . the brita bottle with the filter inside.

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back to "hardball" and the "sideshow." first, that proposed ban on sodas larger than 16 ounces is

caused some noise. the daily show's jon stewart is perplexed. >> let me get this straight, as a new yorker, i can go on the lunch break to, i don't know, carnegie deli and order 14 pounds of pastrami garnished with 15 pounds of beef tongue and go right over from there to hooters for a basket of wings tossed in butter and a bowl of cheese to top it off with a little bit of a frozen hot chocolate. this is legal. until it melts. mr. mayor, i know you can be intimidated by these large-sized drinks. you and i are both, let's face it, small. we might see a generously proportioned sugared drink and think it is a drowning hazard, but it is not fair. it is not fair! >> and actually he marked today as national doughnut day, and officially nyc doughnut day with

a proclamation, and there is sugar in doughnuts, mr. mayor. and in a pension bill tuesday, representative mike bost took to the floor to argue that it is too soon to bring that bill to the vote. >> total power in one person's hands. not the american way! these damn bills are coming out of here all of the damn time, and i have to figure out how the vote for my people. i am sick of it. every year, we give the power to one person. it was not made that way in the constitution, and he was around when it was written, enough! i feel like somebody is trying to be released from egypt, let my people go! >> i think that he had one of those 16 ounce surge drink, but he said he does not normally act that way and i think it may have been a sugar attack. and finally, former secretary robert gates said that president obama made a gutsy call on how to kill osama bin

laden. in an interview with charlie rose, his pred sezer, donald rumsfeld said the decision should have been a fast one, an easy one, thanks in part to past administrations. >> you have spent millions of dollars and lives trying to track down osama bin laden and you have 40% to 80% or whatever bob said in your confidence. >> 87, i believe is what he said. >> it seems to me that it is a 15-minute decision and the first 14 are for coffee. could it be wrong? you bet. >> and with enormous consequences, ask jimmy carter. failed mission. >> oh, listen, our special forces in the jimmy carter era were so early in their evolution that the investment that the obama administration benefited from, the capabilities they have were developed during their predecessors. and each president has -- >> and you are referring to the bush administration? >> yes, exactly.

>> wasn't that fellow rumsfeld the guy that said saddam hussein had nuclear weapons? how long did that decision take for him? that's it for "hardball." up next, "your business" with j.j. ramberg. it's the little things in life that make me smile. spending the day with my niece. i don't use super poligrip for hold because my dentures fit well. before those little pieces would get in between my dentures and my gum and it was uncomfortable. even well-fitting dentures let in food particles. super poligrip is zinc free. with just a few dabs, it's clinically proven to seal out more food particles so you're more comfortable and confident while you eat. so it's not about keeping my dentures in, it's about keeping the food particles out. [ charlie ] try zinc free super poligrip. the charcoal went out already?

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