nice choice. we're trick treating. 1991 or 1992. john tower another tweeter e-mail for us? >> rolando writes why am i awake so early, that's a clown question, bro. >> can't get enough of that harry reid bite, can you, ripping off bryce harper. harry reid. >> that's a clown question, bro. >> "morning joe" starts right now. where you can send your kid to a decent school, knowing if they do well they have a chance to go to college and if they have that chance knowing you have a chance to get them there, that's what being a middle-class person is. that's not asking too much. that's who we are. that's what we believe. that's what you're about. that's what you built. i just described you, you're the

ones who make that possible. we owe you. you shouldn't be vilified. you provide the safe neighborhoods. you provide the good schools. you provide the school lunch program. you provide the day care centers. you provide the hospitals. you provide the road. you provide the ability of people to live a decent middle-class life. >> happy wednesday. it's june 20th. with us on set in washington, nbc news chief foreign affairs correspondent and host of "andrea mitchell reports" andrea mitchell. we have the washington executive editor for bloomberg news, and the host of "the political capital with al hunt" and he has polls with him. al hunt. also political editor and white house correspondent for "the huffington post" sam stein. also in new york, msnbc contribute mike barnicle and willie geist. we love joe biden. we love -- there is a reason why

we declared in our bylaws when we started this show this was a no attack joe zone. the guy is just -- he's beautiful. like a rainbow, as cyndi lauper saying. >> he is very refreshing compared to what's going on in the rest of the campaign. you've got these two mild-mannered guys, the president of the united states and former governor mitt romney of massachusetts out there, sort of lee key, even keel, same pitch no matter what they're talking about. you get joe, he's on fire! >> the i could is on fire. us -- the guy is on fire. he has a reason to be on fire. new bloomberg poll out this morning that shows the president has a 13-point lead over mitt romney in a general election matchup. that's a number that's sure to get a lot of eyebrows raised. when it comes to the president's handling of the economy, 53% say they disapprove, 43% approve. however, 45% say they are better off now than they were in 2009 when president obama was inaugurated. 36% say they are worse off.

al, this is -- these are big numbers. do you believe it's really a 13-point spread right now? >> i'm not sure about that, but i believe the poll in the sense if you look at it carefully what's more interesting and important is you look at both guys and they have real trouble. people don't think obama's doing very well on the economy by two to one, think the country is heading off in the wrong track, give him low grades on jobs, trade with china and host of things. >> all these low grades but up by 13. >> that's why you say why? >> this is like the heat having like 47 turnovers and winning by 20. >> that's only if oklahoma city is romney because you then look at romney. >> there you go. >> and contrary to conventional wisdom he has not come back interest the primaries. his numbers are terrible. people don't think he can create jobs, people think he is out of touch, he's an elitist and they don't seem to like him. one interesting side question who would you like to sit in a long airplane ride with. >> good god. >> 57/31 they say obama. i don't -- >> can i answer that myself?

>> yeah. >> i don't want to sit next to anybody in a long plane ride. >> you might take joe. >> i'll take joe. >> okay. >> no doubt about it. >> but it is -- i don't think this means that mitt romney is curtains at all. what i think it means, however, is that there is -- as an onus on him as well as obama to start telling people what he would do, what he's all about. neither one can coast and both thought they could. obama thought all he had to do was say this guy is a bum and prove this guy is a bum and it wouldn't be an acceptable choice. that's not going to cut it. the romney people who thought they could let people vote against an 8.2 jobless rate. >> you have a great column about what the obama people should do. right now, andrea, 13 points, the pollster, one of the best in the business, no doubt about it. methodology all looks good. but 13 points just doesn't seem to be in line with what we've been hearing. that said, you look at the cross tabs, a lot of concerns for both sides. >> certainly when you look at -- >> especially romney.

>> do you trust -- whom do you trust on the economy and obama's numbers are terrible as are mitt romney's. when were they in the field? was ann in the field? >> friday, finished monday night. >> whether this bus trip which seemed to go very well for mitt romney might have had some impact. there are marginal things on making him likability. likability is one of the factors. if you don't trust president obama on the economy, don't think he can create jobs but there's a 13-point spread there's something going on and it is probably the negatives on mitt romney. >> and character stuff. but also the immigration stuff is killing mitt romney, the 64 to 30% agreement is something the romney campaign has to grapple with. the candidate is giving a speech on thursday. >> what's he going to do. >> it's an open question because he, obviously, in the primary said he would veto the dream act. hardline about it. he's ducked on several occasions a chance to say whether he would rescind the quasi executive

order that obama has put into law. you know, their attack has been to avoid it and i don't think you can do that anymore when you see poll numbers like this when facing a 34 percentage deficit. >> al hunted -- al hunt hosted marco rubio last wednesday at a bloomberg breakfast and surprisingly he had been working on dream act, said he had not talked to mitt romney. seemed like that was building in deniability. didn't want to put mitt romney on the spot because he didn't want to take a position. >> very absolute how he would handle it in the primary and to go back on that would be to -- >> wait a second. mike barnicle, mitt romney flip flopping, i'm sorry, i don't see it happening. >> it would be a first, wouldn't it? >> that would be -- you know one of the -- the question that most interests me and you get a sense of it when you're just moving around, just doing an ordinary day, which candidate is best at understanding your problems and struggles and president obama,

55%, mitt romney 35%. and you get the sense that the bulk of this election will turn on people being able to answer the question when asked by a candidate, when a candidate says you know, i know who you are. i know your problems. i know what's bothering you. i know what to do about it. and clearly, a 20-point gap in this question that is a huge, huge problem, a huge hurdle for governor romney. >> now, al, you've covered quite a few of these things. you understand polls in june. >> yeah. >> don't always mean an awful lot. >> bill clinton was in third in 1992, so you know, you're right. but whether it's 13 or 3, i think is not the important point at this stage. when you look at numbers like mike referred to, i think what some of the romney people were calculating was, that this is a referendum election just on obama. i don't believe that. >> you don't think that's going to be the case. that's what i was going to ask you. wasn't a leading question to suggest this poll doesn't

matter. i think this poll does matter a great deal. just like those clinton/doll polls mattered in '96 during this time. you knew it was going to be an uphill battle for doll. the much bigger question is, when people go to the voting booth in november, is it going to be a referendum? is it going to be do we -- because we all say well,' all said for a -- we've all said for a long time, people walk in the booth to decide if they're going to rehire the guy or fire him. >> our poll confirms with the focus groups, peter hart has been doing around the country, and what peter hart finds is that people think things are getting a little better, not a lot, they think they've been through an awful lot in the past and aren't happy about that and they're looking for someone to tell us what are you going to do for the next four years and looking for obama and romney to tell them and both have been lacking. >> let's read what al wrote in bloomberg view. quote, the obama campaign needs an intervention. of course this would -- we

should have read this yesterday instead of today. forget that poll because -- because -- >> 13. >> there is going to be a lot of hand wringing moving forward and you make great points here. for democrats june has been the cruelest month. there has been discouraging economic news, the re-election candidate has made mistakes, and seems out of his comfort zone. supposedly superior obama campaign looks amateurish and complaints about the operator's insy hairty have reached a fever pit pitch. private conversations with political thinkers reveal a consensus of advice for the president. stop trying to tell voters they're doing better. offer an optimistic sense of how, if re-elected, you would lead america into more prosperous times and challenge republicans with specifics. al, this president can talk about why he did what he did four years ago, he can complain about republicans and he does, but the one thing he doesn't do

privately and the one thing he doesn't do publicly, is explain how he's going to jumpstart this economy four years moving forward. he just doesn't do it. >> no. >> he doesn't. he began in cleveland last week but it was muttled and too long and wasn't as target eed as it should be. if the obama people look at this poll and say uh-huh, we're home free they're making a huge mistake. when you look at those numbers there are warning signs for obama, too, and june is not over. >> let me make the case also that the next month, the next two months possibly could get worse for him. a series of things that are going to happen. >> sure. >> that all seem to be pointing in the direction of bad news for the administration, for the white house. that includes the health care ruling, possibly the immigration ruling for arizona, includes traditionally slow job numbers in the summer, and for some reason, obama always happens to have a terrible august, so they're not exactly excited about the next -- >> and europe. if bank goss under athens, it's going to affect --

>> they're looking at a couple months of intense hand wringing and secondguessing and we'll see what happens there. >> all right. willie, did you see jamie dimon yesterday? >> i did. he was back up on capitol hill. we saw him in front of the senate last week, a similar performance yesterday. up on the hill. i think we have some of his remarks. let's listen to him. >> is it fair to say that jpmorgan could have losses of a half a trillion dollars or trillion dollars? >> not unless this earth is hit by a moon. >> is gambling investing? >> no. >> no, it is not. >> what's the difference between gambling? >> when you gamble on average you lose. the house wins. >> that's been my experience with investing. but that's a -- >> i'd be happy to get you a better investment adviser. >> why should we allow you to be so big? >> a lot of banks report in the storm. i know it's convenient to blame them all for everything, but

jpmorgan's size and capability and diversification in '08, '09 and 2010, allowed us to continue to do the things you wanted us to do. >> by most accounts jamie dimon was strong again yesterday as he was before the senate. i guess the question is, beyond the theater of this and what we're seeing in this interplay between him and the members of the committee, what change comes out of this? is this just to drag him on capitol hill and to give him a nothingi i floging or something come out of this and see the way business is done? >> it was to give him a floging and make him, you know, perform with barney frank, giving him a hard time. the house is always harder than the senate although he had a sympathetic chairman yesterday in the house republican chairman there. >> what's it like floging jamie dimon. has anybody ever floged jamie dimon ever? >> probably not but they want to try. >> he was really well prepared and the bottom line is -- >> he's smart and --

>> he's smarter than -- -- >> smarter than everybody up there. >> maybe except barney frank. >> smarter than anybody up there. >> the only real effect to answer willie's question is, that he will probably not have the volcker rule as quickly watered down. you're going to have some, you know, reesistance to watering down the regulation, jamie dimon was the tribute to watering down. >> mike barnicle, always quite a scene when you have jamie dimon go to the hill and -- or you've seen this, we've talked about this especially in the financial services committees, where so many of those people are just rank amateurs. very few people with banking experience. they just don't know what they're doing. just to be blunt. how many bankers are even -- we've talked about this for four years. how many bankers are even on those committees. >> well, you know, it's the same old, same old, whether it's

jamie dimon or held of wells fargo or head of bank of america. they clearly are far more prepared to answer the questions than the people asking the questions are to ask the questions. supply the questions by staff members. they are not bankers. they have a peripheral knowledge of the financial services industry. so jamie dimon, it's a home run for him. the larger point, joe, though, i would think, is that, you know, these hearings are teed up for publicity, for the members on both sides of the aisles, republican and democrat, and yet out in the country, back to what al hunt and the panel was talking about, i mean, we're looking at a bus ride here and we're trying to figure out who is going to drive the bus. is it going to be the president or is it going to be governor romney. all of this stuff is in the rearview mirror, the banking stuff. sure the volcker rule is important to a certain extent, no doubt about that, but people want to know, where are we going? where are you going to take us? that's the question that's out there in the country. >> you know the other question

is, whether marco rubio is being vetted or not? >> well -- >> does anybody here really believe, willie geist, of course, whenever journalists have any questions when it comes to vice presidential vetting, they call you up and they ask you first. your spot at the holiday inn at 57th and 10th, do you think marco has been vetted by the romney campaign or is this crazy spin. >> i believe they're probably looking into the matter although some of our trusted sources, our game change friends suggest he was never and will never be the choice of mitt romney. but, jonathan carl, we talked about this yesterday morning of abc news, reported that rubio has been rumored to be on the short list, had not been asked to provide financial documents or fill out a customary questionnaire, he wasn't being vetted. romney did an interview with fox earlier in the day yesterday, sidestepped questions about whether or not rubio was being vetted a few hours later at a public event, romney disputed the abc report.

>> can't imagine who such people are, but i can tell you this, they know nothing about the vice presidential selection or evaluation process. there are only two people in this country who know who are being vetted and who are not. and that's beth myers and myself. and i know beth well. she doesn't talk to anybody. the story was entirely false. marco rubio is being thoroughly vetted as part of our process. >> let's -- >> gone right now they're going through his baseball card right now. i mean, abc standing by their story and, of course, mitt romney can say he's thoroughly being vetted but they, of course -- it's good politically. willie, did you want to get in here? it's good politically. >> no, go ahead. >> for them to say that they are vetting rubio. >> yeah. i -- look, i think romney has blown this one, blown the immigration thing, blown this. you should have vetted marco rubio from the beginning.

i think mark and john are probably right, not going to be chosen. >> right. >> but not to have him on that list given -- and presidential candidates say that all the time. used to always put a woman on the list. weren't going to pick a woman but you put a woman on the list. not to do that and what -- of course is even more serious, the fact that mitt romney dragged his feet for so long on immigration, marco rubio never got a chance to offer his dream act proposal. >> only two people that could have fed this news, one from marco and one from romney. clearly the end result is rubio would be put into that process. the end result -- >> i would never speculate about what other reporters report. >> fine, but i just did. >> i'm just saying -- >> this vice presidential thing when reporting it was going to be edwards and "the new york post" i think -- the post or "daily news" said it was gephardt. this is a dicey business. the bottom line is that mitt romney has said, at least

suggested, someone ready to be president on day one. it's more likely to be a more experienced figure, governor, senator. >> he's not going to pick marco. >> and -- >> it's just -- he's not. >> never going to discuss who was on the list. >> he's not going to pick marco. >> but -- >> i totally agree with you, joe. i think, however, the immigration issue mentioned earlier is one that is hurting mitt romney. it's hurting him because what obama has done, he's pulled off the perfect parlay here. the danger if you went and did something pro-latino would offend other people. he has a proposal that most think is a good idea and for the first time the latino base may be more energized. i don't think mitt romney wants to be an immigration barber the way he was in the primaries. he has steven king out there saying it's like the pick of the liter here. turned to rubio earlier not to be vice president but to talk about a dream act they could have gotten ahead of the curve. >> and wouldn't have to pick him. >> other headlines quickly, go

through a few of them. mike barnicle, i begin with you the question, headline mubarak rushed to military care after a stroke. do you believe it or do you think he's water skiing in beirut right now? >> i'm going to go with a. >> you believe it? >> yes, i do believe it. >> okay. >> we shall see about that. >> willie geist, i don't have "the wall street journal" headline in front of me, but it appears right now that the sanctions they are cracking down on sanctions. do you have it up there? >> yep. right here. >> for iran as talks fail. this appears to be the last step before an israeli strike. things are getting serious. >> i would defer to andrea mitchell on this in the foreign affairs. they're going after oil expeort on the new sanctions. tehran, andrea, defiant about its enrichment program. >> bottom line is talks in moscow with iran and the western leaders did not go well this

week. iran is stonewalling according to the west. these sanctions were due to go into effect on july 1st and what they're saying is that they're going to go into effect. they are squeezing iran. iran is, you know, really stuck here. and if they want to get these sanctions waved or lifted they're going to have to show some leg and respond to the offer from europe and the united states and pressure. >> sam stein, most importantly, oklahoma city, backs against the wall. >> yeah. >> all of those people in trailers that lebron was talking about last year are going to be disappointed. >> it's just, you know, my hatred for miami has really become a problem for me internally. >> it is. >> i can't contain it. i will go if them credit. lebron played a masterful game. he cramped up at the end and took himself out. >> what kind of cramps did he have? >> leg cramps. easy. >> why? >> legitimate leg cramps. miami is just clearly a very -- a little bit more talented than

oklahoma city. i thought this would go seven. looks like it's probably going to go five. >> to what do you attribute your hatred of miami? >> the way they constructed the team i thought was totally out of step of how it should have been done and their we'll win eight championships and that guarantee. >> you know, sam stein, your hatred for miami hurts you more than miami. >> they don't care about my twitter feed. >> willie geist, i have been in a turkish prison for the past two weeks, don't want to get into the details. it with az rough stretch. i open the newspapers and the new york yankees have won like ten in a row. what's going on? >> they lost last night. >> they finally lost last night. won ten in a row. pitching lights out the big story and starting to hit a little too. they're a half game behind the dodgers for the best record in baseball. this little group is somehow finding a way. >> i have no idea, willie, those kids, you just get the sense watching the yankees play -- >> and no payroll. >> behind the $2,000 a seat

empty seats right behind, you get a sense these kids would play stickball for free out in the streets of the bronx. >> you're darn right. have a bake sale after every game to raise money for uniforms and equipment and it's a wonderful story. >> al and i were at the nates game. we went to the nates game. >> what is this headline, washington's lost without sense. >> the reliever for the devil rays had a little substance on his glove. he happened to pitch for the nationals a year or two ago, so they knew that it was there and they kind of threw him under the bus. >> oh. >> i was on this show about a year and a half ago, i suggested within two or three years the washington nationals would be world series contenders you were very nice, a little bit kind of pat me on the head and say sure. mark my words despite the sweep of the yankees this is the best young team in baseball right now. >> very exciting. >> we got heart. >> you got heart. you also have an average of

4,372 people per day. >> sold out three days in a row. >> barnicle a yankee fan. >> barnicle, do you agree that washington's the best young team in baseball? >> say yes, barnicle. >> i think they are, actually. they have a terrific team, terrific pitching staff, brice harper, terrific manager. they have no fan base. go to the games in washington. >> right here. >> the yankee fans go to the games. red sox fans go to the games in washington. washington fans sit home in arlington, virginia, and flip hamburge hamburgers. go to the ballpark. >> so excited. >> harry reid channelling brice harper. >> thank you for that, mike. coming up presidential candidate ron paul joins us on set and former national security adviser dr. brzezinski will be here and mike allen with the top stories in the politico playbook. here's bill karins with a check on the forecast. >> everyone ready for the heat to arrive and it will this afternoon in areas of the northeast. so far this spring it's been

located in the middle of the country. only a little two or three-day taste of it for the east coast and this is just a fitting end to one of the hottest springs we've ever seen in this country. we'll officially welcome in summer at 7:06 this afternoon. so heat index, 100 to 105, areas in yellow under a heat advisory includes washington, d.c., baltimore, new york, hartford to boston, even providence. philadelphia, you're under an extensive heat warning that could be dangerous the next two days. already in the 70s. this afternoon, how hot will it get? how does 100 feel in hartford, connecticut, this afternoon. we'll be near 100 today from new york to boston to philly to washington, d.c. and it does look like the heat will come to an end in the northern plains today. but chicago, you going to have one more day oftomorrow. so finally an end to your unbelievably hot and dry june. once again we're watching temperatures soaring today. mike barnicle, going to break my weather map. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. with the spark cash card from capital one,

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president obama tapping senator kerry to help him with debate rehearsals. the 2004 democratic presidential nominee will play the role of governor mitt romney in mock debates. >> now that i know john kerry will be debating president obama, i have no choice, but to throw my full support behind john kerry. what's more, john kerry is a war hero. meanwhi meanwhile, obama, avoided the vietnam draft with a letter from his family doctor diagnosing him as medically 8. for shame, sir. >> with us now the chief white

house correspondent for politico, mike allen, here with the morning playbook. first of all, let's go back to the last story, marco rubio, vetted or not? >> not vetted. they're vetting him now, of course. and al is right they should have given him the courtesy vet. but they had not asked him for financial documents, not asked him to fill out a questionnaire as jonathan carl reported. >> this is fascinating. politico reporting today, if things keep going as they are, tim pawlenty is at the front of the bus to be selected vice president. >> he has great karma with the romney headquarters in boston. it goes back, andrea and i were chatting during the break, goes back to the debates, where pawlenty was criticized for not hammering romney, but you point out that now -- >> he's out there for him and he never -- he never was in that primary. he dropped out at the iowa -- >> it wasn't a bad tape, the embarrassment tape of him going

after him. >> during all the debates. portman as you point out, has some baggage from the bush years. and pawlenty has none of that. he's also outside washington. >> here's what boston likes about pawlenty, low maintenance. they've had him doing these surrogate events around the country, different republican state republican conventions. they say they call him -- he doesn't need any body guy, he doesn't need any infrastructure. he just says, send me my plane ticket and he goes and speaks for romney and here's the biggest one and joe, you'll like this, somebody told me they're a yin and yang. pawlenty is great with blue collar voters, hanging around after the speech, to talk to people where romney, obviously, is not strong. a republican consultant was telling me after one event he saw pawlenty out putting a supporter in a headlock. i can't see romney doing that and if so, maybe it would be a little scary. >> al, when you get -- i found

this, when you get to republicans that are comfortable with working-class voters, middle class voters like tim pawlenty, that's dangerous for democrats. i mean he is -- he would be sort of my prototype republican candidate that's conservative, not crazy, can relate to voters. >> talk forever about the sam's club republicans. >> and checks off -- >> doesn't scare moderate voters. >> he checks off a lot of boxes. he's also very popular with the evangelical community. he is a guy who has won in a blue state. a guy who has governed. governing experience. he doesn't scare people. he is, as you say, a sam's club republican. i'm not sure he's going to be terribly exciting in a debate against joe biden and other venues. >> nothing like portman who -- >> exactly. >> but he is a very, very safe choice and both as a candidate and governing.

>> mike barnicle, i like him an awful lot. i think he would be a very good choice, but i'm looking at ohio and i'm not so sure i'm ready to pass over rob portman yet. if you can line up ohio, that's certainly a big sell too. >> here's the ultimate compliment for governor pawlenty. we've seen him campaign in several states, had him on the program several times, he is the gop's version of joe biden. he is absolutely capable of connecting with blue collar voters. he is, as you said, joe, not crazy. he's right there for mitt romney. >> he's low key, real good guy. >> and one other point would be pennsylvania. because contrary to the reports, mine most of the polling the last poll, quinnipiac, was six points up obama over mitt romney in pennsylvania. but if you talk to republicans in the state structure, they've got their own polls, they think it is a lot closer than that. they think it's almost neck and neck. >> i tell you one thing, there are romney people who, you know, weeks ago were saying if you are looking for an upset look to

minnesota. this might make that much more likely. >> and today, we see minnesota the 11th swing state for the first time republican allies are going up with an ad in minnesota concerned women for america. they've seen polling showing it tied. one of the things with pawlenty he helps with christians. boston headquarters know they know that. it's subtle. like he helps with women. he helps with conservatives but doesn't scare women. >> as far as the pennsylvania poll that shows republicans have a chance, it's every four years in the summer. it's always fool's good. >> remember new jersey -- >> they go for new jersey too. >> it's new jersey and pennsylvania. >> why not california. >> new jersey falls off some time in like late august and they start shutting down the republican headquarters halfway through october in pennsylvania every four years. >> remember when they sent cheney to hawaii on the eve of the election. >> don't forget obama lost to hillary in pennsylvania. western pennsylvania is like west virginia. >> it's fool's gold.

>> willie, what do we have next? >> coming up next sports. we talked about it a little bit. lebron james could barely walk in the fourth quarter going down with severe leg cramps but he can still shoot, overcoming a big night by russell westbrook. full highlights next in sports.

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all right. we talked about it briefly a few minutes ago. the highlights. heat and thunder battling into the fourth quarter last night in game four of the nba finals. russell westbrook putting on a show. the thunder led by as many as 17 at one point in the first half but the game tightened. miami up here in the fourth, westbrook with a nice drive. pulls the thunder within one. dwyane wade now here with the heat up four points. a pullup three puts them up seven points. miami. with about 7:30 to play. wade had 25 in the game. westbrook, pullup jumper over bosh. his parents loving it. reeled off 13 straight points for the thunder in the fourth, finished with 43 points on 20 of 32 shooting. score tied now at 90 in the fourth quarter, lebron goes down hard, loses his ball on the way down. derek fisher goes on the break

with a chance to put his team ahead, blocked by wade and we're back running the other way. gives it up, a little cherry picking for lebron, goes glass there. puts miami up two. he left with cramps in his leg. he missed about a min and a half of action with james out, the thunder take advantage, kevin durant a pullup jumper over battier. under five to play. lebron james returns to the game, tied at 94. a cold-blooded three-pointer from lebron james. he had 26 points, missed the triple-double by one rebound. he scored or assisted on over half of the heat's total points. heat still up three with under a minute to play. mario chalmers comes through in a clutch. he had 25. 12 in the fourth quarter. a huge play right here. 17 seconds left, a jump ball. westbrook fouls mario chalmers. why was that a bad play? only five seconds actually left on the shot clock for miami. oklahoma city could have got an

stop and gotten the ball back. instead, they get free throws and they hang on to win, 104-98 one mistake on a great night for best westbrook. heat up three to one in the series and have a chance to win it all tomorrow night game five in miami. >> question, what occurs first, the beginning of the nfl preseason or the end of the -- >> you won't get off this? what do you have against the nba? >> it's time for them to go home. >> lebron james, dwyane wade, kevin durant and russell westbrook on one court. >> it's 100 degrees out. go home. >> it's great. what it's about. to baseball, yankees looking for the 11th straight win. we told you what happened. tied at three in the sixth. runners on the corner, jason hayward lines up with off the foot of mark teixeira. the braves go up a win. bottom of the ninth, a-rod has a chance to tie it. down 4-3. he pops out. braves win 4-3. yankees streak over at 10. they lead the al east by 2 1/2 games over baltimore. little controversy in d.c.

sam stein touched on it. nates hosting the rays. nates require umpires check the glove of joel peralta for foreign substances. a great term. peralta played for the nates in 2010 and they had a little insider information about his pitching habits. umpires did find pine tar in peralta's game. ejected from the game. on his way off the field, he tips his cap to davey johnson. well played, well played former manager. top of the next inning a little gamesmanship the rays ask the ump to look at nat's pitcher ryan matthhews hat and glove. nothing there. >> joe maddon gives a tip back. up next mika's must-read opinion pages, al hunt, andrea mitchell, and sam stein in washington. this message. back from the worst economic depression. almost 4.3 million new jobs we're still not creating them president's jobs plan firefighters, police officers, work. right now. wealthiest americans congress refuses to act. tell congress we can't wait.

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welcome back to "morning joe." live look at washington, d.c., we're here at the nbc news washington bureau. andrea, mitchell, al hunt and sam stein with us. who's in new york, barnicle? >> barnicle in new york. >> and willie. >> getting grumpy about the nba, fighting willie. >> time for the must-read opinion pages. we'll start with ruth marcus in "the washington post" stirring the constitutional pot. in the age of eight figure checks to super pacs it's time for a constitutional amendment that could end this dangerous farce. the notion of fiddling with the first amendment should make anyone nervous, especially anyone who has spent a career benefiting from it. then again, so should sheldon adelson's $10 million to mitt romney's super pac. a system that lets one individual pump so much money into supporting a favored candidate, threatens to

substitute oligarchy for democracy. i can't bring myself to support a constitutional amendment. that enterprise would detract from more practical efforts to tighten rules, stricter limits on coordination between candidates and super pacs, for example, even under existing interpretations and at bottom the fault with the current arrangement lies not in the first amendment but in the supreme court's interpretation thereof. the system is toxic, completely toxic at this point and skewed and unfair. >> bob kerrey four years ago said democrats are the biggest hypocrites in the world while remaining silent while barack obama would have 200 negative ads in virginia to every one of john mccain. for some reason campaign finance reform was no issue four years ago when barack obama became the first presidential candidate to forgo matching funds and literally ran more negative adding than any -- but so now, the shoe is on the other foot and now this is the shocking

thing. it is -- listen, it is frightening, but it was frightening that four years ago barack obama spent more money on tv ads than george bush and john kerry four years before combined. >> and the first presidential candidate to turn down federal funds in the general election. >> this trend keeps getting worse. >> it is awful. >> it is awful right now and what happens is you have a billboard race for funding. if you're in columbus, ohio, bring the cats and dogs in because all you're going to do is get back-to-back-to-back-to-back sleazy commercials. >> one of the side effects of this, a lot of the time that a candidate could be spending going out on the trail talking to people is actually spent in the back of a, you know, office making phone calls to donors. and you know, i think mitt romney spoke about this, how it's become such a drag for politicians now to have to basically spend 50% or more of your time -- >> they only have to make three or four calls with the sheldon adelson. >> and that's the other thing i want to mention. obama deserves to be criticized for, you know, going back on his

word, which is he was a supporter of public financing and didn't do it. the supreme court citizens united decision has opened up a new set of rules that are -- they're a set of rules -- >> which democrats are against right now and next two to three years they'll figure out how master it. >> who has the most friends who are billionaires. that's not a good way to do it. >> members of congress are scared by this guy in texas who has a smallish super pac and he is simply funding campaigns against democrats and republicans. he's anti-incumbent. already defeated sylvester reyes in texas. defeated two democrats, three republicans and members of congress are all running scared about him. >> what's the solution? do you have congress come together and put a bill that can pass a constitutional sniff test that gets -- >> joe, i don't think that's going to happen. i think two things, first there ought to be disclosure. >> right. >> mitch mcconnell used to argue for disclosure.

so everything ought to be disclosed. secondly, only a change when there's a scandal and it's guaranteed there will be a scandal. any time you have huge amounts of money, looking at the watergate 40 years ago, in part driven by an abundance of money. >> look what mccain said about foreign money. sheldon adelson's money a large part comes from mckau. how do you know what he's contributing but how do you know where it's coming from? >> so, i guess the question is, what can be done right now and -- >> disclosure. >> disclosure. >> this wouldn't affect the super pacs but affects those 501 c 4 organizations like karl rove's group and others on the progressive side of the aisles. that's one thing. to suggest that would stop the flow of money is silly because super pac donors already have to disclose their names. >> in real time -- >> real time dislow sure is a

different thing. in terms of limiting the contributions that's not going to happen any time soon. >> as one guy slogged over to the nrc to make phone calls, it is a due humanizing process. fortunately i was in a safe district so i didn't have to do it that much. i saw guys and women that would spend all their time dialing for dollars and my belief always was, and i know this will offend a lot of people, that you get rid of all limits, you have immediate disclosure, let anybody give what they want to give, but it's not through these phony third-party super pacs because i think really the -- the worst part of fund-raising is, that when you have to call and raise by, you know, $2,000 here, $2,000 there, that means you have to go to goldman sachs, if you want to be president you have to go to jpmorgan chase, you have to go to wall street, that means you have to go to big oil, every corporate interest in america. >> can i ask you about that?

>> if you can make enough money to be president. >> you've dialed for dollars. >> right. >> you've had to. how does that not skew your convictions? how -- does it challenge it? >> didn't challenge mine but it didn't challenge mine because -- well because i'm a wonderful -- >> how many times did people push you -- >> i'm a wonderful human being. >> you can say that. >> i'm not a perfect case study because i won by 80% when i ran. >> yeah. but there's no doubt about it, that if somebody is in a 51/49 district, and he or she knows they have to make a vote on an issue and it's a difference between them raising $50,000 at a fund-raiser and $10,000 at a fund-raiser, and they have -- an ad buy coming up two weeks from now, you tell me how it's going to end. >> exactly. it's fascinating. >> fortunately, i -- i would raise my money -- >> terrible. >> and then i would go to the dog track and i would bet. >> right. >> very good with the dogs, al.

>> al -- >> very quickly, what do you think about -- i know it's counterintuitive and goes against this, let's have $300 limits, but i find the smaller the limits, the more shell games. i see politicians moving and suddenly hunting dogs are giving $327 and you know. >> having celebrity fund-raisers. look, i still go back to the fact when ronald reagan won in 1980 with the system of basically federal matching money, you know something, no one in 1981 said he was paying off contributors, no one. he was just as conservative as he would have been if he had big money. something about faith in the system. i think the old system worked pretty pel. the democrats were the first one, dukakis in 1988 that began to set off these -- >> can we go back? >> i don't think we can politically. we should -- >> dollar figures are too big to go back now. >> al hunt, thank you so much. >> thank you, al. >> we love having you. >> coming up in a few minutes, presidential candidate ron paul

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we want to thank andrea >> we have david brody to talk about the new book about the

evangelical movement and tea party movement and tom goldstein about the supreme court decisions and the regular gang and tonight congressional women's softball team against the congressional reporters. it's the young women survors league for breast cancer. be there. it's on capitol hill. it's a great ball game. >> it's goingo be hot, but it's going to be fun. >> i'll be doing the play by play with kearsen. >> she's pitching. >> shauna tom, nbc, fantastic hitter. >> luke russert is one of th reffies. >> good lord. that's a problem. have fun, good luck. presidtial candidate ron paul next on "morning joe." good morning. how are you? nice to see you. ♪

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welcome back to "morning joe." sam stein is still with us with mike barnicle in new york and joining us here on set in washington, we have republican congressman from texas, and republican presidential candidate, representative ron paul. and we have the host of msnbc's "now with alex wagner," alex wagner. very good to have you with us. my goodness. first of all, congressman paul, are you still campaigning or what are we doing? >> always campaigning. >> you're always campaigning. >> campaigning for 30-some

years. 34 years. >> what else would you do? >> i would not know what to do if i couldn't campaign for my favorite subject and that is, personal liberty. >> yes. >> that is my goal. >> that's fair. let's look at the state of the campaign. i want to ask you about mitt romney. you're not ready to endorse him obviously. >> no. >> okay. can i ask you a question about him? >> i would think that's what i'm here for. >> has mitt romney shown himself to be someone who has clear convictions on the key issues that are important to the republican party? >> am i -- you're asking me whether he does? >> yes. and whether he's shown himself to be someone who has clear convictions. >> the republican party, the last several decades i would say he has core convictions but i just disagree with them. the core convictions aren't what i think we sometimes pretend we believe in and what we have believed in in the past, so, therefore, those core convictions are something that i would like to change. i would like to change those convictions of the republican party because there were times

when they had much better positions and no reason why we can't restore those and improve upon them. >> the republican party has lost its way, would you agree with, for example, what jeb bush said recently in critiquing your party? >> well, i think it has lost its way. i think a long time ago. i can't see the difference -- foreign policy, we get obama, we get george bush, what significant change are they? they're both very mill taristic interventionist pro war. when it comes to the fed, do they really want to challenge the fed and printing money and financing debt? no. do the republicans really stop welfare expansion, no. do they really cut back and balance the budget? no. they usually introduce bigger budgets, you know, generally over the years, whether it was regan or bush. they spent a lot of money. so i would say the people have been misled into thinking that there's a big contest going on out there. i don't -- i think that

personality wise and power struggle, there are real contests going on. when it comes to the philosophy of government, there's not enough difference for me. >> sam stein? >> so the conventional wisdom is that rick santorum won the iowa caucus and we find out this past week that your campaign actually gets 23 of the state's 28 delegates to the convention. and you've scored similar wins like that in nevada, la louisiana, maine, other states. what's the end game here? >> unfortunately, we don't have quite enough, you know, to take over the convention. >> that was the ultimate goal. what's the new goal? >> i think -- and under the rules they're going to restrain us because as of now, i'm not sure whether i will have a public presence. but we will have a presence. the organization because even those many, many who have been nominated and elected as delegates and will be obligated to vote for romney are really

supporters. that means the atmosphere, the -- what's going on, be platform fights and the excitement, will be with our group. >> have you asked or have you been asked by mitt romney to have a speaking portion of the convention? >> no, i have not asked specifically and he hasn't invited me to. we -- under the rule, if we would have had five clear-cut wins they would have been obligated to allow my name be nominated and a speech which would be my speech in a 15-minute speech. that right now, because of the questionable way of who gets seated and sometimes these delegations would win them and, you know, in nevada, it's controversial. >> one last question. how are you hoping to influence the party platform? what specifically do you want in the language that would may cate your hoards of followers? >> definitely, following the

constitution whether on declaration of war, monetary policy, whether it has to do with doing things that are not unauthorized like the welfare state. we want to challenge the whole thing. >> alex wagner. >> dr. paul, i want to go back to something mika said. you're often seen as an outliar for the republican party. do you think the tent is big enough and if mitt romney loses in november, what do you think the repercussions are for the gop? >> i always think that no matter what comes of it, there should be a positive outcome for it. so -- >> do you think there will be? >> i know the word outlire is a common term and i'm not criticizing you, but really the problem is, the republican party has become the outliar for the cause of liberty and what they pretend. i want to work on the platform. we know platforms don't change people's attitudes. that's what we want to do is get attention to change the attitude so we who are perceived as

outliers become the insiders. that's what people aren't quite aware of because we're winning state delegations, state chairmen and small offices anywhere from city councils to county commissioners. that's what's happening. all you have to do, the subject hasn't come up yet, look at the next generation. i mean, there is so much excitement out there. and although we have the greatest influence on young people, this movement which is -- they think that's all, no. we have a lot of people who are joining who aren't under 30, but the big deal is, is that the next generation are sick and tired of what they're getting and they're looking for something and what we're offering seems to have great appeal to the young people because they know they're getting a bad deal. they're getting bankruptcy. they're getting war. they're getting just all the problems dumped on them. >> dr. paul, i'm going to throw a couple things out there.

alex, you take a question. i'm going to end on reading you a part of joe's piece from politico. i understand your campaign plans to hold its own event prior to the convention, so the question is, are you helping or hurting the party by separating yourself so close to the convention? but also, here's what joe writes, and it plays into the issue of conviction in the leaders in the republican party and his worry about not only the republican presidential field that went through the primary process, but those who didn't join in to try to run for president. he voted for you. why i voted for ron paul. himself from romds reagan, ron paul was fighting with republicans to balance the budget for the if irs time in a generation. while santorum was supporting an unprecedent expansion of entitlement spending paul was warning of a great recession caused by government interference in the housing market and while gingrich was talking about how he would build up the federal government to

push his conservative agenda, congressman paul spent all his waking hours focused on dismembering that big government beast. we can't think of anyone who ran in the republican field or even in the senate and in congress who has really, really strict convictions that they stood by. maybe one or two people, alex. >> no. i mean i think widely the slogan widely acknowledges consistency thy name is paul. and i mean that consistency is why -- i've been to -- on the campaign trails, to your rallies, seen those crowds where it's, you know, it's folks in their 70s, folks in their 80s, young. >> young people too. >> and a lot of ka nacanadians. that's what i found. >> the message liberty is universal. we get a lot of messages from almost every country in the world. >> but here. >> standard bearer for the party is someone who has been attacked roundly for having no consistency in any of his platform positions. when you look at the republican party it's not just democrats

who say this, there is a certain sense it is in crisis and i guess the question is, you know, depending on what happens in the fall and november, is there going to be time where the republican party spends some time on the psychiatrist couch and thinks okay, we need to sort of circle the wagons and figure out what we really believe in? >> well, our goal, if we're not going to be the nominee, if i'm not going to be the nominee, the goal is, is to show that there's a political benefit toward accepting some of the views that we have or all the views that we have, that there's a benefit. most people aren't driven by philosophy in government, believe it or not. they are not. that is not their goal. their goal is to be in office. and -- but there needs to be an attempt to get people to believe in something. and -- because that's what the people want. sometimes they need it more than others. right now, in the last five years, why there's been so much -- such a great growth in our philosophy, is of the need. wars are endless. people are tired of them. the money is -- there's -- the

debt is there. the crisis had come. so therefore, the door is wide open. i believe and we're actually doing a favor for the republican party, if they would look to us for guidance, and to realize that if they would accept some of these things, they might have an easier time winning rather than saying capitulate, conform, don't even have a discussion. why should there not be a discussion at a convention? you and i, everybody pays for this. $18 million. to pay for this. you not have a discussion. the democrats don't even have a contest. $18 million just for this pr stunt. >> lot of videos. >> all i want to do, if i don't get a speech on the floor in the convention, all i want to do is have a meeting and say look, we have numbers, we have people, we have enthusiasm, we believe in something. why don't you pay a little attention and actually i think they are. they don't know quite how to handle it. they're not ready to say oh, yeah, i guess it's time we get out of afghanistan.

they're not ready for that. but this is what the people want. >> mike barnicle in new york, has a question for you, congressman paul. >> a few moments ago i heard you talk about there is a next generation out there, another generation, grown tired of carrying the burden built up by past generations. you mentioned exploding budgets, foreign wars and things like that. and i've heard you speak several times and in your condemnation of the welfare state it would seem to me that you are headed in the direction of eliminating programs like social security, medicare, and medicaid. am i wrong on that? >> well, sort of. because there's -- it's a time sequence. as adamant as i am about the purity of a philosophy, i'm also very pragmatic -- i want to get rid of the fed but don't want to get rid of the fed tomorrow. what i want to do is have competition with the fed and let the fed self-destruct. when it comes to welfare, as a matter of fact, i probably am the best protector of social security and some of these programs for child health care

and elderly health care because we can't afford it. we're going bust and it's all going to collapse and you have obama care, it's totally destructive to the medical care system. i'm saying, save -- i want to cut a trillion dollars out of the budget but a lot comes from overseas funding and war and i say, this is the only way we can preserve some of these programs and work our way out of it. i want young people to opt out of social security but my goal isn't to cut. i think this is where the republicans make a mistake. they're seen as cutting food stamps and increasing the military budget. i think that's bad politics and so in my more pragmatic stance on how we get to the place where i want to go, actually i'm offering a program where some of the programs we have taught people to be so dependent on i would preserve them longer than others because we're going to lose them because of the bankruptcy that is coming. >> okay. and now i've seen the composition of many of your allies and there are many, many, many young people who attend your rallies. do you speaking to this next

generation you spoke of, do you feel any obligation to talk to them, perhaps instruct them, about the fact that there has always been a social contract among americans from one generation to another, to help those who need help the snost most? >> yeah, but not through government. the best way you can help people is have freedom and free market incentives, production, sound money. so my goal and my program is the most humanitarian. you're insinuating there is a socialism type or welfarism that is promised one generation to the next. that's not in the constitution. that's a 20th century concoction of welfare transfer through force of government. but if you care about people, you have to endorse sound money personal liberty, incentives to get ahead, peace and trade. these are the things that will take care of people. and we have accepted this social contract you talk about for the last 100 years and look at where

we are. look at what's happening in the last 20 years, the year since the year 2000. what happened in the last five years. it's downhill. so what do we get? education for kids. they're graduating have more debt, no education and no jobs. that's what your social contract is getting you. >> a bit of a personal question, are you on social security? do you get social security checks? >> i do. >> well, i mean, is there -- you just told younger generations to ween off this social contract. >> that is true. >> but you haven't done it yourself. >> social security like i said i would preserve the social security the best i can, but we want to get off. but this is one program we were supposed to be paying into an insurance program. >> i understand that. don't you think you should have set a good example for the future generations. you're not the wealthiest man in congress, i know that, but you have enough means to take care of yourself in retirement. >> do you know -- >> not to be sank mow nous about it. >> you're not being sankty moans you.

>> couldn't you have set an example? >> no. i think the programs are so designed just as i use the post office, i use government highways, i use the banks, the federal reserve system. >> yeah. >> but that doesn't mean that you can't work to remove this in the same way on social security i am trying to make a transition. if i were 20 years old and offered a chance i would jump at it and young people jump at it because they know that this is not solvent. so i personally don't see any consistency in that. >> okay. >> because we were supposed to have money there and we had this, you know, contract. this is not like signing up for food stamps. this is signing up to get -- i still pay social security. i pay more into it than i get out. >> oh that doesn't make sense but there you go. congressman paul, that's all we have time for. thank you so much. sam, thank you, mr. sanctimonious. >> sorry. >> that's fine. alex wagner stay with us. how strife in the eurozone is

spilling over to the euro cup. roger bennett is here to explain how it's become a mood ring for europe's economic and social unrest. is that a stretch? not sure about that. up next, dad, dr. zbigniew brzezinski joins us in the studio. bill karins with a check on the forecast. >> good morning to you, mika. everyone getting ready for a hot day around the country from the desert southwest and the middle midwest to the northeast. it's the northeast that's really the intention today, first heat of the summer. heat advisories and heat warnings including philadelphia. the bottom line is two days in a row of a heat index that will feel like 100 to 105 during the afternoon. here's the forecast high temperatures today. remember these are taken in the shade so in the sun on the pavement it will be worse than this. 100 possible today in connecticut. temperatures in the upper 90s from d.c. all the way up to boston. i think thursday is going to be probably the hottest day in the big city. we could possibly hit 100 in central park new york, also in d.c. cooler air will be on the way

for friday along with showers and thunderstorms. that will be the last day of the heat wave with temperatures in the 90s. forecast for the rest of the country, one more day of very hot weather in the ohio valley, to chicago, and then thunderstorms and rain will cool you off for your thursday. not bad in the southeast. typical summer weather for you. and on the west coast, we're very dry which isn't good, fire is bad enough. sun is out. new york city, get ready, head to the upper 90s today. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. ttd#: 1-800-345-2550

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- one serving of cheese is the size of four dice. one serving of cereal, a baseball. and one serving of fruit, a tennis ball. - you know, both parties agree. our kids can be healthier... the more you know. we had a very candid conversation. i wouldn't suggest that at this point the united states and the rest of the international community are aligned with russia and china in their positions but i do think they

recognize the grave dangers of all-out civil war. i do not think they condone the massacres that we've witnessed. >> welcome back to "morning joe." joining us here on set, former national security adviser for president carter dr. zbigniew brzezinski the author of "strategic vision, america and the crisis of global power." last time you were on, dad, we talked about syria. that was fun. >> that was very interesting. >> things have become more interesting. it seems that the unstable state of global affairs just continues to spin. spin off. we could talk about what's happening in greece, also obviously what's happening in syria, in u.s./russian relations, u.s./chinese relations and front page of the "wall street journal" sanctions for iran as talks stall and the journal suggests this may be the

last step before the israelis launch attacks. certainly these are momentous times, are they not? >> they're momentous times. they're grim times. they stand in some ways in a strangely not really assuring contrast with the previous century. the previous century was a struggle for global domination between major powers. so people were in alliances, everything was clearclut. we're in global turmoil, messy and no one can dominate. we have to draw lessons from that. the lessons i draw is we have to be very, very careful, we the united states, not to become isolated, not to become isolated in the use of force, try to build coalitions, try to deal with problems with some degree of patience, and not on the basis of unilateralism. so, you mention iran. i think we ought to maintain the sanctions. make them tough. and we ought to keep negotiating at the same time.

we ought to recognize that an outcome by negotiations cannot be one-sided capitulation. iran has the right to have the same status as other signatories of the nonproliferation treaty. >> while these negotiations are going on with iran, though, what are you instructing the president, if you were the president's national security adviser, to be saying to the israelis and how firm a stance are you advising the president? >> i would be be very clear with the israelis they should not undertake any unilateral action or attack because that will rebound against us. make it absolutely clear that this is not acceptable. but at the same time, i think we can tell them and we should say publicly to the world, that while the sanctions are enforced, and subject to the absence of an agreement by the iranians to a reasonable outcome, we will be prepared -- we, in fact, will give guarantees to all of the states in the middle east and particularly to israel, that any

threat against any of those states by iran, will be viewed as a threat against the united states. and that would be what we did for the europeans, what we have done for the japanese and koreans, it has worked. on that point at least i'm not against use of force as an eventuality, but not just with israel. can get the europeans and russians and chinese to approve it so as international sanction, international support, it makes sense. if we just get into it alone, we'll be in a mess in the middle east. the russians will be rubbing their hands because the price of oil will jump to $200. >> right. >> and the european economy will go bust. >> let's move from one of the players of that historic peace agreement that you brokered in '79, israel, to another. egypt. tell americans who saw the protests a year ago in egypt, that saw mubarak pushed to the side, saw the flowering

supposedly the arab spring, tell americans what they're looking at right now? >> well, maybe i would start by reminding you and myself what i said here to you. i said at the time, arab spring, but i fear it will become arab winter. that is to say, mass media understandable and correct enthusiasm for the people where so to speak connecting populism with democracy, not every populist revolution is a democratic revolution. for it to be a democratic revolution you have to have enlightened democratic leadership and some sense traditional sense of constitutionalism. what we're dealing with in egypt is a populist revolution against dictatorship, against corruption and so forth, but it's also a great deal of religious fervor. it is not automatically democratic. >> is this not, though, the military coming back? is the military usual will i

does in this situation and forcing its hand? >> if it does, in the short run, it may actually look pretty good to some people instead of allegedly the extremist islamist. but we have to face two things. one, the islamists are the overwhelming majority in egypt but egyptians are not radical, not extremists yet, at least. the military may be in charge, but who are the military? the field marshall in charge is 75 years old. so are the other generals. the military eventually will be taken over by some younger lieutenant colonel. is that going to be good for us? >> dr. brzezinski, i want to talk ability russia and china, vis-a-vis the u.s., a lot of speculation yesterday about the president's meeting with vladimir putin who has been re-elected. he had a better sparring partner in dimitri medvedev. given that russia and china often work in concert to block

conflicts, how do you think the u.s. and president can best position himself to work with putin on these issues given the intransigence we've seen thus far? >> issue by issue. incidentally also, the chinese/russian relationship isn't that close. it's essentially a tactical relationship. the chinese find it useful to have an association with the russians in dealing with us. the same is true of the russians. but neither one trusts the other. and the russians particularly fear china in the long run. we have to be prepared, however, on some issues like syria, to face the reality that if we go into military action, as some have been urging even on this program, we're going to be alone. in a region which can explode. a war in syria can explode iraq at the same time and so forth. so we have to wait until we can get others to join us. the russians have a point. they have a point. it's really not up to us to dictate who is in charge of different countries.

we had massive violence in sudan, we didn't dictate who the president ought to be. we had horrible war in sri la a lanka. we didn't dictate who the leader should be. i think the russians have a point. we cannot say sadr has to quit. i would advocate elections in syria with assad being permitted to run. >> mike barnicle has a question for you, dad. >> doctor, you mentioned the russians fear china. is their fear economic, military, is it both and what's the basis for this fear as you describe it? >> the basis for the fear is the dramatic contrast between china's success and russia's stagnation. china is irrespective of internal difficulties, really remarkable case of rapid modernization, rapid

development. russia is not doing that, and far east of russia, which is so promising in its resources, is being depopulated, people are leaving it, in an area bigger than all of china, there are now only about 35 million russians living in it. that's why the russians are so fearful. >> sam stein. >> to jump back to your point about how we don't always determine who should lead which country embroiled in violence. there's a counter veiling point we have somewhat of a moral obligation to get involved when we know violence is going to happen and that sort of was accentuated by what happened in rwanda in the '90s. how do you make it so that a, you can more easily get everybody on board and so those institutions can move at a pace which matches the speed of which these episodes are happening. 14,000 already dead in syria. >> sure. that's terrible. >> sure. >> not as much as in sudan or

rwanda or even mexico. >> i'm not just saying syria. how can you get international -- >> that's the problem. that requires patience and time. i think the russians had a point in saying who are we to dictate whether assad steps down or doesn't. we can get the russians to join us in a united international supported effort to tell the syrians you've got to have elections that are internationally supervised. >> isn't that what obama tried to do at the g-20. >> let me finish. >> and assad is allowed to run. we say, a assad has to get out. we're not prepared to do it because we can't. how are we going to do it? i have said before, if the saudis and the turks are prepared to two in to syria, seriously, we should back them even though i'm reluctant about that solution. they're not. they're waiting for us to do it. how are we going to do it? do we want another war in the middle east with everything so volatile. >> probably not. >> we should be trying to get

the international community to join us in saying to assad and get the russians to join us, free elections, assad is allowed to run, but is there an opposition candidate? let's find him and he can run against him. tell me, who is the likely alternative as a leader in syria? we have decided assad has to get out. do we have candidate? we don't. we're just talking. i don't like the president announcing -- he must quit. he's done this before. we have to have an alternative. look jordan and saudi arabia are not as stable as our press assumes. because we're sort of assuming everything is stable until it becomes unstable. they aren't. we're dealing here with a powder keg in the middle east. and it's the interrelationship between iran, iraq, syria, jordan. >> yeah. >> saudi arabia, egypt. boy, this is a potential mess. >> truly uplifting. >> it is grim as you said. so just let's look at this more globally and not just looking at

syria or looking at what we do with gadhafi several months ago. but, what's your construct, your analytical construct n determining when the united states says, the actions are so heinous, they demand action? we certainly made that calculation, the president, president clinton did during bosnia, again during kosovo? >> two criteria. >> okay. >> one, if we're endangered, that is to say our vital interests are and assault -- >> united states' vital interest. >> let me say that's two. the second one is, a sense of clarity regarding what we want to do and what we have the capacity to do. we could do it in the heart of europe. we have allies, we have friends. this is not the situation either in egypt or in iran. >> right. >> and if we're going to go with

iran i would like the russians and others at least to endorse it and support it and not to sit on the side and benefit from the consequences for which we have to pay. we have to be clear about it. including to those who are our friends and particularly the israelis. i think it's also not in the interest of israel for the middle east to blow up, for us to suffer and to be pushed out of the region. what then is the future of israel in that setting? >> all right. >> dr. zbigniew brzezinski, thanks dad. appreciate it. always such an uplifting time. >> these are -- these are happy times. >> it's tough. >> it ain't 1989. >> you know, we didn't even bring up greece. >> yeah. >> italy. >> maybe just as well. >> just as well. >> all right. dad, thanks very much. his book again "strategic vision." still ahead, a big anniversary for women in sports. we'll explain that next on "morning joe." uncover stronger, younger looking skin.

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it's been 40 years since title 9 changed women's equality in america forever and today the white house hosts a series of panels with women who have made

major strides in sports and education. tennis great billie jean king, astronaut may jemison and others will join senior adviser valerie jarrett and education secretary arne duncan. title 9 began as part of the equal rights amendment and passed in 1972 helping level the playing field for women in high school and college sports. a big day at the white house today. a big anniversary this weekend. coming up, crossing the line. roger bennett is here -- >> amazing. >> to convince us how this shot was not a goal. huh-uh. the euro cup heats up next on "morning joe." [ male announcer ] this is the at&t network.

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the soccer show at 9:00 a.m. on serious radio. the fifa goal line gods give and take. the english team was screwed two years ago during the world cup on a stevie g. goal i believe it was. >> frank -- >> yeah lampert. but the gods give back yesterday and england gets through when they should be going home. >> yes, they did. you're talking about the euros, one tournament in the world we can get mad at the usa for not winning. this is the continental tournament of europe. 15 of the best teams there and england. traditionally a hot mess. here they're looking great. here they're playing against the co-host ukraine, a team that runs on passion and borish. >> let me back you up there. wayne rooney's hair, spectacular. >> when you are paid $47,000 for a hair transplant, joe, you expect to get better hair than that. >> seriously. plugs just keep looking better.

>> about to give england the lead. the ukraine anthem, ukraine has not yet perished and they showed why. >> goal! >> should have been a goal. >> no. >> english's favorite, john theory to the rescue. uafa have a man behind the goal whose job is to decide if the ball has crossed the line. it's why americans, joe, when see this say espn, why do you put this sport on, why don't you put bass masters on, a hunting show on. england survived. this man, 64, he doesn't always know where he is, doesn't know what his name is but he's britain's latest sex symbol. >> you know, seriously, uncle roy, we always -- we always used to joke he would stand in front of the mirror going, who's the governor? who's the governor? >> what's my name? >> friends in sweden -- >> he has done so much better than fab beyo. >> he has done.

and i think the -- the call of england -- >> doesn't have to touch the ground. >> yeah. just needs to cross the line. it crossed the line, it was a goal. never them mind. so france, yesterday, finally lost but they still made it through, right? >> they did, indeed. they're in england's group and two teams are vying to see who plays spain in the next round. spain were the euro champions that then won the world cup. france will play them in the next round. england will play italy. you like this goal, didn't you, joe? >> oh, i did. how good is this france team? i mean two years ago, they were shamed out of the world cup, but looking pretty good. >> they're the dark horse. the form hasn't clicked. they've not found their best starting 11. they will play spain in the next round. the story in the tournament is whether the spain team who play their gorgeous passing game, where they cut all opponents to death, whether their mediocre form, what they've shown so far, is better than everybody else's

best. >> also another story, the dutch, once again, supreme head cases. i can't even believe they're out of the tournament. let's talk about some of the matches that are coming up, roger. >> absolutely. >> you talk about a classic, the bankers versus the bailout bombs. i mean this is -- could you have set up a better match than germany and greece? >> indeed they call it angela merkel's darby. she's flying in for the game. greeks have offered to put all the money they owe germany on the line, double or quit. the headline of the greek paper is the germans want us out of the euro and out of the european championship, they'll get us out of neither. the financial underplots of this tournament are absolutely fascinating. as are the geopolitical ones. it's shown on the pitch that football has been absolutely unbelievable. off it, the story lines have been -- i mean have shown a very interesting way to look at the social, the historical, political realities of eastern

europe. ukraine and poland hosting today. a huge amount mostly from ukraine, huge amount of crowd violence. everything from tick born infill lie tis. it's been a hot mess. i'm leaving tonight, paying $800 a night to stay in a hotel, one star on trip adviser. even eli roth wouldn't shoot at. it's going to be interesting. >> what's going to be the best quarterfinal game? which one are you looking forward to? >> on sunday night. i mean i'm an englishman full of self-loathing we line up against italy. when england beat -- when england beat ukraine yesterday, nation poured hot tea down the front of its pants. can't wait. >> england/italy, be there. roger, stick around. >> going to be our year. >> the banana king, contributing editor at "vanity fair" and

"rolling stone" magazine rich cohen will be here to talk about the mogul who helped take down entire governments. all in the name of his banana empire. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. with the spark cash card from capital one,

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♪ welcome back to "morning joe." joining us up here in new york city, contributing editor at "vanity fair" and "rolling stone" magazine, rich cohen author of the book "the fish that ate the whale: the life and times of america's banana king." good to see you. >> good to see you. >> set the stage for us. who was samuel zimeri, draw it up for us? >> samuel came to the united states alone when he was 14 in the 1890s and basically a big giant russian who moved to selma, alabama and fell in love with a banana and decided to sell his own bananas. and discovered in the banana business, they were throwing out the bananas that were yellow because they couldn't get them to the market and he bought garbage and sold overripe bananases in the 1890s and eventually went on -- went down

to honduras, set up his own government in honduras, went to war with united fruit, took over united fruit and in 1954 was involved in the overthrow of the government of guatemala, the fish that ate the whale. and just this unbelievable story of the entire sort of century collapsed into one life. sam the banana man. >> how does sam the banana man a guy who comes to selma, alabama from russia become a close confidante of fdr? >> everybody that met him was hugely impressed with him. he was a guy that cut the gordian knot. and there was a story where he was battling with united fruit, one piece of land two people legally owned. and united fruit hired these investigators. united fruit was the big evil american company. like halliburton of its day, and united fruit hired these investigators to figure out who owned this land and he just went and bought it from both people. and that was something about him

recognized by fdr. his great enemy was huey long, and huey long was going to run against fdr as a third party. so it was like enemy of my enemy kind of thing. so he became very important in government, and the people around him -- what's amazing about zamuri, everybody connects to him. so he starts with his ripe ba an as, and you wind up with fidel castro in cuba. tommy the cork corcoran. bob la-follet, all connected to zamuri and jerry wine traub has this thing, says there's always a guy. and sam zamuri was the guy or the guy behind the guy behind the guy. and my father who wrote this book when i was a kid called "you can negotiate anything" i felt like zamuri was his idea in action. power is based on perception. if you think you got it, you got

it, be even if you don't got it. and that was it, he was a guy with literally zero. and it would be the equivalent of a guy pumping gas at the exxonmobil station, 25 years later he owns exxonmobil. that's basically what the guy did. >> you know what is amazing to this story, about samuel zamuri, the sub plot of the story, and it is the ublted fruit company. this one company, with its tentacles in el salvador, nicaragua, a huge called ron of unrest. >> right. >> and also involves the kennedy assassination. >> right. >> it's an incredible story. >> lee harvey oswald worked for united fruit, fidel castro's father worked for united fruit. sam zamuri went to the hotel monteleon went to the bar, hired a bunch of cowboys, got an old

war ship went to honduras and overthrew the government and put his own government in charge. and the first thing his own government did pass a law that says sam does not pay tax for 25 years. and guatemala, 75% of the private land owned by united fruit. at that point, he ran united fruit, and the government started taking away united fruit's land, and they took away -- they changed the government of guatemala and i always thought of zemurri as a guy like a poker player and bluffed all night and won and he's like the guy who wins all night and loses in the morning. if you ever saw "the hustler," that's what happens, you lose in the morning. in cuba, they gave the ships and the guns, but that was the bridge too far. >> real quick, roger. >> you've written a book which is a great coming to america tale, a great new orleans story, but it's all about bananas, great fact you gave me, banana, not a fruit? >> a banana ais a berry, and a

banana plant is not a tree. and that banana does not exist anymore. it went extinction in the 1960s. this answered two big questions for me. one was, i have little kids, i read them "curious george." why is curious george smiling so much? apparently the big mike was more delicious. and second, it was a much more slip repe slippery peel. i've often stepped on a ban an appeal and remained standing. >> always. this is proof america is the land of opportunity. it's an incredible story. "the fish that ate the whale: the life and times of america's banana king." rich cohen, thank you very much. >> thank you. ahead, is america in the age of decline? the editors at "gq" say not so fast. a long list of things america does better than anybody else. next on "morning joe." [ banker ] mike and brenda found a house that they really wanted.

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♪ where you can send your kid to a decent school, knowing if they do well they have a chance to go to college. and if they have that chance, knowing you have a chance to get them there. that's what being a middle class person is! that's not asking too much! that's who we are! that's what we believe! that's what you're about! that's what you built!

i just described you! you're the ones who make that possible. we owe you. you shouldn't be vilified. you provide the safe neighborhoods. you provide the good schools. you provide the school lunch program. you provide the daycare centers. you provide the hospitals. you provide the roads. you provide the ability of people to live a decent middle class life! >> good morning, it's 8:00 a.m. on the east coast. 5:00 a.m. on the west coast. as you take a live look at the nation's capitol. back with us on-set, here in washington, andrea mitchell. al hunt. sam stein and in new york, billy barnicle and willie geist. >> there's a reason we declared in our bylaws when we started this show this was a no-attack joe zone. the guy is beautiful. like a rainbow, as cyndi lauper sang. >> he is actually very refreshing compared to the rest

of the campaign, two mild-man r mild-mannered guys, the governor of the united states, and low-key, even-keel, same pitch, no matter what they're talking about. >> not joe. he's on fire! >> the guy is on fire. absolutely. and yet he's got a reason to be on fire. new bloomberg polls out this morning that shows the president has a 13-point lead over mitt romney in the general election match-up. that's a number sure to get a lot of eyebrows raised. when it comes to the president's handling of the economy, 53% say they disapprove, 43% approve. however, 45% say they are better off now than they were in 2009 when president obama was inaugurated. 36% say they are worse off. al. this is -- these are big numbers. do you believe it's really a 13-point spread right now? >> i'm not sure about that, joe. but i do believe in the poll in the sense that i think if you look at it carefully, what's more important, you look at both

guys and they have trouble. people don't think obama is doing well, think the country is on the wrong track. low grades on jobs, trade with china, a whole host of things. >> so he's up by 13! >> so you say why. >> this is like the heat having 47 turnovers and winning by 20. >> that's only if oklahoma city is romney. because you then look at romney and contrary to conventional wisdom, he has not come back from the primaries. his numbers aret terrible, joe. people don't think he can create jobs. people think he is out of touch, an elitist and don't like him. who would you like to sit in a long airplane ride with? 57-31, they say obama. >> can i answer that myself? >> yeah. >> i don't want to sit next to anybody on a long plane ride. >> you might take joe. >> i'll take joe. no doubt about it. >> but it is -- i don't think this means that mitt romney is curtains at all. what i do think it means, however, is that there is --

there is an onus on him as well as obama to start telling people what he would do, what he's all about. neither one can coast, and both have thought they could. obama thought all he had to do was say this guy is a bum and prove this guy is a bum and somehow wouldn't be an acceptable choice. that's not going to cut it. and the romney people who thought they could stay back and let people vote against an 8.2% jobless rate. >> you have a great column and we'll talk about what you think the obama people should do. >> right now, andrea, 13 points. one of the best in the business. methodology all looks good. but 13 points just doesn't seem to be in line with what -- what we've been hearing. that said, you look at the cross tabs, a lot of concerns for both sides. >> well, certainly when you look -- >> especially romney. >> would you trust -- whom do you trust on the economy, and obama's numbers are terrible, as are mitt romney's. when were they in the field? >> monday night. >> so one question i would have is whether this bus trip, which seemed to go very well for mitt romney, might have had some

impact. i mean, there are marginal things on making him more likeable, because clearly, likability is one of the big factors. if you don't trust president obama on the economy, if you don't think he can create jobs, but there's a 13-point spread, there is something going on there, and it is probably the negatives on mitt romney rather than -- >> also, the immigration stuff is just killing mitt romney. the 64-30% agreement of obama over romney on immigration is something that i think the romney campaign has to really grapple with. i know the candidate is giving a big speech on thursday. >> what's he going to do? >> well, i mean, it's an open question. because he obviously in the primary said he would veto the dream act, very hardlined about it. he has ducked on several occasions a chance to say whether he would rescind the quasi executive lawyer president obama has put into law. their attack so far has been to avoid it. and i don't think you can do that anymore when you see poll numbers like this where you're facing a 34% deficit. >> the point is that al hunt hosted marco rubio last

wednesday at a bloomberg breakfast, and surprisingly, rubio had been working hard on dream act, what he was going to try to introduce. said he had not talked to mitt romney. seemed to me that was building into deniability. didn't want to put romney on the spot. >> very absolute about how he would handle it in the primary. to go back on that would be -- >> wait a sec. wait a second. mike barnicle. mitt romney flip-flopping, i'm sorry, i don't see it happening. >> well, it would be a first, wouldn't it? >> that would be -- >> you know, one of the question that most interests me, and you get a sense of it when you're just moving around during an ordinary day, is which candidate is best at understanding your problems and struggles, and president obama, 55%. mitt romney, 35%. and you get the sense that the -- the bulk of this election is going to turn on people being able to answer the question when asked by a candidate, or when a candidate says, you know, i know

who you are. i know your problems. i know what's bothering you. i know what to do about it. and clearly, a 20-point gap in this question. that is a huge, huge problem, a huge hurdle for governor romney. >> now, al, you've covered quite a few of these things. you understand polls in june. >> yeah. >> don't always mean an awful lot. >> third in 1992. so you're absolutely right. whether it's 13, whether it's 3, i think is not the important point these days. >> right. >> when you look at numbers like mike just referred to, that -- i think what some of the romney people were calculating was that this is a referendum election, just on obama. i don't believe that. >> you don't think that's going to be the case. and that's what i was going to ask you. it wasn't a leading question to suggest this poll doesn't matter. i think this poll does matter a great deal. just like those clinton-dole polls mattered, knew it was going to be an uphill battle for dole. but the much bigger question is, when people go to the voting booth in november, is it going

to be a referendum? is it going to be -- because we all say -- we've all said for a long time, people walk into the booth, decide whether they're going to rehire the guy or fire him. >> well, our poll confirms very much with the focus groups peter hart has been doing around the country. and what peter hart finds is people think things are getting a little better, not a lot, what they're looking for is someone to tell us what are you going to do the next four years. and joe, they're looking for both romney and obama to tell them that. and so far, both have been lacking. >> let's read what al wrote in "bloomberg view." quote, the obama campaign needs an intervention. of course, this would have -- we should have read this yesterday instead of today. but forget that poll, because -- because -- there is going to be a lot of hand-wringing moving forward, and i think you make some great points here. for democrats, june has been the cruellest month. there has been discouraging

economic news. the re-election candidate has made mistakes. and seems out of his comfort zone. the supposedly superior obama campaign looks amateurish and is complaints about the operator's ins layerty have reached a fever pitch. private conversations with half dozen of the smartest democratic political thinkers reveal a consensus of advice for the president. stop trying to tell voters they're doing better. offer an optimistic sense of how, if re-elected, he would lead america to more prosperous times. and challenge republicans with specifics. al, this president can talk about why he did what he did four years ago. he can complain about republicans, and he does. but the one thing he doesn't do privately, and the one thing he doesn't do publicly, is explain how he's going to jump-start this economy four years moving forward. he just doesn't do it. >> he doesn't, joe. he began in cleveland last week, but it was muddled and too long.

didn't quite -- it wasn't as targeted as it should be. but that's what he has to do. and if the obama people look at this poll and they say, ah-ha, fat city, we're home-free, they're making a huge mistake. because when you look at those numbers, there are warning signs for obama, too, and june is not -- >> let me make the case also that the next month, the next two months possibly could get worse. there's a series of things that are going to happen that all seem to be pointing in the direction of bad news for the administration and for the white house. and that includes the health care ruling, includes possibly the immigration ruling for arizona. that includes traditionally slow job numbers in the summer. and for some reason, obama always happens to have a terrible august. so they're not exactly -- europe, of course. >> the banks -- it's going to affect athens, ohio. >> so they're looking at a couple months of intense hand-wringing and second guessing and we'll see what happens there. >> all right. willie, did you see jamie dimon yesterday? >> i did. i did. he was back up on capitol hill. we saw him in front of the senate last week, kind of a

similar performance yesterday. up on the hill. i think we have some of his remarks. let's listen to them. >> is it fair to say that jpmorgan could have lost half a trillion dollars or $1 trillion? >> not unless this earth is hit by a moon. >> is gambling investing? >> no. no, it is not. >> what's the difference between gambling? >> i think when you gamble, on average, you lose. the house wins. >> that's been my experience with investing. but that's -- >> i would be happy to get you a better investment adviser. >> why should we allow you to be so big. >> a lot of banks were in the storm. jpmorgan's size and capability and diversification in '08, '09 and 2010 allowed us to continue to do the things you wanted us to do. >> andrea, by most accounts, jamie dimon was strong again

yesterday before the senate. i guess the question is, beyond the theater of this, and we're seeing this interplay between him and the members of the committee, what change comes out of this? is this just to drag him up on capitol hill and give him a flogging, or are we going to see something come out of this that changes the way business is done? >> i think it was to give him a flogging and to make him, you know, perform with barney frank, giving him a hard time. the house is always harder than the senate, although he had a sympathetic chairman yesterday in the house republican chairman there. >> what's it like flogging jamie dimon? how easy is it? has anybody actually ever flogd jamie dimon ever? >> probably not -- >> they want to try. >> he was really well-prepared. >> he's smart -- >> and is he's smarter -- >> smarter than everybody up there. >> maybe except barney frank. >> smarter than everybody up there. >> the other point of it is that the only real effect, to answer willie's question, he will probably not have the volcker rule as quickly watered down.

you're going to have some, you know, resistance to watering down the regulations, because jamie dimon was the tribune of the industry's fight against regs. >> yeah. mike barnicle, it's always a scene, quite a scene, when you have jamie dimon go to the hill and -- or you've seen this. we've talked about this, especially in the financial services committees, where so many of those people are just rank amateurs. very few people with banking experience. they just don't know what they're doing. just to be really blunt. how many bankers are -- no, we've talked about this for four years. how many bankers are even on those committees? >> well, you know, it's the same old, same old. whether it's jamie dimon or head of wells fargo or bank of america, they are far more prepared to answer the questions than the people asking the questions are to ask the questions. they supplied the questions by staff members. they are not bankers. they have a peripheral

knowledge, so jamie dimon, it's a home run for him. the larger point, joe, these hearings are teed up for publicity, for the members, on both sides of the aisle, republican and democrat. and yet out in the country, back to what al hunt and the panel was just talking about, we're looking at a bus ride here, and trying to figure out who is going to drive the bus. is it going to be the president, or is it going to be governor romney? all of this stuff is in the rear-view mirror. the banking stuff. sure, the volcker rule is important to a certain extent, no doubt about that. but people want to know, where are we going? where are you going to take us? that's the question that's out there in the country. >> you know what the other question is? whether marco rubio is being vetted or not. >> well -- >> does anybody here really believe -- willie geist, whenever journalists have questions about vetting, they call you up and ask you first,

your spotted top -- the holiday inn on 57th and 10th. do you think marco has been vetted by the romney campaign, or is this some crazy spin? >> i believe they're probably looking into the matter, although some of our trusted sources here, our game-change friends suggest he was never and will never be the choice of mitt romney. but jonathan carl, we talked about this yesterday morning of abc news reported that rubio has been rumored to be on the short list, had not been asked to provide financial documents or fill out a customary questionnaire, that he wasn't being vetted. romney did an interview with fox yesterday, side stepped questions about whether or not rubio was being vetted, yet a few hours later, romney disputed the abc report. >> i can't imagine who such people are, but i can tell you this. they know nothing about the vice presidential selection or evaluation process. there are only two people in this country who know who are being vetted, and who are not.

and that's beth myers and myself. and i know beth well. she doesn't talk to anybody. this story was entirely false. marco rubio is being thoroughly vetted as part of our process. >> all right, joe. >> right now they're going through his baseball cards right now. i mean, abc is standing by their story. and mitt romney can say he's thoroughly being vetted but, of course, it's good politically. willie, i'm sorry, did you want to get in here? >> no, go ahead. >> good politically for them to say that they are vetting rubio. >> yeah, i -- look, i think romney has blown this one. he has blown the immigration thing, blown this. you should have vetted marco rubio from the beginning. joe, i think mark and john are probably right. he's not going to be chosen. but not to have him on that list, given the politics -- and presidential candidates do that all the time. used to always put a woman on the list. aren't going pick a woman, but put a woman on the list. and not to do that -- of course,

has he been more serious, the fact that mitt romney dragged his feet so long, and marco rubio never got a chance to offer his -- >> there's only two people who could have fed this news to jonathan carl, one from the romney campaign, one from the rubio camp. clearly the end result so rubio would end up being vetted or put into the process. so the end result -- >> i would never speculate about what other reporters -- >> fine, i just did. >> i'm just saying that -- >> wise young man. >> this vice presidential thing, when we were reporting it was going to be edwards and the "new york post" i think -- said it was gephardt. this is a very dicey business, especially this early in the game. the bottom line is that mitt romney has said they have at least suggested it's going to be someone ready to be president on day one. it's more likely to be a more experienced figure, governor, senator. >> listen, he's not going to pick marco. the other thing is he said he was never going to discuss who was on the list. >> he's not.

>> i totally agree with you, joe. i think, however, the immigration issue as was mentioned earlier is one that would hurt mitt romney. it's hurting him, because what obama has done, he has pulled off the perfect -- the danger if you went and did something that was pro latino, you would offend other people. he's got a proposal most people think is a good idea and for the first time that latino base may be more energized and romney is in a vice right now. i don't think mitt romney wants to be an immigration barbre the way he was in some of the primaries, but he has people like steven king saying immigrants are like dogs, got to have the pick of the litter. if he had turned to rubio earlier not to be vice president but talk about the dream act, they could have gotten ahead of the curve. >> we've got some other headlines, and we'll go through a few. mike barnicle, i begin with you. the question is, headline, mubarak rushed to military care after a stroke. do you believe it or do you think he's water-skiing in beirut right now? >> i'm going to go with a.

>> you believe it. >> yes, i do believe it. >> okay. we shall see about that. willie geist, i don't have the "wall street journal" headline in front of me, but it appears right now that the sanctions, they are cracking down on sanctions. do you have it there? the sanctions for iran as talks fail. this appears, willie, to be the last step before an israeli strike. things are getting very serious. >> i would defer to andrea mitchell on this, but they're going after oil exports on these new sanctions. but, of course, tehran, andrea, defiant about its enrichment program. >> the bottom line, the talks in moscow with iran and the western leaders did not go well this week. iran is still stonewalling, according to the west. these sanctions were due to go in effect on july 1st, and what they're saying is, they're going to go into effect. they are really squeezing iran. iran is, you know -- really stuck here. and if they want to get these

sanctions waived or lifted, they're going to have to show some leg and respond to the offer from europe and the united states. >> coming up next, blockbuster movies to fast food, "gq" out with a new list of things america does better than anybody else. also this hour, getting back to business. cnbc's crazy man brian sullivan previews the town hall event he is hosting tonight, complete with silly string, bringing small business owners together with some of the most successful entrepreneurs in america. seriously? they're giving this guy a town hall meeting? but first, here is bill karins with a check on the forecast. bill. >> thanks, joe. professional -- not making comments about the "gq" cover. if this heatwave, the well advertised one from the middle of the country, it has moved to the east coast. a very fitting end as what will go down as our hottest spring of all-time. remember the end of winter, didn't have one, all the way from march until now, very warm

across the country. and now we're going to peak it in the northeast. the first real heatwave of the summer. today should be 98 in boston. notice we've ended the heatwave in the northern plains. a lot of heavy rain this morning from minneapolis up to duluth. tomorrow, chicago, you'll get your relief. so the forecast today in the northeast, hottest day by far since last summer. 100 in hartford, 98 in boston. heat index between 100 and 105. let me take you through the three-day heatwave. tomorrow hottest, near 99 to 100 from washington, d.c. up to new york. 101 in areas of connecticut. and then on friday, we begin to cool it off. a cold front arrives. we'll see thunderstorms. but not until we see temperatures get into the 90s earlier in the day. and by the way, the weekend does look to be back in the '80s for almost everyone in the mid atlantic and the northeast. so it's really a three-day heatwave that begins today with temperatures topping out 100 to 105. seattle, you're laughing at us. beautiful sunshine, temperatures in the 70s.

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♪ tonight, we asked the question, is america in decline. many people say yes. >> is america in decline? it's a popular topic today as the world's only super power struggles with debt, slow economic growth and overstretched military and political gridlock in washington. >> americans have been bemoaning the fact we've been in decline.

one reason we're always number one, we're always uncertain about whether we are number one. >> america in decline. according to a poll from "the hill" newspaper, 69% of americans believe america is in decline and an astounding 83% are now worried about the country's future. >> i'm sorry. i'm just going to let the karate kid sound track breathe a little bit. you're the best around. there has been a lot of talk about the decline of america but the folks at "gq" magazine saying not so fast. the editors have compiled 50 things they say america does, quote, better than anyone, anywhere else. here to take us through the list, "gq" magazine's deputy editor michael hainey. >> i hope you don't take offense, we're just going to leave this cover throughout the segment, whatever you're talking about, we're just going to keep that up. >> could to quote the great russian philosophy, smirnoff, is this a great country or what? america is in the decline?

that's the bounty of america right there. >> it is. i was talking to one of your colleagues at conde nast yesterday saying this may break newsstand records. >> the talk is it may melt the internet. >> i think it will. we'll get to kate upton in a moment, but so much to be proud of in the united states of america right now. i'm going to start with ketchup. >> ketchup. >> what about ketchup? >> everyone talks about small batch. we do mega batch really well. the heinz ketchup, freight cars. >> 67 million bottles or something a year. and that rolls into fast food. but you're not talking about mcdonald's and burger king. >> we're talking about the growth of food trucks in america, which is -- interesting, even the french are picking up in paris, doing the food trucks in times square. and it's that innovation of guys sort of doing things in a small way, great burgers all-around america and little places. >> that's the thing. it's quality food now.

it's not just hot dogs. it's a good restaurant consolidated into a truck. see it everywhere. >> and is the mobility factor. very american factor. >> we're going to have to peel mike away from the kate upton page. let us know when you're ready, mike. >> i was looking at the dream team. >> oh. >> that's what you call kate upton now. you and she are the dream team. in your dreams. >> a great oral history of the dream team. >> 20 years ago, the dream team in the olympics. and it seems like we all were talking -- before the break. how recently that was, and i love some of the moments in here, you know, patrick ewing talks about so the guys lost in '88, we were like the navy s.e.a.l.s being called in to sort of do the strike and win this thing. but mike, you remember the dream team better than anyone. >> absolutely. and -- but the tape that has never been -- first of all, a group of college kids beat them. >> right. in a scrimmage, closed scrimmage, the first time they had a competition, penny

hardaway, allen houston came in and beat the dream team. the only people ever to beat the dream team. >> and there is lost footage we want to locate. >> exactly. joe is down in washington. joe. >> michael, an archaeologist digging this magazine piece centuries from now, after getting past a picture of kate upton, they're going to look at the killer bees and determine that it was the killer bees that really -- the heart of americans' greatness. i speak, of course, of blockbusters, right? billionaires. >> we do better than anyone. >> blockbusters, billionaires and bob dole. let's start with the latter. >> bob dole, great american. i've seen before the last segment where you were talking about vetting vice presidential candidates. you have to remember, bob dole ran for president in '96, ran for vice president in '76 with ford and points out the only guy

to lose the vice presidency and presidency. but do they really have to vet bob dole? this guy was a great american. you think how far we have come. what skeletons does that guy have in his closet? zero. >> and what a personal story. a story shared by so many others. >> the greatest generation. and i love and he talks about in his office, he has -- he's got a sign on his wall that says "be a doer, not a stewer." we put him in because he's such a great optimist, talking about his optimism in america and still a great believer in bipartisanship. >> michael, you know what makes me optimistic? that the united states of america still makes fast cars for aging hippies. >> fast cars for rich, aging hippies. the fiscar electric car, the official car of george clooney and leo dicaprio, rich man's version of the chevy volt. i'm sure you're on the list for

it, joe. >> i certainly am. i just have to grow my hair a little bit more. gray out a little bit more. one other thing, though. once i get that, where am i going to put it? well, in america, that's not a tough question to answer. because we do parking lots better than anybody. and parking lots makes "gq's" list. >> because we have a great writer who wrote about -- you guys like me, i grew up in suburban chicago. and you just knew -- parking lots are where your life happened, drank your first beer there, kissed your first girlfriend and contrary to what joannie mitchell said, we didn't pave paradise, we built paradise. that's a great recreational american space. >> and we've got to talk about -- because there is going to be a fight down here. >> no. >> no, but seriously. fast food. there is nothing more american -- >> this is the grossest thing on the list. >> no, it's not. it's the greatest thing on the list. grill one up, seeing the golden arches, going to mcdonald's.

"happy days," arnold's, the whole thing. >> fast food burgers better. >> small batch the best. >> gross. >> come on. the best burger in america right now is at a place in grand rapids, michigan called stella's, which willie will probably have been there. but it's a video arcade. so i think when you guys are in michigan covering romney next time, i want you to go to stella's and go to the video arcade and get the best burger. >> and a pitcher of beer. how about blockbusters? nobody touches us. films. >> i don't see a chinese blockbuster anywhere. >> no. >> except for -- covering the lawn. everyone is talking about "batman" "spiderman" "the avengers". >> huge! >> if greece can make a blockbuster, they would be -- >> exactly. >> they would be in a good place. >> the path to prosperity. >> exactly.

>> another b, we'll we're on the topic of bs, booty. kim kardashian. >> you're going to make me touch this one. we did our six degrees of kim kardashian. i'm looking at mike over here, leaning back -- >> still on the kate upton -- >> is that the booty you're talking about? >> caught looking at kate upton again. >> gross. gross. >> see what happens when you're not here, joe? the whole place goes to hell. >> i will say, kate upton enjoys a good swim. >> she enjoys wetness, and sort of t-shirts that have been watered down, i think. >> wow. so kate upton and -- >> willie got lost for a second. >> into a bad place. >> the other thing to add -- we end on a high note, perhaps? >> i really don't -- content in "gq" seems -- incredible. >> i think it's important. i think once again, "gq" on the cutting edge. >> america does lists better

than anyone else. >> we do. >> 50 bests better than anyone else. >> we really do list better than anyone else. well, maybe we come in number two or three but we're pretty damn good. usually in the top five. >> we should do a list of that. >> and this -- you can argue the rock and is pop is the -- >> you can call it whatever you want to call it. >> michael hainey. >> thanks for having me, guys. >> the new issue, "gq," 50 things america does better than anyone else. >> oh, my gosh, you're on the cover of "gq!" >> i didn't notice. ♪ america sweet america ♪ ttd# 1-800-345-2550

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♪ welcome back to "morning joe." beautiful shot of the top of the rock on a beautiful, beautiful -- >> it's going to be hot. >> hot dog! you know what, tj. >> yeah. >> tj? >> yes, yes. >> you ever heard of a band called loving spoonful? >> yeah, i love them. what about them? >> so, okay -- show that shot again. >> no, not you. >> there it is. >> thank you.

>> dork. >> wow. >> look at that, you've got heat. >> just went blind. >> you've got heat rising from the city streets downtown new york city. >> yeah. >> right? >> yep. >> you can almost hear the organ come in on that song. >> how about bumping out? we'll do it going out? >> do i have to do everything? >> we'll get you a keyboard out here. it's a really tough life you have. >> it's unbelievable. >> sometimes i cry for him. >> who? >> brian sullivan has a tough life. >> does he? >> poor guy. >> cnbc global headquarters. and you have so much to talk about. today is a huge day for you. it's been circled on your calendar for the past six months. but before we get to that, let's talk about the market. what's going to happen today? there's a fed meeting. i think fist fights are going to break out. it's going to look like a

taiwanese parliament. what's going on, my man? >> a couple things. first off, i'm going to ask you a question, mr. loving spoonful. do you believe in magic? >> yes, i do. >> this is kind of awkward. >> that was kind of awkward. >> yeah, i know. >> listen, you're a big boy now, which by the way, was the name of the album. here you go. magic today will be defined by the federal reserve. you hope for the sort of taiwanese parliament style fist fight. i wouldn't mind that, given that the live press conference airs during my show. so we have an audience of billions instead of just millions. but at the same time, the federal reserve, listen -- it's a big meeting. the market is expecting something, guys. whether or not it's going to be a commitment to leave interest rates this low to 2015, because remember they've said 2014. whether they do another round of money prohibiting better known as quantitative easing, buying mortgages which basically continue to lower mortgage interest rates, something i know that's very important to your

audience. the market is expecting something. so if we don't get something today, could be a pretty dog gone dramatic day. >> a big day. what a day for a daydream. hey, brian. anyway, you hosted a special cnbc town hall event, and it's airing tonight. it's called "getting back to business." a lot of people are suggesting, this is going to draw more numbers, perhaps. just perhaps. perhaps. stanley is predicting this. than the first year of "american idol." >> just show a clip. >> i'm not sure. let's take a look at a clip, and we'll let you be the judge. >> all right. >> i don't know where we got lost, we're all singing kum ba yah these days. but let me tell you how it works. business is war. you get up in the morning and you figure out, how do i kill my competitor? how do i pour boiling oil on them? that's how you do it. that's what made america great. competing, winning, fighting, winning, competing. >> i completely disagree. >> oh.

>> you are so wrong. >> when i first -- when i first cut the seat out of my pantyhose i was at a cocktail party and three men came up to me and said business is war. and i went home and sat on the floor of my apartment and go, i don't want to go to war. i have not taken that approach. and i've done it very differently. i have not been obsessed or focused on the competition and annihilating the competition. i have only been focused on my own quality, what can i offer that's the best, and give value! >> yep. that's the difference between men and women. >> probably so. >> productive versus constructive. idiots. >> whatever. >> that woman, sarah blakely, guys, she is a self made billionaire in american history, 41, started a company called spanx. i may or may not be wearing them right now. >> oh, you're wearing them. >> the other guy, kevin o'leary, started a company with his mom,

i think in the business we call that a tease. a taste of what's to come. >> i wear a lot of makeup. >> and spanx. >> makeup and spanx, that makes the man, according to brian sullivan. >> 9:00 eastern, cnbc, check your local listings. >> we'll be watching. a cnbc town hall event. up next, the west coast papers. brian, thank you. >> thank you, brian. >> we'll be right back. ♪ i knew it'd be tough on our retirement savings, especially in this economy.

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that while violence rages in syria, people in lebanon are worried it will spill over across their border. syria-related clashes are already breaking out on lebanese soil. and another west coast paper from "the las vegas review journal" reports that michelle obama returned to nevada to drum up support for the president's new immigration policy. it is the first lady's third trip to vegas this year. >> california's "desert sun" could get the supreme court ruling this week on obama's law. "the sun" is counting on billions of dollars of medicaid money that could go away if the law or parts of it are struck down. >> and "the san francisco chronicle" great town and great paper. "the chronicle" has a story reminiscent of the george clooney movie "the december endents" billionaire murdoch owns the island and has a buyer,

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last week, i gave the cold bear bomb to push her over the top and on to the london games! well, hold on to your lippenzoners, folks, because the trials are over and rafalka has made the olympic team! yes, i did it! ♪ ♪ come on pretty mama ♪ [ applause ] ♪ that's where we want to go >> rafalka is now america's sweetheart. we are all going to love her just as much as ann romney does. >> i joke that i'm going to have to send her to betty ford for addiction for horses. >> ha-ha! good one. i'm right there with you on the addiction thing. i wish there was some way to

shoot horse right into my veins. >> all credit to mayor bloomberg. he has done a tremendous job here in new york city. he's outlawed virtually everything. you can't buy a giant soda. mayor bloomberg serious about it. you can get arrested now for carrying -- here's what i saw today. i was just walking -- look at this. watch, this happened today. >> ah! >> is this really the kind of new york we want? think about it. >> president obama tapping senator kerry to help him with debate rehearsals. the 2004 democratic nominally will play the role of mitt romney in mock debates. >> now that i know john kerry will be debating president obama, i have no choice. but to throw my full support behind john kerry. what's more, john kerry is a war hero.

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♪ hey, kids. put down the "gq" magazine, we're going to talk about what we learned today. >> germany, greece, no political implications of the soccer game. germany will win 10-0 or greece will eke out a victory. >> i think the germans will crush them. >> probably. >> what did you learn? >> events celebrating the 40th anniversary of title 9 at the white house today. much more on that on "morning joe" tomorrow. >> i'm very excited about that. >> you should be. >> very good. >> what about willie? >> what did you learn today? >> i learned i needed a crow bar to peel mike barnicle away from the new issue of "gq" and just got him up here in time for this segment. michael? >> it is amazing how quickly i can become distracted by a single photograph. amazing. >> woo! >> so gross. so creepy. >> mika has had enough. >> she has not.

>> ann,