we asked you what you're doing up at this hour. >> i'm awake because i'm sleepless in providence, nora ephron, we'll miss you. >> that's a theme, ephron who sadly passed away last night at the age of 71. much more on her life and her career with a lot of people who knew her well starting right now on "morning joe." ♪ you must remember this >> brinkley. ♪ somewhere over the rainbow ♪ way up high ♪ there's a land that i heard of

once in a lullaby ♪ >> don't cry. don't cry. ♪ and the dreams that you dare >> i wanted it to be you. i wanted it to be you so badly. >> she's, of course, also the director of such hits as "julie & julia" and "sleepless in seattle" and here with us now, norah ephron. >> the one that makes me tear up every time. >> which one? >> my wife comes in and says, my god! not again. "you've got mail". >> the dog in the park. i tear up there. i always tear up when she's dancing -- i wanted it to be you. and when she's dancing with her mom, i tear up every time. my wife is like you've seen this on hbo 78 times. >> i don't know how many people

know this about you, but i do, and it has just altered everything. >> good morning. it's wednesday, june 27th. welcome to "morning joe." with us on set in washington, we have nbc chief foreign affairs correspondent and host of "andrea mitchell reports" andrea mitchell. we have msnbc and "time" magazine senior political an la list mark halperin. and msnbc political analyst john heilemann and in new york, the co-founder of ""the huffington post" and president and editor in chief of huffington post media group. thanks for coming in. >> thank you. >> along with msnbc contributor mike barnicle and willie geist. obviously we're all a little in shock this morning. you've probably heard now, the very sad news that author, screen writer and director and friend of the show and good friend of ours, norah ephron, died of pneumonia last night after a battle with leukemia.

she leaves behind, of course, such a legacy. a resume packed with hollywood hits. you saw some of those as we came into the show. ephron wrote and directed 2009's "julie & julia," a story of a blogger who makes each one of the recipes from julia child's cookbook. she captured the craze of e-mail with tom hanks and meg ryan in the 1998 film "you've got mail" and used that same acting duo five years earlier in her classic "sleepless in seattle" where a widower played by hanks finds love from across the country. and then there was the new york favorite, "when harry met sally." i'll have what she's having, a love letter to the city where she was born and later worked as a journalist. >> what can i get you? >> i'll have a number three. >> i'd like the chef salad with the oil and vinegar on the side and the apple pie allah mod. >> chef and apple ala mode. >> i would like the pie heated

and don't want the ice cream on the side, strawberry instead of vanilla, if it's out of the can, then nothing. >> not even the pie? >> no, just the pie but not heated. >> what? >> ephron wrote more than a half dozen books and a number of plays, including one expected to open next year. ephron was a frequent guest on "morning joe" and loved talking about the business that made her a household name. >> i worked at one point for a very difficult person, very famously difficult person, and you've never been difficult with me, i don't know what everyone is talking about. he's so sweet. he's fine to me. and one day he called me up and he -- and he yelled at me. and i was fascinated. i was completely fascinated he yelled at me. no one had ever yelled at me.

and i was on the phone and he yelled and yelled and yelled and it was more and more hurtful and afterwards when i told one of my colleagues he said to me, no, no, norah, you're not supposed to listen to that. you're supposed to say, you know, this is a terrible connection. i can't hear you. and just hang up. >> nora ephron was 71 years old. arianna huffington, called you last night and asked you to be on this morning because i can't think of funnier, better advice i got about life than from nora ephron and i figure we could start there. >> the advice about everything. i think the reason we are all in such shock because she was always so full of life and she was always celebrating life, whether it was what she was eating at the time or what she was going to cook or her

children or her movies or the play that she was doing right now, her last play that tom hanks was going to be in and she was so excited about that. that's why she wanted to make sure she could do it. she didn't want a lot of people to know she had leukemia because she believed she would actually beat it. if it wasn't for the pneumonia they thought she could do that play she so much wanted to do. >> so heartbroken over the news of her passing, but also sort of horrified. we had no idea she was sick. none. did you? >> actually, people knew that there was something wrong. the last time i saw her about a month ago, and she was celebrating rita wilson. she was always celebrating her friends. rita had just taken up singing and she had been singing at joe's pub and she said, let's gather in this chinese restaurant around the corner and celebrate rita. there was something different

about her. over the weekend i was with another close friend of hers and we e-mailed her and she didn't respond. i think the reason she wanted to keep it a secret because she wanted to do that play. she wanted to keep going. and when her son max called me -- where are we -- monday night and her words were, mom will not wake up. and they knew it was over. and we waited. until the family was ready to release it a day later. during that time, i started preparing tributes to her. what was amazing, there are now 12 sections dedicated to her because so many sections were touched by her life and her work. the book section, the entertainment section, the half plus 50 section and nora on aging and divorce. her idea. she came up with the idea that

we should have a divorce section and said to me, because marriage comes and goes, but divorce is forever. that became the headline. how many people can you say that about, that they capture so many aspects of life and of our hearts. >> you know, mika, my -- my mom would always say, you know, maybe you'd say you're bored, only boring people get bored. there's so much to be, you know, excited about and that was nora. whatever nora touched. whether it was divorce or whether it was necks -- >> i hate my neck. >> i remember buying that book, like a 40-year-old meathead republican and laughing from the front to the back and just going on and on with her like i was a 19-year-old woman about that or her movies.

what i'm saying, this is a tribute to the extraordinary writer, that she was. a great talent. people that think this woman just wrote movies in the '80s and '90s, they know nothing. she was a trailblazer going back to the early '60s in her work. >> you know, i would call myself an admirer, fan and acquaintance, not a friend, not deeply in her circle at all. just seeing her, she would come here, she had roots here in washington, of course, those years during watergate when she was so much part of that georgetown circle, but the fact is, she was such a writer, such a voice. she had a great career in new york city at "the new york post," the "esquire," "new york" magazine as a journalist, as a writer. she started out and made it possible for so many other women like myself to come behind and then, of course, her voice, her

unique character and take on everything. just think about "you've got mail." how many of us understood the culture of e-mail at that point when she wrote that screenplay. and, you know, all the other "sleepless in seattle," the merging of music and character and nostalgia. sweetness. >> you know, it was always about love. it was always a yearning -- >> and kindness. most recently, memorably she was at the state department, hillary clinton flew back for 36 hours for the kennedy honors and she did the tribute and people were still talking about it and amazed at just how funny and wonderful she was. the toast to meryl streep, her friend, one of the honorees this year. she was hilarious in teasing hillary and, of course, paying tribute to meryl streep. just the kindness of this woman, generous spirit. >> willie geist, we absolutely

loved having her on. she, you know, she watched the show an awful lot and she was just a obsessed with politics like she was obsessed with food, like she was obsessed with everything else. but there was never, ever any bitterness in that obsession like we see with so many other people. there was this wonderment and this joy with her, every time we saw her. >> absolutely. and part of the shock as arianna pointed out, i saw her at a dinner about a month ago for the robinhood foundation, i was lucky enough to sit next to her for three hours at dinner and i was just telling arianna, seated on the other side of nora was a wall street executive who shall not be be named in this story. nora spent the entire night harassing this poor guy. let me get this straight because the president was mean to you, now your feelings are hurt. i thought you were the masters of the universe now you're not going to support him anymore because he was mean to you. i thought you were the masters

of the universe. get tough. all over this guy but in a funny and light-hearted and classic nora way. nick, her wonderful husband was there too. we're certainly thinking about nick this morning as well. >> nick and nora, quite a couple. nick, legendary new york news man, good fellas and all of that. nora ephron, a woman we can talk about the movies, the books, but i'll tell you this much, life never cheated her out of a single hour of a single day. she absorbed everything, every day, around her. and she was a woman of enormously generous spirit. especially toward others. especially toward people she felt a kinship toward. other writers. you could call her, she would throw you an idea, a line, get you started. never too busy to take a call. one of the more wonderful people

you could ever have dinner with, just for the eclectic interests she had. the last time we had dinner, we were talking with arianna about it, earlier, here's a question for you at a dinner party. you know, you could be seated around a table, perhaps eight people, perhaps a couple are kind of boring, who knows, norah's question is, i have an idea. let's go around the table and have everyone describe the room they slept in as a child, the house they grew up on and street they lived on. and the expansive imagination that opened in people around the table was astounding. i can only think only nora ephron could have done that and she did things like that every day of her life. >> mike, you're so right how she loved games and she loved one conversation at the dinner table and she loved charades after dinner. that was really terribly bad at.

>> exactly. >> and she was so good at. and in the last two years, we vacationed together and she had that playful girlfriend part of her. she could argue about wall street and iraq and the latest news, and then we could go shopping for shoes. bought the same pair, i remember. one night we're having a conversation at the 92nd street, and she called me and said let's wear the same pair of shoe. she had the playful attitude. when mika and i talked last night, the first thing we felt was like, a girlfriend had died. there was so many women who felt that. i've had so many e-mails from women saying, let's have a dinner to celebrate her. let's come together. yet, men loved her too. partly because, of course, there was this food connection. remember when she said, i respect a vegetarian but i could never fall in love with one. >> yeah. >> you know, mika, hearing

willie talking about how tough she was with the wall street guy, and mike talking about the dinner party, actually brings together a story, reminds me of a story of her where for me people that don't know, we get invited to a lot of things. >> she held us hostage. >> we don't go out at night because we have to wake up so early. we politely told nora if you have a reception before the dinner party we'll come to the reception but we just -- we never are out after 7:30 or 8:00. arianna is laughing because she was there and remembers this. i swear to god, mika, we told her that a thousand times, and as people who know us, we're pretty stern about our schedule because it's so crazy. >> uh-huh. >> we told her a thousand times, we will go to the reception and then we're out. so at the end of the reception we start to move towards the door and she does what? >> you're not going anywhere. you're going to sit down and you're going to sit down and

you're going to have dinner with me. >> go upstairs. we're going upstairs and you're going to sit and this is where you're going to sit. we just sat there, dumbfounded. you know -- tell presidents and prime ministers no, we're leaving, but nora, it was -- >> aren't you glad we stayed? >> yeah i was glad. she is, you know, she's remarkable. >> we had some incredible lunches with her and we're working on a couple projects with her as well that some will not come to pass now, and what a brilliant mind, john heilemann. i can't really get to her career because her spirit had such an impact on me. it was maternal, it was like a sister, it was like a friend, it was everything, all wrapped up in one. >> yeah. i mean she was, obviously, one can -- the superlatives don't stop with her.

you want to look at the body of work. she had an -- just an incredible career. she moved to new york the day after she graduated from wellsly. very quickly was offered a job at "newsweek" but told women aren't allowed to write at "newsweek." she wrote a great essay for our magazine, she had written for new york magazine starting in the '70s and wrote about coming to new york and told that and never occurred to her to say you'll be wrong about me. she said okay. got to new york moved into the apartment on sullivan street and the day she moved in there was an italian festival going on in front of the apartment. she thought it was great, she thought it was permanent and thought she would just have all -- she thought she would have all the cotton candy she wanted to eat for the rest of her life. you think about, you know, the magazine stories and the books and the plays, but, you know, you never want to in any way say anything other than -- you can't say enough about "when harry met

sally" because you think about it, think about the genre of romantic comedies, something like huge piece of the movie business, it's almost the defining movie and the ultimate in some ways love letter to new york. we were talking on the set the other day, whenever "good fellas" comes on tv you watch it. same with "when harry met sally." you can't watch that movie enough times. the writing is so beautiful and so true and so funn and so perfect, there is never -- there's been a million great romantic comedies but all in some ways go back to that. almost like the purest expression of the form and, you know, there's 20 lines from it that are immortal. you know, it's a career. that movie is a career. >> that movie is. you know, same with "sleepless in seattle," which again, i never can turn from that and, you know, "you've got mail," seriously, probably seen it 100 times and every time it's like

the first time. she's extraordinary. >> mark halperin --? >> like andrea, a fan and acquaintance. what always impressed me, she was an important person. successful. but in both her work and how she dealt with people, she was so human. she never lost her humanity. infused her work. that's why i think it was so successful and popular. she treated everybody in such a human way for an important person really hard to do and really impressive. >> arianna, i'll give -- i know this is hard. final thoughts to you. thank you so much for coming in this morning and for your beautiful words that we read last night on "the huffington post." >> you know, mika, she had three oscar nominations, but oscar nominations for friendship, she would have had a shelfful. she was such an incredible friend to so many people and truly, truly treasured friendships and was there for everything right down to every detail. i remember when i moved to new

york, i called her about everything, including a gynecologist, and she said, okay, for your girls, she knows i have young daughters, here's the gynecologist for your girls and the gynecologist for you. right down to every detail and then, you know, we all talked about how she embraced e-mail, but she never, never got on to twitter. she said that's the end of the road for me. e-mail, yes. blogging yes. but not twitter. >> arianna, huffington, thank you so much. we'll see you again soon on happier days. thank you for coming in. >> thank you. >> thank you. and by the way, i think i can say that -- i can say this, nora would tell us enough, enough. >> she'd not be happy right now. >> what the hell is happening in the presidential race? i hear there's a new poll out. >> she would think we went about 12 minutes too long.

>> she would be serving breakfast too. >> yeah. >> got to eat. >> well, we're going to have much more on her life, whether she likes it or not. this morning still ahead, though, senator claire mccaskill will join us on set in washington, former national security adviser dr. zbigniew brzezinski, dee dee myers and nba hall of famer magic johnson. first, bill karins with an update on the weather in florida. >> good morning to you, mika a big story out there, the heat another huge story. a lot of us went to bed last night, thousands of people in colorado were evacuating. we saw one of the worst fires in colorado's history burning dozens of homes near yesterday. this is el paso county, colorado, just outside of colorado springs. only ability a mile from pikes peak and also only about a mile from the u.s. air force academy. this fire is going to burn continuing today. it won't be quite as hot but it will still be windy during the afternoon. unfortunately, a lot of people will not be able to return to their homes. this is where the fire is

burning in relationships to colorado springs. colorado springs itself looks safe. as far as the forecast today, little windy this afternoon, high of 90. as far as florida is concerned the worst is over with. the rivers are cresting right now outside of jacksonville. slowly the cleanup will begin today and continue for many days ahead. now let's talk about the heat. it's incredible. this is record-breaking heat wave through the middle of the country and about to spread. get ready if you're in chicago. indianapolis and louisville. today it warms up a little bit to the 90s but look what happens tomorrow. all of the hundreds spread into the ohio valley. we could be near all-time record hot levels in indiana and kentucky and even on the east coast by the time we get to friday, 100 degree temperatures from the carolinas up into the nation's capital. you're watching "morning joe," we're brewed by starbucks. >> the book is just another book about getting older, one of those things that is on my mind. i wrote "i feel bad about my

neck" a few years ago. >> it's a beautiful scarf. >> thank you. it's good. it's good. it's winter now. and i just thought, i would write my memoirs now that i've forgotten everything. also, get a free flight. you know that comes with a private island? really? no. it comes with a hat. see, airline credit cards promise flights for 25,000 miles, but... [ man ] there's never any seats for 25,000 miles. frustrating, isn't it? but that won't happen with the capital one venture card. you can book any airline, anytime. hey, i just said that. after all, isn't traveling hard enough? ow!

[ male announcer ] to get the flights you want, sign up for a venture card at capitalone.com. what's in your wallet? uh, it's ok. i've played a pilot before.

26 past the hour. live shot of the white house on this beautiful morning. we have a brand new nbc news/"wall street journal" poll which shows a tight race, presidential race, with the numbers getting worse for both candidates. the president and mitt romney are in a statistical tie within the margin of error with 61% of the country saying we're on the wrong track. for the first time since december, president obama is upside down in his approval rating with just 47% approving of his job in office. that number drops even more when voters are asked about the president's handling of the

economy, only 42% approve while 53% disapprove. >> okay. look at this next full screen we're about to bring up. we've all said the bain attacks were terrible and miserable. democrats have all bashed the president or a lot of democratic leaders have. read about this next poll. this is the headline of the poll. >> when asked how mitt romney's business experience will impact their voting preference, 50% said they didn't know or made no difference. 28% said it had a negative impact. >> a plurality, john heilemann, are now saying that -- and again, 50%, i understand there's a lot in play there -- >> yeah. >> never in my life in the history of american politics have i ever seen somebody's business experience seen as anything but a five to one

positive, six to one positive, ten to one positive. the ads are having an impact. >> they're having an impact. romney's net negative unfavorable -- >> let me stop. i can already hear the romney people screaming, it's only 28%. i've never seen a poll -- i don't care if it's 8 to 10%, let's underline that fact, a lot can change. this to me is a shocking number. >> it's -- that is a very striking number. romney's unfavorable numbers are back up to their highest level again. the other place you can see the impact of those bain attacks is that although the overall national number on the race is within the margin of error, nbc/"wall street journal" looked in the 12 swing states in those swing states which is where the democratic obama advertising has been running, and a lot of that has been bain related, obama is ahead 50 to 42. an eight-point lead in the 12 swing states. in chicago, where their reaction

to the attack of what david plouffe back in 2008 called democratic bedwetters, democratic establishment worried about, those attacks, they always said, these attacks are not the -- the bain attacks are not for the beltway crowd, not for new york. they're for the swing states, for swing voters and this poll will make people in chicago say, we were right, cory booker, ed rendell, others who criticized us were wrong, we're going to stick with these attacks and keep hitting him hard on this issue. >> let's bring in right now, mike allen, chief white house correspondent for politico. couple things going on in the 12 swing states that will determine this election. one of them is that the economy is better in the 12 swing states. it is a flip of what happened in 1980 when the swing states were suffering economic hardship that the rest of -- and you wrote about this, in your playbook a couple weeks ago. you look now, and it looks like the attack ads and the strong

economy in those swing states are helping the president. >> that's right. to take the 12 states that john was talking about and narrow it down even more, very telling that the three states where the obama campaign went up with their outsourcer in chief ad, were virginia, iowa, ohio. and we're going to see president obama, the campaign just announcing this morning that next week, starting the day after the fourth of july, the president's going to be doing a bus tour in ohio, pennsylvania. so they're very focused on these couple states where they think this argument will make a big impact and you're right about the fact that the president has a little bit of his economic wind at his back in these states. ohio, better than the nation, virginia never was hit like the nation, and florida even improving. >> florida down 2% in unemployment. so those are the positives for the president. let's now talk about the

negatives for the president. the president's been in office since january 20th, 2009. he is upside down right now. in his favorable ratings, under 50%. not good news for any politician. >> no. i mean these are -- both these candidates have challenges. new quinnipiac poll out this morning to show the president ahead pretty decently in florida, ohio and pennsylvania. i think the election we'll get a health care ruling and see if that scrambles things. i think the president came out of three tough weeks doing very well in the national and state polls and to me the election is now about two things and you see it in the prism of bain as well. one is the economy. particularly europe. and the other is defining mitt romney. he's still not very well defined even for people paying attention closely. for a lot of voters who will decide this election he's not on their radar. it's dominating what voters in the swing states are hearing about mitt romney. he needs to fill himself in those states more than he has and he will. >> what do you see happening

here? >> the other thing that the poll shows is people do not know how they feel about health care. it's amazingly unformed and i think that those opinions will be formed by what the supreme court does. people will -- >> the problem the whole time. >> positively or negatively, to a great measure by what the court says. so that is still a big unknown. we also don't know what the economic wins will look like, europe will look like, a lot of undetermined things. it's not only the advertising but what is reinforced by these appearances. joe biden in iowa the last couple days and other key states where he was making the argument yesterday, that mitt romney is a job creator if your job is overseas. so that's the outsourcing argument that they're trying to make. you can say it's not accurate, you can argue the -- what private equity does or doesn't do but that's the message they're hammering home. >> focusing their attack. >> remember the context here also. this month this past month that this polling is measuring is supposed to have been a horrible time for the president. bad job numbers, saying the

private sector is fine, the scott walker win in wisconsin, this was supposed to have been a rough spot for the president and yet he's up 8 points in the battleground states. for the obama campaign, this is an extraordinarily good showing because almost no -- there's been almost no good news for the president in the past few weeks. and yet, he comes out pretty strong. >> who does that say more about? mike allen, thank you very much. we'll talk about this coming up. willie geist, what do you have next? >> coming up ahead, an official comment, believe it or not, from the white house on whether or not was actually being booed by boston fans when he mentioned the kevin youklis straight. were they saying youk. lebron james continues his victory tour, goes to the "late show with david letterman." dave gives lebron a grilling about cleveland. we'll be right back.

looking for a better place to put your cash? here's one you may not have thought of -- fidelity. now you don't have to go to a bank to get the things you want from a bank, like no-fee atms, all over the world. free checkwriting and mobile deposits. now depositing a check is as easy as taking a picture. free online bill payments. a highly acclaimed credit card with 2% cash back into your fidelity account. open a fidelity cash management account today and discover another reason serious investors are choosing fidelity.

ovider is different but centurylink is committed to being a different kind of communications company by continuing to help you do more and focus on the things that matter to you. high schools in six states enrolled in the national math and science initiative... ...which helped students and teachers get better results in ap courses. together, they raised ap test scores 138%. just imagine our potential... ...if the other states joined them. let's raise our scores. let's invest in our teachers and inspire our students. let's solve this.

welcome back to "morning joe." we told you yesterday president obama ran afoul of red sox fans about the trade of kevin youklis to the president's beloved white sox. the reaction of a crowd at a fund-raiser in boston on sunday

night. >> i just want to say, thank you for youklis. i'm just saying. going to have to change the color of his socks. i didn't think i would get any boos out of here. i guess i should not have brought up baseball. my mistake. my mistake. you got to know your crowd. >> so that was monday in boston. sounded like some booing from the boston faithful. but jay carney the white house press secretary attempted yesterday to clarify, suggesting that was not booing. he said this on air force one. quote, anyone who knows boston knows the red sox, anyone who was in that room last night knows the preponderance of people shouting in response to

what the president said about kevin youklis were saying "youk" and not "boo" for god sake's, end of quote on youk-gate. sources inside the symphony hall monday in boston. what is your reporting telling you? >> we sent this tape out to a forensic lab, the same that did -- >> they're very good. >> came back with a consensus it was a chorus of "boos" not meant for kevin youklis or the president, the cranky boston concept of any other team being mentioned. >> they hear another team and boo. >> it's a knee-jerk reaction in boston. boo! >> their reflex to be miserable. >> exactly. >> and boo other people. >> thank you. >> we got it, thank you for that reporting, mike barnicle. lebron james victory tour continued last night on "the late show with david letterman." the finals mvp came out to a standing ovation. once he sat down, dave peppered him with questions about why he left cleveland in the first place.

>> well, now that you got this out of your system, are you ready to go back to cleveland and play some ball? i was on you, i was furious at you, i just thought, you know, you don't care, do you? >> that you were on me? >> yeah. i just thought that the opportunity was there, by god, i'm going to stick it out in cleveland and lift that city. >> yeah. i heard all of that too from you. >> yeah. >> i thought we were friends. >> we are friends. that's why it hurt me. >> my fifth time on here with you david. >> another cleveland question. how -- there's no way to know this, what would it felt like if you were still in cleveland and won the championship there, would it have been better or would this one be better? >> i think the feeling i had on thursday, i could have been on mars. >> right. >> and won that championship. it felt amazing. it was the -- it was better than what i expected. >> wouldn't let him go on the cleveland thing. baseball, strange night in the bronx. yankees hosting the indians.

watch this play, hannahan at the plate, lifts one to left field. duane wise drifts over, appears to make a great catch falling into the crowd. he actually didn't as this replay shows. bounced out of his glove. the umpire does not ask to see the ball, called the out to end the inning. says great catch, kid. wise leaves the stands without the ball and smartly keeps his glove closed so nobody can check it out. watch the guy on the left, maroon shirt, he has the ball. he has the ball. it's not even near duane wise. how does it happen? >> unbelievable. holds it up behind the umpire. he goes home with a souvenir. that's hannahan running out saying are you out of your mind? a fan held up the ball. are you blind? can we see that again? he gets run from the game. t.j., rerack that. >> just the slow mo thing. we're asking t.j. to do the impossible. >> give him two weeks to prepare for something like that. >> right.

>> july 4th doubleheader. >> this is not going to be good. but anyway -- >> tick tock. >> we love. >> so you get -- >> there you go. >> watch the fan. circled on the left here, ready. it's going to bounce to the guy with the maroon shirt and jeans. picks up the ball. look where the umpire is. holds it up. here comes the third base umpire. look at that. there you go. >> unbelievable. >> oh. >> i like he walks right by the guy. walks right by the guy. it he was holding up the ball. hannahan -- not only did he get called out, now thrown out of the game by the umpire who blew the call entirely. the yankees went on to win that one, by the way. we got to point out later coming up on the show, one of the new owners of the los angeles dodgers, the legend magic johnson, going to join us right here on set. can't wait for that. coming up next on "morning joe," columnist for bloomberg, margaret carlson for mika's

must-read opinion pages, keep it on "morning joe." this is new york state. we built the first railway, the first trade route to the west, the greatest empires. then, some said, we lost our edge. well today, there's a new new york state. one that's working to attract businesses and create jobs. a place where innovation meets determination... and businesses lead the world.

the new new york works for business. find out how it can work for yours at thenewny.com. we charge everything else... maybe it's time to recharge the human battery. only the beautyrest recharge sleep system combines the comfort of aircool memory foam layered on top of beautyrest pocketed coils to promote proper sleeping posture all night long. the revolutionary recharge sleep system from beautyrest... it's you, fully charged. get a free set of sheets when you buy a select beautyrest mattress. hurry, offer ends soon. delivering mail, medicine and packages. yet the house is considering a bill to close thousands of offices, slash service and layoff over 100,000 workers. the postal service is recording financial losses, but not for reasons you might think. the problem ? a burden no other agency or company bears. a 2006 law that drains $5 billion a year from post office revenue while the postal service

is forced to overpay billions more into federal accounts. house bill 2309 is not the answer. thor's couture gets the most rewards of any small business credit card. your boa! [ garth ] thor's small business earns double miles on every purchase, every day! ahh, the new fabrics, put it on my spark card. [ garth ] why settle for less? the spiked heels are working. wait! [ garth ] great businesses deserve the most rewards! [ male announcer ] the spark business card from capital one. choose unlimited rewards with double miles or 2% cash back on every purchase, every day! what's in your wallet? [ cheers and applause ] what's in your wallet? focus lolo, focust sanya let's do this i am from baltimore south carolina... bloomington, california... austin, texas... we are all here to represent the country we love this is for everyone back home

it's go time. across america, we're all committed to team usa. ♪ for the ephron sisters dump your purse what's in there? >> oh, my gosh. >> let's see. >> is that a problem? >> a pill bottle. >> isn't tha amazing. >> all right. fine. >> could we pick up the pills. >> pick up the pills. >> look at this. >> i need my pills. i really do. >> just in case. >> two spoons. >> in case you bumped into -- >> all right, willie. >> wow. >> you need to explain that. >> nora ephron on our show. >> explain that. >> she and i did an event date before, she was horrified that i was able to dump my purse out in the middle of the audience. i don't remember why i did that. >> she and her sister had

written something. >> oh, right! >> you were -- >> love, lost and what i wore. >> and you were moderating that and she kept talking about the contents. >> deciphering the contents of my purse and what they they meant which included lots of pills. >> lot of pills. >> anyhow, okay. there you go. that was fun. she was fun. nora ephron, author, screenwriter, director really good friend of ours, died at the age of 71 and joining us now, columnist from bloomberg view, margaret carlson. >> margaret was talking, margaret you said the thing about nora ephron was that is different is she became really big but she -- and a lot of times, you said, women get really big and they're good with men. she got really big and she remained a great girlfriend. >> totally. like she could write a novel about the contents of your purse and what it said about you.

she took the things we all know, that are really ordinary, and she heightened them. she lived this super romantic life and the life of meg ryan in the movies was her life. she was romantic about everything, about nathan's hot dogs and she had this party every summer in long island. i was lucky to get in her outer orbit because we shared friends and on long island, she was the place she wanted to be because wherever she was was where you wanted to be. she would make your ordinary life, you were in a nick and nora charles movie when you were with her. when she missed pie -- she would spend as much time figuring out what's the best pie in manhattan. >> yes. >> as talking about the financial fat cats and what they were doing to obama. it was equal because do not leave your fun to chance. make sure you plan it and make sure it's really good and when she said, one of my favorite lines was, in the julia child

movie where she says to julia child says to her husband, you are the butter on my bread, nora got the marriage she deserved and she was the happiest person in love i ever saw. >> you know, you -- i remember, you've written some things about love and marriages and not great marriages. john heilemann found this nora ephron quote earlier, i just love it. i've made a lot of mistakes falling in love and regretted most of them, but never the potatoes that went with them. >> right. >> yeah. >> that's what sums it up. >> and missing pie. you know, that's the thing. and you know, it was -- if death can be romantic as you do it, i was on the phone with a friend of hers yesterday talking about, of all things, slip covers and where's your slip cover and she got a call that, you know, nora was near the end, and she -- i mean to die that way, where the

end of the book is written the way you want it written, not about how you're dying but how you lived, is a great thing to do. >> i think -- did you ever talk to her about paris and food. >> food. i mean food was essential. it is essential to our being but we kind of forget it in our busy world. and she became so important and would pull you in. >> not let you forget. she'd force you to experience it. she gave me a play by play map of paris and where you go to eat what the best things there are to eat in paris and why. and the e-mail was -- >> you know, if you were lucky to be with her, she would see the things you were seeing and she would get it. like i remember when nail salons started and she said, there aren't enough fingers and toes in manhattan to support all these nail salons. >> no. >> you know, she lived an extraordinary life too. talking about a romantic life,

last summer we were supposed to have a business meeting with her out on the west coast and she was overseas and she called me up and said that she was going to have to cancel and i said, okay, that's fine. we'll reschedule. what's the problem? she said well, i'm with somebody and they're -- it's going to take three days to get the plane part they need to get us off of malta. and i said, i said, my god, nora. that's a life well lived. three days. it may have just been the greatest excuse ever to skip a business meeting. >> right. >> but if it was, it was even the -- even the excuse. >> the saddest news, the last two years, was she wasn't going to be on long island. she was in l.a. and europe filming and writing. so, the life went out of it.

you knew you would not have as good a time because she was not there. just think of the way she was working up until the end. >> yep. >> as arianna was saying, you know, and mike barnicle, she was working on a play, she was working on projects right up until the end of her life. i love what heilemann also found, that her sexual fantasy was for a man to make love to her, not for her mind. >> yeah. mike, she said in my sexual fantasy, nobody's ever attracted to me because of my mind. but you were -- you were talking about how she squeezed every like every second for all it was worth. >> oh, i mean, joe, you meet very few people in life who take such a large bite out of life every hour of every day and i think that clearly was part of nora's magic. it was part of nick and nora's magic, her husband nick as we

spoke about earlier, in that, you know, lot of people that we know, mutual friends that we know, are very interesting, they have these big expansive lives, but there's at the edge of their lives there's always, you know, a sense of cynicism or snarkiness about others or whatever. there was none of that in nora ephron. >> no bitterness. >> none at all. which, you know, in this day and age that we live in and we were talking about she refused to tweet and everything like that, but, you know, in this circle of people who are consumed sometimes with gee, i hope that person doesn't do as well as i'm doing, there was none of that in nora ephron. >> yeah. >> margaret carlson, thanks for coming in. >> thanks, joe. >> more "morning joe" in just a moment. ♪

why not make lunch more than just lunch? with two times the points on dining in restaurants, you may find yourself asking why not, a lot. chase sapphire preferred. [ engine turns over ] [ male announcer ] we created the luxury crossover and kept turning the page, this is the next chapter for the rx and lexus. this is the pursuit of perfection.

this is the next chapter for the rx and lexus. high schools in six states enrolled in the national math and science initiative... ...which helped students and teachers

get better results in ap courses. together, they raised ap test scores 138%. just imagine our potential... ...if the other states joined them. let's raise our scores. let's invest in our teachers and inspire our students. let's solve this. thought they were dead. huh? [ male announcer ] should've used roundup. it kills weeds to the root, so they don't come back. roundup. no root. no weed. no problem.

seattle". ruineding out this -- rounding out this hour, andrea mitchell, thanks for coming in. we appreciate you being here. >> we'll talk about nora and cry with friends of noras and an

interview with rageev ka sar ra and his great book about afghanistan. found some true heros with the marines and state department and some real incompetence as well in our operations over there. >> we look forward to that. >> great reporter. >> 1:00 eastern time on msnbc. >> thank you. >> we have a big show ahead. dee dee myers and senator claire mccaskill and magic johnson all ahead on "morning joe."

>> i love that you get cold when it's 71 degrees out. i love it takes you an hour and a half to order a sandwich. i love you get a crinkle above your nose i look at you when you're nuts. i can still smell your perfume on your nose and you're the last person i want to talk to before i go to sleep at night and it's not because i'm lonely and not because it's new year's eve. i came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible. >> kathleen kelly. hello. this is a coincidence. would you mind if i sat down? >> yes, i would. i'm expecting someone, thanks. >> pride and prejudice. >> do you mind? >> i bet you read that book every year. i bet you love that mr. darcy

and your sentimental heart beats wildly that he and -- well you know, whatever her name is, are truly honestly going to end up together. >> can i get you something? >> no. he's not staying. >> mochaccino, decaf. >> you are not staying. >> welcome back to "morning joe." top of the hour. john heilemann and mark halperin with us. joining the table here in washington, former white house press secretary dee dee myers. we're going to get to political news coming up. new polls from nbc news and "the wall street journal" and quinnipiac which are showing that the presidential race tightening in some ways and taking some interesting turns. but first, and sally quinn will be joining us as well because you've probably heard by now the sad news that author, screen writer and director nora ephron died of pneumonia last night after a battle with leukemia. she leaves behind a resume

packed with hollywood hits. nora ephron last wrote and directed 2009's "julie & julia," the story of a blogger who makes each one of the recipes from julia child's cookbook. nora captured the craze of e-mail with tom hanks and meg ryan in the 1998 film "you've got mail" and used that same acting duo five years earlier in her classic "sleepless in seattle" where a widower played by hanks finds love from across the country. and then there was the new york favorite "when harry met sally," a love letter to the city where she was born and later worked as a journalist. >> what can i get you. >> number three. >> i'd like the chef salad with the oil and vinegar on the pie and apple pie. >> chef and apple. >> but i'd like the pie heated and i don't want the ice cream on top i want it on the side and i'd like strawberry instead of vanilla if you have it. if not no ice cream and whipped

cream and if not then nothing. >> not the pie. >> the pie but not heated. what? >> ephron wrote more than a half dozen books and number of plays including one expected to open next year. nora ephron was a frequent guest on "morning joe." she's a friend of ours. she loved talking about the business that made her a household name. >> i worked at one point for a very difficult person. famously difficult person. he had never been difficult with me. i don't know what people are talking about. she's sweet. fine with me. he called up one day and he yelled at me. and i was fascinated. i was completely fascinated that he yelled at me. no one had ever yelled at me. i was on the phone and he yelled and yelled and yelled and it was more and more hurtful.

and afterwards when i told one of my colleagues he said to me, no, no, nora, you're not supposed to listen to that. you're supposed to say, you know, this is a terrible connection. i can't hear you. and just hang up. >> nora ephron was 71 years old. we're all a little in shock this morning and i think you brought up a great point last hour, joe, where she would be very, very annoyed with us right now. very annoyed for talking so much about her. >> tough luck. i mean tough luck. she was extraordinary. and i think we've all -- arianna was such a close friend with her and talked about how she was fascinated by life. every aspect of life. and was just a -- the greatest of friends. that's what you keep hearing from everybody that knew her. the greatest of friends. lived life to the fullest.

and i think it's great tribute to her that none of us around this table want to talk about her great works. we want to talk about the greatness of nora ephron, what a great person she was, what a great friend she was. and it took john heilemann to sort of slap us around ten minutes in to talking about this woman that so many people love. >> to recognize her contribution. >> to say okay, guys, yeah, she was a great, great friend to so many people, but god, the body of work and mike barnicle, the body of work is extraordinary for a woman who began at "newsweek" in the 1960s, was told because you're a woman, you're not going to be able to write, because we don't let women write at "newsweek" and she said okay. and she went there and blazed the trail anyway. extraordinary work. all the way through. >> yeah.

both at "newsweek" and then on to "the new york post" which then the publisher of "the new york post" dorothy shift was a woman and nora, you talk about the glass ceiling, a glass wall, glass floor, glass everything that you couldn't break through. >> yep. >> and she did and she continued on and obviously, you know, as john heilemann did point out, the body of work is enormous, it is important, but at the end of the day, joe, i think it gets back to who she was as a person. if she was your friend, you had a friend for life. someone who was insightful, creative, generous, an enormously wonderful spirit at everything that she chose to do and each and every day she lived. >> and as we're finding out this morning she had so, so many friends. >> and part of her gift was that she was interested in everything including the people that she was with, so you always felt like you were more interesting and sparkly when you were with her because she was interested in whatever you had to say she just made you feel cooler than you actually were.

>> that's true. >> that's so true. >> that is true. >> i'm sure i liked her more than she liked me but i felt like she liked me when i was with her. >> i think she liked you. i think she -- i think she liked everybody. fascinated by -- >> she made you feel like -- >> and the work and the person come together because she had such a voice. i mean you think about those screenplays she wrote, the newspaper columns, magazine stories, everything all of them sounded so much like her and so many of the personal qualities that we're all reflecting on came through in the work. she had voice and there's nothing in writing more important than that. you could pick up most of her work f you took the name off it, that's nora ephron, what nora ephron sounds like. >> mike barnicle for anybody that is hurting this morning who has been wounded deeply by a friendship or by a love loss or by life itself, look what nora ephron did with the pain that she endured. i just read a quote about how

she said, i've made many mistakes falling in love, what was that, falling in love and i regretted most of them but i never regretted the potatoes that went along with them. >> yeah. >> and she picked herself up from some painful situations and you know what, she made us all richer because of what she did working through not only the happiness that we're talking about but also a lot of pain. >> you know, that's true, joe, and she lived, obviously, with a debilitating and in the end a fatal illness. she lived with it for several years, quietly. not talking about it a whole lot. a couple of things about nora that have not been mentioned that, perhaps, ought to be mentioned, and it's encompassed in all of her work and in her daily life, is her ability to observe the life around her. she was a great reporter. that's what you saw on the

screen. you know, in a lot of the scenes you saw in movies, was a result of her great reporting. her observers' eye and her ability to narrate, to tell a story, whether it was on the printed page or on the big silver screen, the other thing and it's rather kind of a personal thing for people who did know her, she was a world-class gossip. a great gossip. >> don't i know. >> john heilemann. >> just to your point about heartbreak, she wrote one of the great lines in heart burn which speaks to your point, the dreams break into a million tiny pieces, the dream dies which leaves you with a choice, you can settle for reality or go off like a fool and dream another dream. >> joining us now, "washington post" columnist sally quinn. who knew nora ephron. sally, it was her obviously her body of work that brought a lot of us to her and got us to know her, but so much more about her

brought you in that again, as dee dee pointed out, it's hard to even talk about her work because we were so impacted by her as a friend. where do you begin remembering nora ephron? >> well, nora and i met about 45 years ago, and so we've been very close friends since then. she was my son quinn's godmother. she went with me to amniocentesis and held my hand because i was needle phobic. she was -- she -- you know she had this reputation, i've heard you talking all morning about her, and she was extremely sharp and witty and funny and clever and could be tough on the set and as a director, but nora had another side to her which was almost a sort of child-like side. and i think that when you look at the movies, "when harry met sally," "sleepless in seattle," "you've got mail," that's the real nora. i mean that's what nora wanted.

she didn't have a great childhood, you know, both her parents were troubled, and you know, i think she wanted this fairytale life and wanted it to be true and she wanted there always to be happy endings. and so i think that there was a sentimental side to nora that a lot of people didn't see. and i didn't see it that often, but when i did, it was breathtaking. nora was also -- i mean she could be laser in on you and she could say, you know, you're doing this wrong and you were funny this morning talking about going to an event and nora saying you're not leaving, you're not leaving because she used to do that all the time with me. i remember once when i was redoing a house and putting beads in the bathroom and she said you are not going to put them in the bathroom. nobody uses be days. they're just for show. then i snuck them in and she was very gracious about it. she told me i was not going to breastfeed and i was too scared

to tell her i was breastfeeding. but, you know, when she found out she was fine about it. i think one of the most important aspects of nora's personality was courage. and when -- at quinn's kristening i gave each one of the godparents a word which i thought defined them and nora's word was courage. she had a lot of setbacks in her life that people see her as this hugely successful person and, of course, she was, but in between each success there was always some disappointment and she just never stopped. she never let it -- she kept on going, kept on writing. she'd have something she thought was a failure and she just didn't stop. she kept right on going. >> you know, i can't think -- a lot of people try to hold us hostage at events and i -- you bring us back to the dinner that we were talking about. i can't think of anyone else i would rather be held hostage by than nora ephron and who would

regret staying late into the night and listening to the conversations that she would bring to the table and the joy and the love of life and gossip in a huge way, sally quinn. she loved to gossip because she loved human connections. and reveled in the twists and turns of life. even the tough ones. >> i can't tell you how much fun we had. our houses in east hampton were right across the street from each other. every august, we would spend the whole month together, just literally gossiping and playing and having clam bakes and dinner parties and babies' birthday parties when the kids were younger and it was just heaven being around nora. she was always like that. when you sat at a table with nora it was like being in a nora ephron movie and then sometimes it sort of ended up being in a movie. i was stunned when nora gave a speech at "the washington post" a number of years ago and said by the way, "when harry met sally" -- and she turned to me and said this is sally. sally was modeled after you.

and i said what? and then it turned out richard cohen our favorite columnist for "the washington post" was harry, his father named harry. and then she told me that betty, in heart burn, was me, my mother's name was betty, and our dog sparky was sparky in the movie "michael." so -- with john travolta. you kind of -- when you're sitting at a table with nora you kind of never know whether you're going to end up in the movie or what you say is going to end up in a movie. it was always fun. i mean she never -- it was -- you never felt like you were being betrayed. you felt like you were being honored. >> that's exactly it. sally quinn, thank you so much. >> thanks. >> one of the many beautiful points that sally made is about her child-like quality in terms of her reactions to scenarios. i'm writing a book with a friend and nora is part of the project. we interviewed her. i'm not sure i'm going to do

this. but her reaction about obesity and food and difficulties that we're having in life with that and her child-like reaction to this problem was so -- it was the most awkward and wonderful moment at the same time. i'm not sure how we put it in the book still but it will be there. >> she loved food so much. >> she loved food. >> and great cook and a connoisseur and knew where you could get the best everything in new york. >> not just of different types of food but the experience they bring to you. she does not want that cut out. >> also. >> right. >> a connoisseur of politics. mark halperin we're going to polls next block, that pretty striking nbc news/"wall street journal" poll and also some quinnipiac polls also that came out this morning in swing states, that echo what was in the nbc poll, which basically

said barack obama's doing very well in the 12 swing states that will determine this election. >> he's doing pretty well. can i sneak in one thing about nora, real quick? >> sure. >> everyone who has been on the show has had the pleasure and honor of knowing her. a lot of people watching probably didn't know her. bigger than life figure. whenever you're in her presence you knew you were in her presence. she loved politics, food, all the things we've talked about. people like that in life who are bigger than life and when they're with you it's a special experience every time. >> like dee dee said she made you feel actually cooler than you actually were. >> yeah. >> thought she was so cool. >> so great. >> polls are snapshots and i'm already hearing from republicans who are complaining these polls aren't telling the complete story and the president's not in great shape. it's a close race, but just the unemployment number alone of all the bad news, the unemployment number alone you could have imagined putting him in a much worse position than he is.

he's in this. i still think he's the favorite. he's in this. and in the swing states he's doing just fine. he's below 50 and that's a bad side for him, but the fact the economy as bad as it is he's in this and starting to define romney in a negative way with his advertising. it's a good sign for the president. >> and you brought up, both of you guys brought up just the space of bad news he's had over the past month, a terrible month, mika, but what have we been complaining about every morning regarding mitt romney's campaign. it's a formless campaign. that he doesn't want to tell you what he thinks about immigration in arizona, the day that immigration comes out. i was complaining yesterday that he's running the four corners. he doesn't want to define himself. he wants to run out the clock. and when you do that, when you do that as mitt romney is doing, you allow your opponent to define you. and as we go with chuck todd next block into the nbc news

wall street journal polls, we will see effectively the obama campaign is able to define mitt romney because mitt romney wants to remain formless. >> but, also, we'll take it a step further and we should revisit your concept on it and what does it leave us with? an election about nothing. nothing being talked about. and nothing being done and that is too bad. >> and guess what? >> that's on them. >> and also may be why the president's numbers are upside down for the first time in how long? it's been a long time since -- >> since december. >> since december. >> so yes, this is -- we called it, you called it the "seinfeld" campaign last week. i think it may be why their negatives are going up. both of their negatives are going up. >> one of the interesting questions, timing. the president's trying to define romney at this moment where barack obama has the spending advantage. in the fall republicans will have the spending advantage because of the super pacs. the question is can the obama campaign lock in the image between now and labor day

because they'll get outspent in the fall. >> dee dee myers stick around. joe mentioned chuck todd is here to break down the new polling. joining us democratic senator claire mccaskill of missouri. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks.

last season was the gulf's best tourism season in years. in florida we had more suntans... in alabama we had more beautiful blooms... in mississippi we had more good times... in louisiana we had more fun on the water. last season we broke all kinds of records on the gulf. this year we are out to do even better... and now is a great time to start. our beatches are even more relaxing... the fishing's great. so pick your favorite spot on the gulf... and come on down. brought to you by bp and all of us who call the gulf home. thought they were dead. huh? [ male announcer ] should've used roundup. it kills weeds to the root, so they don't come back.

roundup. no root. no weed. no problem.

here's the bottom line, folks. bain and their companies they made a great deal of money facilitating this outsourcing and offshoring american jobs. yeah, they made a lot of money, but in the process, they devastated, they devastated whole american communities. so you got to give mitt romney

credit. he's a job creator. in singapore, china, india, he's been very good at creating jobs overseas. they say the president is out of touch when the president encourages young people trying to get manufacturing jobs. they said out of touch. out of touch. a prospect of a president with a swiss bank account and a retirement investments in the cayman islands? all kidding aside. did you think you would be choosing between two people running for president, one of whom had a swiss bank account? >> welcome back to "morning joe" live look at capitol hill on a beautiful morning in washington, d.c. here with us now, democratic senator from missouri. senator claire mccaskill and nbc news chief white house correspondent and political director and host of "the daily run down" chuck todd. >> thanks. >> claire, my favorite senator. >> want to dig into your favorite senator and dig into

the nbc news/"wall street journal," but first -- >> she's perfect. >> hear you're going to the democratic convention, is that because you're working hard for the people of missouri? >> i've never gone when i've had a contested race. i think, you know, you've got to say to people at home which is more important, going to a place with a bunch of party honchos and having cocktail parties or being at home talking to them. so this has never been a hard call for me. everybody's trying to make this a big deal, a narrative. it's stupid. >> nothing to do with the president. >> absolutely not. >> not being popular. >> no. i've asked the president to campaign in missouri. >> have you? >> of course. this is really -- by the way, if i went to the convention you know what the republican operatives would be trying to get them to talk about, doesn't care about missouri, going to a party convention. >> you cannot win. >> i cannot win. >> dee dee would agree, i'm sure chuck agrees, that's a smart call. if i were in a contested race in missouri whether a republican or

democrat -- >> after labor day too. >> after labor day -- >> more candidates aren't going to both conventions these days because they've all gotten shoved so late because it does sort of get into -- the only thing i wonder, conventions have usually been a pretty good place to raise money. >> at that point in time -- >> you should have raised your money. >> if i am having difficulty raising money i'm in trouble. this race is -- there's going to be a huge contrast between a very extreme tea party view and somebody who's very proud to be a compromiser and a moderate and if that is not resonating after labor day in terms of holding on to the senate for the democratic party then, you know, i don't think -- i'm going to be spending much more time talking to missourians in september and october than donors. >> we've been talking an awful lot this morning about our friend and everybody's friend, i think on the show, nora ephron, one thing we've overlooked, speaking of tea party, chuck todd, last night, orrin hatch proved he was not going to get

outflanked on the right. >> he learned a lesson. he learned his lesson from bennett. he saw what happened. remember, he won this at that convention. >> yeah. >> there was nothing -- the utah electorate itself, bob bennett had gotten into his primary. >> yeah. >> he would have won probably not by quite this margin but by a similar margin. he would have won as well. that was -- there was always sort of -- only a small core of anti-hatch. >> suggest a little less energy around the tea party -- >> i think we overread it in some of these victories. >> the economy is better, people aren't quite as angry? >> there's never been -- you can't prove to me that -- we didn't have a primary in utah two years ago. i don't think there was the anger. i don't think bennett would have lost the primary. i hear what you're saying and know there's some of that, but then, you know, look at what happened in oklahoma. >> you're exactly right. don't overread this. i think what you have is a

candidate that was ready. >> yeah. >> that was not going to be bli blindsided. >> and outspent his opponent 10 to 1. >> and seriously -- >> moved hard to the right, you guys. moved hard to the right. >> orrin hatch. he's always been a conservative but so was bob bennett and dick lugar. he saw what john mccain did, who said immigration reform, not me. and did all of that before his election in terms of a tough primary and i think orrin hatch was paying close attention and all of a sudden didn't want to talk about how hard he worked with ted kennedy on so many bipartisan bills. >> who would in a republican primary in utah. >> that's fair. >> let's talk about the nbc news/"wall street journal" poll and love to get everybody's input on this. chuck, it seems that the negatives and we hear it and when we go out i know you hear it when you go out, the negatives against both of these candidates, just keep going up because this is a campaign. you know, people tell us all the time, they're saying nothing.

>> right. they are saying something, but everybody they're saying has been poll tested and sort of squeezed. >> i want to give credit to mike murphy, i remember about two months ago said, you know what this is going to look like right after romney was sort of -- santorum dropped out -- these guys are going to be -- both of them in horrible shape by the time of the convention and when you look at our poll you see the evidence there because here you have the rough economy, taking a toll on the present, and yet the president's ad campaign -- right now you can argue the president's winning the campaign. where they are facing off, the president is winning. what's the evidence? romney's negatives are going up and those swing state numbers, not just us, look at the state polls out, everything is -- >> mika, really quickly, i want you to respond to that, talk about the swing states but the bain attacks are actually working. >> it wasn't bain, by the way. he's not been negative on bain up until yesterday on tv. they've been about massachusetts. >> and the whole outsourcing issue.

new nbc news/"wall street journal" poll showing a tight presidential race. the numbers getting worse for both candidates. let's look at the president and mitt romney in a statistical tie within the margin of error. 61% of the country saying we're on the wrong track. for the first time since december, president obama is upside down in his approval rating with just 47% approving of his job in office. the number drops even more when voters are asked about the president's handling of the economy. only 42% approve while 53% disapproach. >> just stopped right there, you would say this incumbent, toast. now read about mitt romney. when asked about how mitt romney's business experience will impact their voting preference, nearly 50% said they didn't know or that it made no difference. 28% said it had a negative impact. and when the two candidates are compared in 12 battleground states president obama's lead increases 2 points from may, 50%, to 42%. >> i can't remember a race ever

where plurality of voters saw business experiences as a negative, ever. i never seen that in politics. >> there's some confusion. >> think about this $25 million has been spent in the last month and think about the ad that has run. most of that ad is run and actually what you were talking about, a month ago, why aren't they hitting him in mass set chets. it's been that one ad they've been running we see it here in northern virginia which is simply, did you hear what he said, he talked about his business background, right before he took over as governor of massachusetts and they do a side by side of romney. it didn't work there. why do you think it's going to work now? it's just a basic negative ad. and they've just been pounding it over and over again and guess what? it's taking a toll. one other thing i want to point out. you have on the tv ad campaign wars, you have the obama campaign controlling 90% of the democratic ads. but on the republican side it's split up between the groups. everybody talks about all the super pacs. they are -- they are going to be the key for victory for the

republicans. i'd argue that since there's three different people handling message, they're not on the same message. it's all over the place and it's not having the same impact on obama that the singular attacks that are controlled by obama is having on romney. >> that's great point. >> yeah. >> claire, i remember the angriest i got during my campaign, primary campaign, i was running against a moderate republican and i had this figured out. i was pro life, i had the church support behind me. so all i talked about was the economy. and some third-party group started blasting these social issue ads. and i just went crazy. because they thought they were helping me. they were getting me off message. so every stop i went to, people were talking about these ads. i remember calling the people up screaming stop, stop, and they said we can't talk to you. you know, i was just like out of

my mind because you can't coordinate. >> right. >> i was out of my mind crazy. chuck brings up a great point. yeah, a lot of people may be throwing a lot of garbage at the wall, but it may not be necessarily good in the end for mitt romney. >> well, this is going to be -- i can't -- the presidential is a little different. because of the sheer weight of what's being put out there and in these swing states on both sides they're going to have plenty of air time to try to draw contrast. in the senate races it's different because you have an incredible amount of money being brought to bear in a handful of states and just on the republican side of the equation and this is all the secret money that is flowing in through two or three different groups, coordinating with each other. in my state they've handed off week to week since october almost $7 million of negative ads from anonymous money running against me in missouri. it is enough that frankly if i were running this race 10 or 15

years ago i would be in a fetal position on the floor right now. it's a little overwhelming. >> right. >> on my side i'm not really worried about the messaging being out of sync by third-party groups on my side because there's few of them. >> senate race, right. >> there's nothing there. there's nothing there. >> there is a difference in senate races and house and presidential. we saw this in '04, there were a million democratic groups thinking they were helping john kerry and they were not being able to coordinate and bush controlled it all. and even though bush was outspent by the democratic groups, they had a singular message and were controlling. >> dee dee, let's talk quickly about the swing states. i want you as you know, we look at the overall numbers, but at the end this race is going to be won in five, six, seven, ten states. chuck had the swing state polls in the nbc news/"wall street journal" poll in the 12 swing states of 50/42 spread. look at the quinnipiac polls that came out in the state of

florida, president obama is ahead, leads 45% to 41%. in ohio the president's lead expands nine points, 47% to 38%, in pennsylvania up 45% to 39%. ohio, that is a frightening number for any republican. i'll only speak to my state, though, florida, florida, i know it's called a swing state, that is such a conservative state. >> right. >> and for mitt romney -- seriously, if you are a republican running against barack obama and you are losing in the state of florida right now, you've got some serious issues. >> right. so he -- the economy is a little stronger in most of the swing states. look at a state like ohio where people remember the auto bailout, the auto bailout, which saved tens of thousands of jobs in ohio. >> and missouri. >> and you have republican governors in those states by the way talking about how the economy is getting better, which is making the romney campaign crazy. >> romney campaign telling rick scott to stop it.

>> stop talking about how things are getting better. the romney people have put all their eggs in the basket, this is a referendum on the president and they're not defining him. they're not telling people what he's for. not painting a picture of what the future looks like. elections are ability the future nationally and in the swing states where people want to know what's this country going to look like a year from now, five years from now, and he's not telling them. >> chuck, rick scott is governor of the state of florida. the state legislature, the republican state legislature, passes bills that make -- and i -- i'm speculating, people like jeb bush and myself go, wow. did they really just pass that. it is -- you know, you're a florida guy. >> yeah. >> it is so conservative. >> especially the way they drew the lines. >> especially the way they drew the lines. >> mitt romney is losing in florida. >> don't forget florida is the grand demographic experiment as well when it comes to obama and that's the other thing that's fascinating when you dig in our poll even though the number was

the same you saw the president lose ground with a lot of different white voter categories, white independents, romney took a huge lead, biggest lead he's had yet over the president over white independents, white women, romney came back, but you see obama's lead among hispanics jumped five points. don't think that immigration decision, which -- >> oh, yeah. >> enormously popular across the board but especially among hispanics. in florida, this is the grand demographic experiment, right, where can the president put together the coalition of african-americans, hispanics, young voters, and college educated whites -- by the way that was the one group of white voters where the president's numbers went up and not down. so, you see how the coalitions are being put together. you know, romney is putting all his eggs in this economy basket and then the -- that he's just going to maximize blue collar vote. >> what's the president's biggest challenge in missouri? claire? >> probably to show that he is

really the one that's going to protect the middle class and that this really is a contrast between somebody who sees frankly isn't probably being up front with voters about what he's willing to do with social security and medicare and college loans and, you know, all of the things that frankly define for many people in missouri what the middle class is all about. >> so if it's about the economy and the middle class, i don't know if we can get this up, the president's numbers and chuck you'll be able to highlight this, the president's approval numbers on the economy just keep dropping. >> that's because the economy is in bad shape. frankly, i know -- >> but doesn't the president pay for that? >> of course he does. of course he does. and, of course that's the challenge, is that we have had an incredibly difficult recession that we came out of and it's been a slog because it was a credit bubble and everybody was spending too much money so everybody retracted and you don't turn on a light switch to do that. it's something that happens over

time. it has been better. but for most missourians, they don't feel yet that we have turned the bend and if we can keep getting a little better between now and november, president obama is going to be re-elected. >> senator claire mccaskill, thank you very much. great to see you. >> thank you. >> chuck, good to have you. >> what are you doing at 1:00 -- >> 9:00. >> at 9:00. >> i may be watching "andrea mitchell reports." >> exactly. >> we got this, jim clyburn coming on. >> want to stay for magic? >> how come i don't get to stay for magic. >> i admit it, i saw it on "the run down" last night and i'm like really, he's in new york. how do i not? >> he's in new york. never mind. >> we'll be right back. zbigniew brzezinski when we return on "morning joe." we're at the legendary southfork ranch in dallas

for a cookout with world champion grill master brett gallaway. he's serving his guests walmart choice premium steak. but they don't know it yet. they will. it's a steakover! the steak is excellent. very tender... melts in your mouth... so delicious... tonight you're eating walmart steak. what? it's good steak. two thumbs up. look, i ate all of mine. it matches any good steak house if not better. walmart choice premium steak in the black package... it's 100% money ck guaranteed. try it for your fourth of july barbeque. how do you know which ones to follow? the equity summary score consolidates the ratings of up to 10 independent research providers into a single score that's weighted based on how accurate they've been in the past. i'm howard spielberg of fidelity investments. the equity summary score is one more innovative reason serious investors are choosing fidelity. get 200 free trades today and explore your next investing idea.

look who's here, magic is in the building. up next the hall of famer joins the conversation. oh, yeah, wes moore too. we'll be back in just a minute. with the spark cash card from capital one,

sven's home security gets the most rewards of any small business credit card! how does this thing work?

oh, i like it! [ garth ] sven's small business earns 2% cash back on every purchase, every day! woo-hoo!!! so that's ten security gators, right? put them on my spark card! why settle for less? testing hot tar... great businesses deserve the most rewards! [ male announcer ] the spark business card from capital one. choose unlimited rewards with 2% cash back or double miles on every purchase, every day! what's in your wallet? here's your invoice. the teacher that comes to mind for me is my high school math teacher, dr. gilmore.

i mean he could teach. he was there for us, even if we needed him in college. you could call him, you had his phone number. he was just focused on making sure we were gonna be successful. he would never give up on any of us. thin coffee shops. people who i thave been out of work. you can tell it wears on them. narrator: he's fought to pull us out of economic crisis for three years. and he still is. president obama's plan keeps taxes down for the middle class, invests in education and asks the wealthy to pay their fair share. mitt romney and his billionaire allies can spend milions to distort the president's words. but they're not interested in rebuilding the middle class. he is. i'm barack obama and i

welcome back to "morning joe." up in new york, joining us now, nba hall of famer chairman and ceo of magic johnson enterprises, magic johnson. he's launching a new television network, aspire, which appears on comcast. joining us best-selling author, wes moore. good to see you both, gentlemen. >> thank you. >> magic, is the goal total world domination? movie theaters, real estate, starbucks, now your own tv network trying to put us out of business. turning around the l.a. dodgers. starting to get scared of you actually. >> i was here with you before and we talked about the dodgers. >> yep. >> and off to a good start. aspire is really great and i'm excited to be launching this new network because it will feature some of the best work of african-americans. when you think about the african-american creative community, they're excited. the producers, the writers, the

actors, the directors. because now they have a platform that they can bring content and family-driven content and i think that the marketplace is just so blown away. we've got some great, great founding partners. think about chrysler, the coca-cola group, walmart, nationwide insurance, so we're all excited about -- they're all excited about launching with us and l'oreal usa and they came in at the beginning and believed in aspire and believed in myself. that makes it great. >> what can people expect when they click on to aspire? what's going to be different about it? >> i think what we want to do, just like i grew up watching tv with my family, on sundays and saturdays, we all sat down together. that type of content is what we're going to deliver to them. positive, positive images of african-americans. it's going to be comedies, it's going to be music, faith based,

it's going to -- we have documentaries. so it's going to be great. and i think that if the family wants to see something powerful and they want to laugh, they want to cry, they want to get educated and think, tune in to aspire. >> cry and get educated and think. what magic has done now. the second act of his life. you were a great basketball player and now is one of the most prominent business people in the country. it says a lot. one thing is the name. the i is lower case like it's note about an individual. it's about the community. how do you hope this alters not just the internal image about the americans, but the external? >> that's a good point. the whole thing is that we have to get back to making sure it's

about community. it's about making sure our young people have positive images on tv, role models that they one day can dream about being just like them. for me, it was like when i saw oscar robertson and i saw wilt chamberlain and all these great basketball players, they being the guys like that, i wanted to be like them. i saw these images on tv and i wanted to be like them. then we had great shows like good times and sanford and son and all these tv shows that we watched together. we want to get back to that. aspire is going to allow african-americans to dream. here are positive images and young people can dream one day they can be just like them. >> it's interesting listening to you and pulling on the thread of community. and the network.

community-based like small ball. we will show you good images of the african-american community. the dodgers, a team that goes through so much grief and a franchise that has been through so much. you performed the dodgers and can you talk about the fact that you and the ownership group are pulling that community thread in united states to revive the dodgers's fan and glory. >> the dodger grand and the dodger team means everything to los angeles and the fans there. what they are trying to do is make sure this is their team. it's not our team. it's the los angeles team and the dodger fans team. we came in and lowered parking prices and said we want you back and it's a new day at dodger stadium.

stan is out there meeting and greeting fans every day. we locked up andre ethier and matt kemp hopefully will get him back and kershaw is one of the best pitchers in all of baseball. we will be aggressive now in the free agent market. we are going to do things to bring back dodger pride. >> no one on one with kemp? >> they are challenging, but i told them not until after the season. this will be a big story. the owner hurts. i don't want that on my watch. >> chuck todd to lobby the softball question. >> magic, i want to warn you now that you are a comcast colleague, when you get in the e-mail system, we can get your e-mail.

you will be stalked and all this stuff. i want to ask you about kemp. when is he coming back and are we going to hold on to first place? by the time he comes back, this is rough. what's going with james loney? >> all the trade things i leave up to stan. that's his decision. let's give the dodger team a lot of credit for still being in first place and matt kemp has been out for almost a month. our team is fighting hard and playing solid defense. we haven't been getting the big hits lately. we are in a slump right now. kemp should be back around the all-star break or right afterwards. we want him healthy this time. we don't want him reinjured like last time. he came back too early. at the same time we know it's a long season. we are patient. we know that we are going to go through the slumps like every team has to go through.

this is our time right notice. we are going to be hanging in there. we know that the giants and the diamondbacks are contenders and going to fight hard because of the two organizations. >> we only have a couple of seconds left, but have to ask you about lebron. how does it change for him? >> lebron, she changed now forever. when you are a champion, before he was not a champion. when you become a world champion in the nba, it changes people's perspective of him and now they embrace him more than before. he feels a lot better. give him a lost credit. he dominated the nba finals. >> you should say hi. >> hi, bud. thank you too. >> magic johnson. taking over.

taking over the world. the aspire network. check your local listings. congratulations and one more step to world domination. thanks, magic. stay with us. we'll be right back. ♪ why not try someplace different every morning? get two times the points on dining in restaurants with chase sapphire preferred.

thought they were dead. huh? [ male announcer ] should've used roundup. it kills weeds to the root, so they don't come back. roundup. no root. no weed. no problem. roundup. good afternoon. chase sapphire. (push button tone) this is stacy from springfield. oh woah. hello? yes. i didn't realize i'd be talking to an actual person. you don't need to press "0" i'm here. reach a person, not a prompt whenever you call chase sapphire.

♪ [ male announcer ] its lightweight construction makes it nimble... ♪ its road gripping performance makes it a cadillac. introducing the all-new cadillac xts. available with advanced haldex all-wheel drive. [ engine revving ] it's bringing the future forward. i knew it'd be tough on our retirement savings, especially in this economy. but with three kids, being home more really helped. man: so we went to fidelity. we talked about where we were and what we could do.

we changed our plan and did something about our economy. now we know where to go for help if things change again. call or come in today to take control of your personal economy. get free one-on-one help from america's retirement leader.

recently, students from 31 countries took part in a science test. the top academic performers surprised some people. so did the country that came in 17th place. let's raise the bar and elevate our academic standards. let's do what's best for our students-by investing in our teachers. let's solve this.

>> good morning, it's 8:00 on the east coast and 5:00 on the west coast. we have a live look at

washington, d.c. back with us on set we have andrea mitchell, mark halpern and john heilman. we have arianna huffington and we are all a little bit in shock this morning. you probably heard now the very sad news that author, screen writer, directionor and good friend of ours, nora ephron died of pneumonia after a battle with leukemia and leaves behind such a legacy. a resume of hollywood hits. we saw some of those. she wrote and directed julie and julia, the story of a blogger who makes each of julia's recipes in a cookbook. she was in the 1998 film you've got mail and used the same duo five years earlier in sleepless in seattle where a widower finds

love from across the country. then the new york favorite when harry met sally. i'll have what she's having. a love letter to the city where she was born and later worked as a journalist. >> i'll have the number three. >> i would like the chef salad with the oil and vinegar on the side and apple pie ala mode. i would like the pie heated and i don't like the ice cream on the pie and strawberry and only whipped cream if it's out of a can. >> just the pie? >> just the pie, but not heated. >> uh-huh. >> what? >> efron wrote more than a half dozen books. she was a frequent guest on "morning joe" and loved talking about the business that made her

a household name. >> i worked at one point for a very difficult person. very famously difficult person. he had never been difficult with me. i didn't know what he was talking about. he was sweet and fine with me. one day he called me up and yelled at me. i was fascinated. i was completely fascinated that he yelled at me. no one had yelled at me and i was on the phone and yelled and yelled and yelled. it was more and more hurtful. afterwards when i told one of my colleagues, he said you are not supposed to listen to that. you are supposed to say this is a terrible connection. i can't hear you. just hang up. >> nora was 71 years old. obviously her career is amazing and we will be revisiting it

throughout the show, but arianna huffington called you last night and asked you to be on because i can't think of funnier better advice i got about life than from nora ephron. i figured we could start there. >> advice about everything. the reason we are all in such shock is because she was always so full of life. she was always celebrating life whether it was what she was eating or what she was going to cook or her children or movies or the play she was doing right now. the last play that tom hanks would be in. she was so excited about that. she wanted to make sure she could do it. didn't want other people to know she had leukemia because she believed she would beat it. if it wasn't for the pneumonia, she thought she could dot play she so much wanted to do. >> so heartbroken over the news of her passing, but also

horrified. we had no idea she was sick. none. did you? >> actually people knew there was something wrong. the last time i saw her about a month ago, she was celebrating rita wilson. she was always celebrating her friends. she had just taken up sing. let's go to this chinese restaurant and celebrate rita. there was something different about her. over the weekend i was with another close friend and she didn't respond. the reason she wanted to keep it a secret is because she wanted to do that play and keep going. when her son max called me and -- monday night. her words were moment will not wake up. they knew it was over. we waited and the family was

ready to release it last night, a day later. i started preparing tributes to her. what was amazing is there were not 12 sections dedicated to her. so many sections is a catched by her life and her work. the book and the entertainment section and the section about nora on divorce. she came up with the idea that they should have a divorce section. marriage comes and goes, but divorce is forever. how many people can you say that about. they capture so many aspects of life and love our hearts. >> as we would say, we know you are bored. only boring people get bored. there is so much to be excited about. that was nora.

whatever nora touched -- it was divorce or whether it was necks. >> i hate my neck. >> i remember buying that book as a 40-year-old meat head republican and laughing from the front to the back. just going on and on with her like i was a 19-year-old woman about that or her movie. i mean it. i'm saying this is a tribute to the extraordinary writer she was. people that think this woman wrote movies in the 80s and 90s, they know nothing. she was a trailblazer going back to the early 60s. and her work. >> you know, i would call myself an admirer, fan, and acquaintance. not a friend and not deeply in her circle at all. she would come here and had roots here in washington.

she was part of that georgetown circle. she was such a writer and such a voice. it was a real writer of profile. she started out and made it possible for so many other women like myself. then of course her voice. her unique character and take on everything. think about you've got mail. how many of us really understand the culture of e-mail at that point when she wrote that screen play. all the other sleepless in seattle with the emerging of music and character and nostalgia. >> it was always about love. it was always a yearning. >> and kindness. most memorably she was at the state department and hillary

clinton flew back for 36 hours for the kennedy honors. she did the tribute and people were still talking about it and amazed at how funny and wonderful she was. the toast to merrill streep, her friend who was one of the honorees this year. she was hilarious in teasing hillary and paying tribute to merrill streep. the kindness of this woman. >> we loved having her on. she watched the show an awful lot and she was just obsessed. obsessed with politics like she was obsessed with food and obsessed with everything else. there was never ever any bitterness in that obsession like we see with so many other people. there was this wonderment and joy with her. every time we saw her. absolutely. part of the shock as arianna pointed out for me is that i saw her at a dinner for about a month ago for the robin hood

foundation and i was lucky enough to sit next to her for three hours. seated on the other side of nora was a wall street executive. nora spent the night harassing this poor guy. let me get this straight. because the president was mean to you, now your feelings are hurt. i thought you guys were the masters of the universe and you are not going to support him because he was mean to you? get tough. she was all over this guy in a funny and lighthearted and great classic nora way. >> she loved games and loved one conversation at the dinner table and loved charades after dinner. and she was so good at it. in the last two years, we vacationed and she had that playful part of her. she could argue about wall street and iraq and the latest news and then we could go

shopping for shoes. bought the same pair and one night we were having a conversation at the 92nd street and she called me and said let's wear the same pair of shoes. she had the playful attitude. when we talked last night, the first thing we felt was like a girlfriend had died. so many women felt that. i got so many mails from women saying let's have a dinner to celebrate her. and men loved her too. partly because of course this was this food connection. remember when she said i respect a vegetarian, but i could never fall in love with one. >> we had incredible lunches with her. we were working on a couple of projects with her as well that some will not come to pass now. what a brilliant mind. i can't really get to her career because her spirit had such an

impact on me. it was maternal and it was like a sifter and a friend. it was everything wrapped up in one. >> yeah. she was obviously -- the superlatives don't stop with her, but you want to look at the body of work. she had just an incredible career. she moved to new york the day after she graduated from wellesley. she was quickly offered a job and told women are allowed to write at news week. she wrote a great essay starting in the 70s. she wrote about coming to new york and thinking it never occurred to her to say you will be wrong with me. she said okay. she got to new york and moved into the apartment on sullivan street and the day she moved in, there was an italian festival going on. she said she thought it was great. she thought it was permanent and she would have all the cotton candy she wanted to eat the rest

of her life. she was going to move out within a few days. you think about the stories in the books and the plays. you never want to in any way say anything -- you can't say enough about when harry met sale. you think about the genre of romantic comedy. a huge piece of the movie business. it's almost the defining movie and the ultimate in some ways. whenever good fellahs come along, you refuse to watch good fellahs. you can't watch that movie enough times. the writing is so beautiful and so true and so funny and so perfect, there was never a million great romantic comedies that they all go back to that. it's almost the purest expression of the form. there is 20 lines from it that are immortal.

it's a career. that movie is a career. >> that movie is and mika said same with sleepless from seattle. i can never turn from that. you've got mail. i have probably seen it a hundred times and every time is like the first time. >> arianna, i know this is hard. final thoughts to you. thank you so much for coming in this morning. for your beautiful words that we read last night on the "huffington post." >> she had three oscar nominations. for friendship, she would have had more. she was such an incredible friend to so many people and truly, truly treasure friendships and was there for everything right down to every detail. i remember when i moved to new york. i called her about everything including a gynecologist. she said for your girls because

i have young daughters. here's the gynecologist for your girls and for you. she goes down to every detail. we call talked about how she embraced e-mail, but never, never got on to twitter. she said that's the end of the road. e-mail, yes, blogging, yes, but not twitter. >> arianna huffington, thank you so much. we will see you again soon on happier days, but thank you for coming in. >> thank you. >> thank you and by the way, i think i can say that nora would tell us enough. what the hell is happening in the presidential race? >> she would think we went about 12 minutes to go. >> she would be serving breakfast. >> former adviser joins us here

and we will dissect the situation in syria and the impact in egypt on u.s. relations. is the new cold war growing with russia? just a few light issues for you. first bill with a check on the forecast. >> we are getting rid of debby in florida and a lot of clean up in days ahead. the huge wildfire burning outside of colorado springs. 32,000 people were forced to evacuate. imagine that number and a crazy number of people as the storm jumped the fire lines. only 5% contained and dozens of homes lost. we will get a final number tonight. the forecast is gusty and dangerous if the fire could spread to more homes. let's go to the huge story across the middle of the country. one of the most amazing hate waves the country has seen. get ready in the ohio valley. notice the temperatures from wichita to oklahoma to dallas. near 105.

that heat will spread slowly today, but by tomorrow, 104 in st. louis. 103 in louisville. the drought conditions will continue to get worse. the corn is not growing. bad news for the farmers in the midwest. by the time we get to friday. 100 degree temperatures arrive on the eastern sea bore. this is a very, very hot summer. st. louis could reach 104 tomorrow. you are watching "morning joe," brewed by starbucks.

>> welcome back to "morning joe." live in washington. joining us now, former and national security files impress me harder. the author of strategic vision america and the crisis of global power. thanks for coming back on the show this morning. we are in new york. y you showed him the ap that takes the pictures. >> i have two of him in frame. >> that's two too many. >> let's start with syria. syria is in a real state of war? where are we? >> it sort of is actually. where are we? that's the big question mark.

we had the basic choice here. it's a real break up once the state collapses. the consequences of that are far reaching. they could be stabilized and attract a civil war. next to it, we have iran that could become. >> could i ask you first of all in syria. >> jordan is not as stable as we all assume. there can be spill over. how stable is jordan? >> if someone puts a match in this situation through intervention or through attack on iran or some clash with hamas

and israel, the whole region could erupt. we are basically a choice of highly visible political intervention or direct military intervention or quiet accommodation. that is to say try to cool the relationship with iran. give syria a chance to work it out somehow if possible without massive violence. tryltiv to cue in your egyptian government and encourage them to take a stance and steps to reveal and reduce the issue of the settlements. so that the region begins to settle down. >> saying that the military

could arrest civilians. this sounds -- it sounds like a very western give-and-take. what is happening in egypt from your perspective. >> the transfer of power to a larger domestic constituency. that's a combination of the military and the middle class. the question is whether the muslim brotherhood can be one of the extreme manifestations. i think there is a chance of that because they do have an impressive history and a sense of worth. they see themselves equal with turkey in the region. >> i was going to ask you. obviously turkey has a history, but so too does iran.

my gut is you're right. you obviously have a lot more background to it, but why should we believe that the egyptians will follow the model of turkey more so than iran? >> it's not a question of belief, but whether we can marginally influence it. there is a possibility they want. we might make it defensible by how they act. it will become a self-fulfilling prophesy. let's start the settlements quietly and there could be real accommodation between the israeli skpisrae israeisrae israelis and politicians. no explosion and no attack. we may be able to transform the region quietly. >> there sorts of stability, but

the positive forces. are there positive forces of stability in the region? >> with that in egypt, there is a residual reality of that. except that there is a agreeing tension in jordan. turkey of course is a major source of stability in the region. the key source of stability in the region. provided it doesn't get involved in the big war with syria that begins to be stabilized. that part or provided we don't get through the israelis into a conflict with iran. the choices are now clear between doing something dramatic like a match or encouraging. >> shifting the focus to russia while the president was down in

mexico, he had that meeting with vladimir putin and a lot of people interpreted a lot of things on the basis of body language and there is something changing between the u.s. and russia in their relationship. are we on the brink of a new cold war. >> the period of controlled hostility. he was driven by nostalgia. he sees himself as one who can recreate. >> without a shirt on. >> without his shirt on to show how muscular he s. i can make a ton on this subject, but i will refrain. that's a serious force and sees itself as a civic society.

that is to say a society entitled to the constitution and democratic choices. raw governing reality. >> what should the implications of that be for u.s. policy? that meaning putin. >> you have to be pragmatic and accommodate the russians on issues where there is mutual interest and maintaining a collaborative relationship for afghanistan and being patiently distant regarding issues with the threat. it hasn't been noted in the american press and putin's choice for the modernization for the army with the chief of staff with the russian army. if we go ahead with the program, russia may preempt or start an attack. he went to finland and had a speech blasting the fins and the swedes for working closely with the west and collaborating with

nato to the degree that both relationships had an honor. you are trying to tell us we can't have a foreign policy? is that an accident? are they speaking out at school or are they looking for putin? >> mike in new york has a question for you. >> if we can continue hop scotching the globe, there is in the papers today a small listing of six american casualties in the past couple of days in afghanistan. marines and two members of the army. we have in afghanistan an unreliable ally in karzai and we have a very contentious relationship with a critical nation. pakistan. what is our immediate future there. >> why not disengage if we are lucky and we can do it stable and intelligently or messy. i wouldn't quite agree with you

if i may say so regarding karzai. he is in a difficult position. he is an awe thendic leader who opposed the taliban. he is also dealing with a country that doesn't like foreign presidents, especially foreigners with guns. there is a real resentment against america. they are surfacing rather sharp low. he's in a tough position. i would give him hoar of a break. we have a tendency to have public allies and when the going gets tough, we junk him. we did that with disastrous consequences. i don't think we ought to treat karzai as a semi enemy. >> wes? >> thank you. we all know that whether we are talking about pakistan and afghanistan, egypt and the

collection of challenges that we face in the community, this is being done and being discussed under the haze of the presidential election. this is not going noticed amongst the international papers. how much do you think that is affecting the conversation right now and capitals around the world this idea that there will be this election coming up and it will be closer than a lot of people think. >> people are hedging their debts and they have to contemplate the possibility that they may be dealing with a different president. i think what worries them the most is that they will subordina subordinate serious decisions around the policy and we might do things rationally because of the immediate effect and there people who want to take advantage of that. >> thank you so much. thanks, dad. your book is strategic vision.

it's nice to be here in washington. >> nice to see you. >> really? >> he sounds a little sarcastic. >> he is being sweet. >> that was love. >> i have been saying this to you for the last 30 years. >> really? >> rebuilding from the hubble in haiti with the help of the beautiful game. dick gephardt on "morning joe." , you'll get lost in an all-beef hot dog world. what was i supposed to wish for? why am i wearing a bow-tie? where did i leave my bicycle? after all, when you're enjoying the beefiest,

juciest bite of pure kosher beef, nothing else matters. goodness gracious, that's kosher. with no fillers, by-products, artificial flavors or colors. hebrew national. the better-than-a-hot dog- hot dog. the teacher that comes to mind for me is my high school math teacher, dr. gilmore. i mean he could teach. he was there for us, even if we needed him in college.

you could call him, you had his phone number. he was just focused on making sure we were gonna be successful. he would never give up on any of us. olaf's pizza palace gets the most rewards of any small business credit card! pizza!!!!! [ garth ] olaf's small business earns 2% cash back on every purchase, every day! put it on my spark card! [ high-pitched ] nice doin' business with you! [ garth ] why settle for less? great businesses deserve the most rewards! awesome!!! [ male announcer ] the spark business card from capital one. choose unlimited rewards with 2% cash back or double miles on every purchase, every day! what's in your wallet?

working to bring professional soccer and work with the development company. thank you very much both of you for being with us. soccer, it keeps coming back to the show one way or another. i am thinking about a few months ago it's not joe who has a crazy weird sport that he is interested in, but it's growing among the young people of not just this country, but many others and something about it that is special and can spread something. >> bobby is a hero in haiti and across the world. he understands that soccer and sports give young people hope and allows them to be trained

and allows them to understand his life in front of him. you need to hear with him and what he has done. in housing, we contributed a chunk of money and bobbiy is making it work in haiti. >> how is it working. the sport itself and we will talk about what it is you are doing. you can go there with a lot of other -- soccer and young people and -- >> soccer is a worldwide game and has become global. what we are doing about it, we are trying to use this enthusiasm that exists to bring the kids's hearts and minds and give them something they love and the conditions. you need them every day and try to organize the games for them and give them good training and through the process, you educate

them. you sensitize them about their lives in general. hopefully that teachings will be able to help them in their life in general. that's the basic philosophy. >> where are you in the process of your goals there? i can't imagine that. >> it was 10,000 people after the earthquake. and because i have been around in the area t took me one speech with your general population and to tell them and use them. they use them and chose overnight to move out. they do value what they do.

feeding the kids and sending them to school and training them, i think the population appreciated that. we filled it up with rubble and that solved our sewer system. >> the goals are enormous and we want a team that can play on the international level. more than one team. you want to do things that from looking at the pictures and knowing what we know about where haiti has been left in the wake of the earthquake, but even before. >> you know, the biggest step starts with the smallest step. i think it's not such an outrageous thought that people want to play. the concept of because you have

difficulties, it's soccer responds to a lot of these difficulties. all i am trying to do with the development of the sports and the training and the infrastructure is to give the better conditions for them to really appreciate and develop. to create a nice morning and a field of stadium. they have been doing the job and they don't get to the potential because they are not the conditions. they are here and quickly. the supreme court tomorrow. what's going to happen. what's going to happen?

i think they will uphold the law and obama will win the election. >> absolutely. >> if the law gets struck down, what is the political fallout? good or bad for romney. >> they strike it all down. i don't think it makes a big difference and i don't think it may be the election. this election will largely be about the economy in the future. that's what usually it is. >> thank you very much and thanks for what you are doing in haiti. it's an incredible project. keep us posted. i would love to. i went there many years ago and i would love to go again more "morning joe" in a moment. our cloud is not soft and fluffy.

our cloud is made of bedrock. concrete. and steel. our cloud is the smartest brains combating the latest security threats. it spans oceans, stretches continents. and is scalable as far as the mind can see. our cloud is the cloud other clouds look up to. welcome to the uppernet. verizon. delivering mail, medicine and packages.

yet the house is considering a bill to close thousands of offices, slash service and layoff over 100,000 workers. the postal service is recording financial losses, but not for reasons you might think. the problem ? a burden no other agency or company bears. a 2006 law that drains $5 billion a year from post office revenue while the postal service is forced to overpay billions more into federal accounts. house bill 2309 is not the answer. focus lolo, focust sanya let's do this i am from baltimore south carolina... bloomington, california... austin, texas... we are all here to represent the country we love this is for everyone back home it's go time. across america, we're all committed to team usa.

how do you know which ones to follow? the equity summary score consolidates the ratings of up to 10 independent research providers into a single score that's weighted based on how accurate they've been in the past. i'm howard spielberg of fidelity investments. the equity summary score is one more innovative reason serious investors are choosing fidelity. get 200 free trades today and explore your next investing idea.

>> let's look at the morning papers business section. housing prices rose across the country in april or most of the country are fuelled by record low mortgage rates. the biggest name in phoenix. the hardest hit area was atlanta where prices dropped by 17% in the last year. >> l.a. times, the city of stockton e california is set to be the largest city to ever become bankrupt. they are reinstructing hundreds of millions of debt. they stocked bond payments and employee health and retirement paps and adopted a day to day

budget. >> the "new york times" said charlie rangle survived one of the toughest fights of his career. he won a primary with 46% of the vote. the next closest had 40%. his seat was considered up for grabs and centered by the ethics violations and the if failure to pay taxes. >> des moines herald and making front page news after speaking to the campaign rally and joe biden in an unscheduled stop in a grocery store where he emerged with three quarts of ice cream and cookies. it was probably no accident he performed blue bunny brand ice cream made in iowa. >> killing the aviator shades too. coming up next, the best of late night. with the spark cash card from capital one,

olaf's pizza palace gets the most rewards of any small business credit card! pizza!!!!! [ garth ] olaf's small business earns 2% cash back on every purchase, every day! put it on my spark card! [ high-pitched ] nice doin' business with you! [ garth ] why settle for less? great businesses deserve the most rewards! awesome!!! [ male announcer ] the spark business card from capital one. choose unlimited rewards with 2% cash back or double miles on every purchase, every day! what's in your wallet?

if you made a list of countries from around the world...y day! ...with the best math scores. ...the united states would be on that list. in 25th place. let's raise academic standards across the nation. let's get back to the head of the class. let's solve this.

>> both candidates are focused on fund raisers. president obama had one last night and got booed at his own fund raiser where people paid to come see him because he's a white sox fan and the red sox traded a popular infielder named

kevin youkilis and the crowd didn't appreciate his joke here. >> i want to say thank you for youkilis. i must say he had to change the color of his sox. i didn't think i would get boos out of this. i should not have brought up baseball. my mistake. >> since when did boston start hearing about that? the president from interview: i talk to folks on rope lines and in coffee shops. people who have been out of work. you can tell it wears on them. narrator: he's fought to pull us out of economic crisis for three years. and he still is. president

obama's plan keeps taxes down for the middle class, invests in education and asks the wealthy to pay their fair share. mitt romney and his billionaire allies can spend milions to distort the president's words. but they're not interested in rebuilding the middle class. he is. i'm barack obama and i

and this is what inspires us to create new technology. ♪ technology that connects us to everything the world has to offer and vice versa. ♪ technology that makes lightweight stronger, safer, and faster than ever before. ♪ technology that makes electric electrifying and efficiency exhilarating. ♪ technology that doesn't just drive us,

but drives progress. ♪ and driving progress is what we do every day. ♪ ♪ >> what have you learned today? >> people loved nora ephron and rightly so. >> mik a's dad knows not that much about ipads. >> comes in black and white. >> what are did you learn? >> how much we will miss her.