sadly, we have no time for your e-mails today, because intern it's@willie geist. there you go. "morning joe" starts right now. >> happy good morning. welcome to "morning joe." there's a nice view from the top of the rock. it's july the 31st, almost into august. i can't believe it. well, this morning on tuesday, july 31st, with us on set we've got msnbc contributor mike barnicle. also the executive editor at random house, pulitzer prize winning historian and "time"

magazine contributing editor john meacham and senior political analyst mark halperin and national affairs editor for new york magazine and political analyst john heilemann. also u.s. managing editor for "the financial times," gillian tett and willie geist is in london with us. it's like edward r. murrow. there's a different jacket every day from london. i don't know what that was yesterday. you're looking very edward r. murrowish here. >> you have to roll with the london weather. it's cold and rainy today. >> you really do. if it's the olympics, there has to be at least some kind of doping scandal. what's the latest from the olympics along with our small

doping scandal to start with? >> first of all, i think john meacham let's great in the hosting seat. i don't know how he got that job but good for him for getting it. there are accusations of doping against a chinese swimmer, a 16-year-old woman. she shattered the world record in the 400 individual medley. she won gold in 4:28 -- excuse me, 4:28:4.3 seconds. she ran the 50 meters faster than ryan lochte did. an american coach has now gone public calling this unbelievable, disturbing and suspicious. this american coach said it's simply not possible or conceivable that a woman, let alone a 16-year-old woman, could swim that last leg faster than

did the fastest man in the world and he did throw the term doping out there. he says there's a history of it, it has to be looked into. we'll know because all the medal winners are tested for something like 240 banned substances. we'll know soon enough but the americans are throwing that out there. >> what else is going on there? what's the big story? >> a couple of quick wins. missy franklin, the 17-year-old sensation who goes to high school in aurora, colorado. she won the 100 meter back stroke. a lot of pressure on her, a lot of hype. and on the men's said, 100 meter back stroke, grievers. ryan lochte was beaten out in

the free style. so this guy from france has lochte's number. he tweeted out "not so happy about that swim tonight. tomorrow i will be better." we have the medal board here, china and the united states. we knew this was going to be the competition for the lead between these two countries. as a football fan, you're going to enjoy this story. hope solo, the goalkeeper for the women's team usa. she's in a bit of a twitter fight with the world famous brand, chastain, who was on the '99 world cup team, took off her jersey. chastain is providing color commentary for nbc and she was tough on team usa's defense on the game against colombia. hope solo went on this tirade on twitter where she blasted brandi chastain saying she shouldn't have been there calling the game.

yesterday solo doubled down and said "it's not about what made me unhappy, it's not about one game. i have my beliefs that the best commentators and the best analys analysts come to the olympics. hope solo was called in for a meeting with her coach. her coach said i'm not going to tell her to stop tweeting. nbc standing by brand,chastain. brandi chastain says i'm calling them like i see them, i'm trying to be objective. >> put down the iphone, stop tweeting, you're at the olympics. i'm shocked anybody would fire off angry tweets. who does that? >> and they play usa against north korea today so we'll see hope solo in action today. >> very exciting. willie, we'll be talking to you.

let's go to mike barnicle with news. mike, a major institution, boy, something that's as american as apple pie and you name it, willie geist at the olympics. may be a this evening ng of the though. the u.s. post office in big trouble. >> we're going to lead with the hard to believe it could happen news file. the u.s. postal service could default for the first time this week. they are required to make $5. 2 billion but with only $1 billion in the bank, the mail agency, other post office says those bills will go unpaid. the mail will continue to be delivered day to day and post

offices will remain open but the post office's long-term outlook appears grim without an overhaul. the postal service is estimated to be losing $25 million a day. >> wow! >> first class mail volume, which has fallen 25% from 2006 is projected to fall another 30% by 2016. this is a service everyone in the country takes for granted. you put a stamp in an envelope in new york city and someone in los angeles gets it a couple of days later. we've absolutely taken this for granted. the rate for buying postage stamps is minimal compared to what you spend for other things in this country. how can this happen, joe? how does congress sit there and allow this to happen? >> it's unbelievable. it's also sad because jon

meacham, post offices were at the central of american cultural lives, the center of small towns. it's hard to believe time may be ma passing it by. there was a piece in the "new york times" this morning that said "like a lot of other agencies, this one has been strapped with health care benefits that have been outrageously high. but here we are on the brink of the post office facing extinction. >> yeah, it's been buffeted from every which way, from competition and technology, you know, it's one more phase in the death of print i'm afraid in a lot of ways. post offices were lincoln's first job was as a postmaster. it was the on federal government anywhere. the beginning of the british

empire. anthony trollup was a postmaster. >> it's not just america right now where this is happening. the reality is you're seeing these kind pressures right across europe as well. the fundamental question is do you think that the postal service should basically be a public good, almost like a service, a utility, a charity or is it going to be a business? because as a business, as mike says, it faces very big problems right now in terms of the fact that we're all shifting to texting and e-mail and this evenings -- things like that. but if you think there's a social function to it, then the government has to get behind it and that's an unpopular idea in america. >> obviously it's not going to be politically popular to keep that post office going. over the past month how many letters have you written and put a stamp on personally and sent out to a friend?

>> a big goose egg on that. first of all, i love being on this show because it's 6:08 and we've got references to both lincoln and trollup. joe, you talk a lot about it and we've talked a lot on this show about the incredible transformations that have happened to the economy. this is a great example of that. you think about not just e-mail and text but the way that fedex came in and then the united parcel service came in using sophisticated technology to build hubs that could move things around the world much faster than the post office could. it's another story about how the economy gets so much more productive, our lives change in ways that are profoundly beneficial, it's made everyone's life better and more productive yet there is this cost of jobs in the old economy, institutions in the old economy that people grew up with. i don't know that people would miss the post office.

they miss it more as a concept than a reality. as joe said, asked the question in the first case, most people now writing letters, you do your banking and all this stuff online. it's changed. it's just changed. >> it is changed. if you look at it, at gillian said, you've got e-mails and text messages but when you want to get something somewhere overnight, look at another great innovation from the 1980s and look what fred smith did with fedex. there's a ceo that completely changed the way we moved mail quickly overnight. you doesn't talk about express mailing something. you always talk about fedexing it. just the competition, mike, has come in from the post office on all sides. it's hard to see how they continue if they keep losing $25 million a day. let's go from the post office to politics.

mitt romney continuing his magical mystery tour overseas. some highlights and of course some daily gaffes. what was his daily gaffe from yesterday? >> the governor spent his final day in poland while trying to avoid any more forced errors. yesterday he visited the birth place -- he commented on israel and the surrounding palestinian areas saying "you notice such a dramatically stark difference in economic vitality, california makes all the difference. and as i come here and i look out over the city and consider the accomplishments of the people of this nation, i recognize the power at at least culture and a few other things, unquote. joe, those comments drew sharp criticism from top palestinian leaders. >> today mr. romney takes

another step forward of a racist statement saying that it's because of the israeli reality is better than the palestinian culture. look, palestinians and israelis may be in a conflict but they are equal. and such statements do not protect and save lives in this region. >> a very weary romney spokesman said this was not any way an attempt to slight the palestinians and. >> knows that. . >> and rahm emanuel saying i don't know how he handle the head of state job. he's made a mess of being a tourist. and david axelrod tweeted is there anything about romney's rolling ruckus that wouldin spire confidence in his ability

to lead u.s. foreign policy? >> not a great day. jon meacham, if mearns voters are paying attention to romney's trip and i think this will have a negligible impact in the fall but for those who are paying attention to this trip, they can't be comforted by mitt romney's performance. >> no, it's sort of a running snl skit. sometimes you you realize that politicians make it too easy for the rest of us. you compare this to obama in '08 where you had the celebrity charge and the big speeches. that created a certain impression of obama. if you're going to do this, the last week of july, the first week of august is the time to do it. >> one this evening i think he's shown on this trip is a lack of full awareness that context and place and timing matter in what you say.

you can say something in iowa or in a book and no one cares. you can't say the same this evening necessarily in the middle east in particular. and the palestinian reaction, the campaign is complaining that it's unfair but the reaction is what it is and it can dominate a day, which it did. >> this also underlines the fact that mitt romney is a successful businessman, he's done a great job at turning around the olympics, he's a great family man but this is not something that he feels in his bones. this is not something that he's been like most of us around the table, you know, we've been reading the books on history and politics and foreign policy, you know, since we were young. this is a businessman who has decided to get into politics for whatever reason and, mark, there just doesn't see to be the nuance there, whether you're talking about mitt romney on the

cam p campaign trail in iowa or israel. >> what his two gaffes have in common is it was romney as analysts, as management consultant, businessman, giving his analysis as pundit rather than recognizing he's running for head of state. and you have to diplo-speak and not analyst. >> if you look at these candidates that we have right now, if mitt romney were to win the presidency, our last three presidents would be mitt romney, barack obama and george w. bush, three men who personally have very little love for politics, very little love for the sport of it all, very little love or understanding of the grand sweep of history, unlike say a bill clinton or a ronald reagan or an

fdr. there just doesn't seem to be the joy in these guys either on the campaign trail or when they're governing. they seem to be -- well, at least the two that are running this time technocrats. >> they're competitive without being cheerful. i any what mark just said is exactly right, that politicians get in trouble when they act as though they're pundits or color commentators. you think about obama -- wandered into the truth but that editorial meeting in washington state in 2008 when he said reagan was transformative but clinton wasn't. >> nevada. >> reno. >> however true that might be, it was the wrong way to say it. >> you can't say it as a presidential candidate. >> the thing that really struck

me about looking at romney in london was his lack of agility. it was this incredibly stiff presentation which i find striking. >> you think about obama in 2008, they executed the important trip he did extraordinarily well. and the stakes were very high, much hyper than for romney because the media coverage was so much greater. there was an active war going on in iraq and candidate obama went there. he went to much bigger places, to berlin in front of thousands of people. he got that stuff, what he needed to project.

he was not being analytic. he stepped right into that role. you compare and contrast those two trips, obama's looks awfully good in retrospect compared to what romney has accomplished this week. >> mitt romney is just not nimble on the cam pan trapaign . i think we're going to see a very, very controlled campaign through august, september, october and the first week of november. i don't think they're going to let him out that much. >> well, joe, you know -- [ laughter ] >> they're going to have to let him out. >> occasionally at least. >> it going to be very controlled. >> unlike the obama group, he was among three countries that were supposed to be very positive to america. >> he chose great britain because i think most foreign policy observers would say that barack obama bungled the great

britain relationship. there's a special relationship between the united states and great britain and the british have felt over the past couple years at times barack obama has taken that for granted. israel, of course everybody knows that the israelis have big problems with barack obama. poland. poland was chosen because there's a simmering feud between lech walesa and the president. remember that remark "polish death camps"? mitt romney played to the three most favorable audiences he could find and he still stumbled through it. that's got to be troubling for his handlers. >> joe, you're talking about the substance of politics but in this world that we live in the theater of politics is often more paramount than the sub --

substance of politics. >> still ahead, jean chatzky, ed rende rendell. >> this afternoon and this evening we're continuing to watch the heat wave in the middle of the country. the problem spot this morning, alabama of all places. from birmingham to montgomery, we need the rainfall but not like this. we've had two inches in the last few hours. we've had flash flooding and almost 13,000 lightning strikes just in the last hour today. even d.c. will have a chance of storms today. they'll be hit and miss this afternoon. we look dry in new england, though you'll be ducking in and out of the cloud for the day. yesterday it was 111 in little rock, arkansas. today is another day from 105 to

110 from texas to oklahoma through arkansas, even kansas city is still on the hot side, near 100 degrees. here's the forecast for how hot it will be. oklahoma city today, 108 degrees. ouch. what an end to july. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. hangers. those ideas that start with us rolling up our sleeves... ...and end with a new favorite room in the house. and when we can save even more on those kinds of projects... ...with advice to make them even better... ...that's a game-changer in itself. more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot. get this all in one vanity, faucet, and hardware for just $249.

as the world around it. with the available lexus enform app suite, you can use opentable to make restaurant reservations. during the golden opportunity sales event, get great values on some of our newest models. this is the pursuit of perfection. welcome back to "morning joe." a skyline shot of new york city on this last day of july. let's look at the morning papers and start with the "boston globe." beantown is among the nation's best cities for americans over theage of 65. according to a recent study considering 78 factors that impact quality of life, boston

ranks fourth nationally as one of the best places to grow old. the list looks into housing costs, crime rates and social engagement and the number one city for the elderly was provo, utah followed by madison, wisconsin and omaha, nebraska. ironically the worst place to grow old is living next door to john heilemann. >> i believe that. joe, i view you reading that story as a personal attack on me. but that will wait for another time. >> i said nothing, mike. i said nothing. >> "los angeles times," hilarious bloopers aside, more americans than ever are falling victim to distracted walking, a number of americans landing in the emergency from injuries sustained while walking and texting or tweeting has quadrupled. that's no surprise. >> mika was way ahead of her

time. she did that years ago, jogging and ran into a parked car. "the washington post," jonah lehrer acknowledges taking dylan quotes in a book. the book has disappeared from retailers on the web. >> and expectations rise for new growth measures. the federal reserve and european central bank will determine what if any action should be taken to stimulate the global economy. the fed meets later today while the ecb meets on thursday. >> and in another sign of the times, the "new york times" reports that companies are now abandoning traditional consumer research methods in favor of gathering was in from millions of people on social media sites.

facebook and twitter are providing marketers with enormous pools of data, allowing them to break down brilikes and dislikes, according to age and gender. another sign of the times. >>. >> we're leading with wishful thinking on the part of the campaigns the lies that party tell themselves. you go to romney's headquarters in boston or obama headquarters in chicago, and they're going to tell you off the record why they're really winning. so alex burns and maggie hebron walked through some of the lies they tell themselves starting with and, joe, you're going to love this one, you've been saying this for weeks and weeks and weeks, that bain capital will somehow be a silver bullet for obama. there just isn't evidence of

that so far. the obama people will tell you that it's eroding romney's credibility but it's just not happening. closely related, the tax return argument. the obama campaign pushing that again in a video this morning. the romney folks will tell you whatever you think about mitt romney and he may not have been a very good tourist as you've been pointing out, people won't believe that he's shady, people won't buy the idea that he's dishonest. they're banking on that. a couple of the other lies we tell ourselves, wishful thinking on the parts of the campaign, any moment of the voters are going to engage, there's no sign that voters are moving or changing their minds. and for the obama folks, they say the base is going to come back. all those 2008 voters are going to come back, they just aren't. there still is a huge enthusiasm gap for both of these parties. >> up know, mark halperin, what's so fascinating is these

may be lies both sides are telling each other but both sides actually in their own way are very confident. of course the obama people have never had a shortage of confidence but mitt romney's people believe they're in pretty good position at the end of july. >> in is the first cycle in four cycles, maybe going back to 1992, when both sides at this phase, about 100 days to go, an expression they both use all the time is "i'd rather be us than them." they both have reasons to feel that way. for the romney side it comes back to the economy. a lot of coverage of the foreign trip and various flaps and gaps. friday when the jobs numbers come out, if they aren't good, that's going -- the romney people can argue with a lot of confidence and i think some accuracy that that's going to matter a lot more to swing voters in swing states than what's gone on in the last week. >> and john heilemann, if you're on the obama team and you look back four years ago, you say, man, we finished strong, we

always finish strong. we've got the superstar political athlete on our side and we've got a guy who is stiff on the other side. but if i'm on mitt romney's team, i'm looking at all the mistakes he's made, i'm looking at the gaffes, i'm looking at the fact that at times he's stiff and awkward on the campaign trail and it a dead heat. and i personally believe and i -- you probably agree, mitt romney if he knows he's got three debates and he knows the formats of three debates, he's going to do pretty darn well in those three debates. i think both sides do have a reason to believe they're in pretty good shape going into the fall. >> you have on the based of the politico piece, you have this stubborn percentage that are not moveable now.

romney's argument that the macro economy, those people have seen obama for three and a half years. if they're not with him now, there's nothing to bring them over to the obama side. the obama people say their work what they've been doing defining romney over the past few months is ultimately going to produce enough doubts about him that they're going to want to stick with this guy they've invested so much in in barack obama. they both have cases to make. i keep thinking it's some external event, a flub, gaffe on the part of romney or external thing in the world that could make the ultimate difference down the loon. >> last word to mike allen in washington. go ahead, mike. >> for the first time a lot of washington republicans wouldn't rather be them than obama. there's real worry about this trip. tharp n they're not brushing it off. they're worried that he's a

candidate that doesn't have a sense of the room, doesn't have a as soon as of people he's talking about. mitt romney made those comments about the olympics in london. i was there this weekend. you didn't have to be there long to see how excited people were. you don't walk into a dinner party and tell the host there's something wrong with their lawn. >> mike allen, thanks very much. we appreciate it. when we come back, can the red sox keep the magic going against the tigers? the answer is yes obviously. the as and rays played 15 yesterday, almost long enough to make it to the beginning of "way too early." keep it here 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.

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mitt romney campaign still trying to do damage control after remarks that romney made while in the u.k. probably romney's furst gaffe was when he visited buckingham palace and said to queen elizabeth "you call this a house?" of course romney's in israel now. did you know that? over the weekend mitt romney was in jerusalem and he slipped a prayer into a crack in the waling wall. while he was at it, he also stuffed in $3 million of taxable

income. >> that guy, conan o'brien, grew up about one mile from the little basilica in the back bay known as fenway park where last night the red sox hosted the tigers. they signed a free agent a while ago named carl crawford. an rbi triple he hit in the first inning. he looked like a pretty good player, john. >> he's a bargain. >> later, miguel cabrera shot to the left side. will middlebrook saved his own life by catching this. red sox up by 2 in the eighth. middlebrook given. boston beats the tiger. they've won three games in a row due to the skillful management of bobby valentine.

ichiro, bang, right off the facade of the second deck, his 100th career homer, brings the yankees within one. johnson strike him out to end the game. 0s win 5-4. o'reilly and trump, i don't blame you. doing the wave is a mark of poor parenting, folks. don't do the wave at ball games. watch the game. yankees have lost three straight. don't worry about it, yankee fans, they're still 6.5 up on baltimore in the american league east. now the red hot oakland as at home against the rays. brandon hicks over the wall, bang. dead locked until the 15th inning around 3:00 this morning eastern, quarter past midnight in oakland. jamaal weeks comes to the plate, connects, game winning sacrifice fly. that's the major league leading

12th walkoff win of the year. incredible team out there in oakland. keep an eye on them. up next, wes moore joins us for the must-read opinion pages and up happen to be watching "morning joe" and we happen to be brewed by starbucks. ♪ ♪ i am you

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♪ >> former vice president dick cheney did an interview with abc news, getting a a lot of attention because he said picking sarah palin as a running mate in 2008 was a mistake. part one aired yesterday. i got to say they ended this first installment with a pretty big cliff hanger. >> i don't think she passed that test -- >> being ready. >> -- of being ready to take

over. i think that was a mistake. >> for more from my interview with former vice president dick cheney, tune in tomorrow. >> conan, pretty good. here with us now for the increasingly popular must read opinion pages segment and combat veteran wes moore. how are you, buddy? >> good morning, sir. how you doing? >> let me read this from david brooks. we'll throw it around the table here. david's writing someone put the slug on his piece today, dullest campaign ever. "president obama's proposals are small and medium size retreads while mitt romney has run the

closest thing to a policy-free race as any candidate in my life time. both parties are driven more by hatred than by love. both sides feel it would be disastrous for the country if the other side had power during the next four years. many democratic politicians think obama looks down on them as a bench of low life hacks. he sometimes seems to regard politics as weary duty on his path to greatness. how does that grab you, wes? >> you look at what's happening on the congressional side. you don't know whether this is a chicken or egg dynamic. you have dull campaigns where big policies and proposals are not being pushed but you also have a congress who said nothing is going to happen before the end of this year. what's really stark and amazing about that is the challenges that americans are facing right now require bold leadership.

they require someone to step up and have these kind of ideas that's going to put forth solid lie december and make sure people know that their heart, their vested interest is being thought about. it doesn't seem like that's being reflected by what's happening out of washington now. >> you seem to indicate a mild disagreement with david brooks' theer he theory this is the dullest campaign in life. >> well, david is wrong about a couple of things. 1924 was pretty slow. i think that it seems to me it doesn't feel as though it's a wartime campaign, it's not an ideological fort campaign like 1980 but to call it the dullest campaign ever i think is summer hyperbole. >> do you think he does touch a

reality nerve when it seems the president says i have to do this political thing, campaigning thing to get my second term so i'll do it but i don't really love it. >> joe made a comment earlier how neither of them relish the sport of politics. they're both detached and they're not populist canneds. they're a little bloodless. one of his criticisms and there's not a campaign being drr driven by incumbent campaigns. not like the 1992 campaign or 2002 campaign where compassionate conservatism where the ideas drive things. there's some truth in that column for sure. >> a lot of really good reporting embedded in there been david brooks writes as for one side he's more conservative than

not but he has and thrl -- anthropolo anthropologyical insight in there. he is not a cause candidate. he is not driving people to say mitt romney will change your life, will change the country in a fundamental way. >> the thing that strikes me thus far in the campaign is despite the millions that have been spent on all the negative advertising in order to try and create an impression of one candidate or another and all the focus groups that they employ on both sides of the aisle here, it strikes me that neither candidate might get the reality that i think we now are living in a country where too many people feel they can't even afford to dream, which is like a dangerous, dangerous thing for a

politician to have to deal with. >> and that was going back to this point where people hear just how big the problems are, people hear about fiscal cliffs, people hear about debt and deficits and they don't see any type of collaboration as to how we're actually going to solve these things. when we fundamentally break it down from past the 30,000 foot level and we actually drill into what's happening inside the lives of so many people around this country, that is where this amazing disconnect comes from and where we'll see the ramifications from that disconnect come november as well. >> you all would know much better than i would -- >> well, marc would. >> that's a good point. >> the whole thing is this is about a campaign. it's 270 electoral votes. this is not a public policy seminar. what are they hearing and seeing in their research that makes it play it safe approach -- >> i think this goes to one of the things wes says. this the fiscal cliff is there. this is one of the things that is most fascinating about the

campaign. when will that become something they feel they have to address. both feel as though there are too many risks in talking about what you would need to do to address those problems so they're risk averse on that front. but the question is whether the press and whether the reality of what has to get dealt with, whether that at some point impinges on this campaign and forces both or either of them to address it in a concrete way. it is a huge set of choices the country faces. >> if bob portman is the running mate, it will be addressed in the debate. >> coming up, we'll talk to the "washington post's" eugene robinson about what he calls mitt romney's gaffe palooza. keep it right here on "morning joe." ♪

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i have some suggestions on how to make dressage, or horse dancing, just as awesome as possible. how about a horse mosh pit, where all the horses just kind of flail around. >> no, no. it's supposed to be nice and fluid and steady and even and everything's supposed to be

metered. >> feels good. is there singing in dressage? ♪ >> the final round of the olympics -- ♪ ♪ dah-dah! >> i sing the song that we dance to. how about that? >> i was thinking like sort of a "dirty dancing" like i've had the time of my life where i'm standing in the center of the ring and i lift them to prove that nobody -- >> i think you'll have a hard time picking her up. >> what are the origins of dressage? did just one day some young horse say to his dad, "dad, i don't want to charge into battle, i just want to dance!" >> hey, comingp on "morning

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>> but america's winter olympics were mired in scandal and deficits. they turned to mitt romney. >> he faced a $400 million deficit and turned it around to $100 million sur palace. >> mitt gets things done. >> he changed my life. >> mitt romney brought a huge sense of hope. >> he allowed athletes like myself to be able to restore our dreams. >> welcome back. at the top of the hour a beautiful look at london whereof course the 2012 olympic games are going on. that ad of course references olympic games that went on ten years ago, and that was a new ad, part of the pro-romney super pac restore our future that's spending $7.2 million over nine key battleground states from nevada to florida. welcome back to "morning joe." mike barnicle, john meacham,

mark hall principal and wes moore, ed rendell, pulitzer prize winning columnist and sos associate editor of "the washington post" eugene robinson. what do you think about an ad starring olympic athletes in the middle of the olympic games about mitt romney. is that a winner or a loser? >> it seems like a waste of money. it doesn't seem like a compelling ad. the idea is to humanize mitt romney and tell his story. when there's no one out there driving the message that dovetails with the message of the ad, i think it mostly is just white noise and governor romney has moved on from the olympics. it's a curious choice in terms of timing. i don't find it a particularly emotional ad and that's what it needs.

>> so mark halpern, we'll mark you down as undecided. ed rendell, you get it, man. you get politics, you got it in your bones. we were just talking last hour about the frustration of having barack obama running against mitt romney, two technocrats who just doesn't seem to feel it. george w. bush, a guy who is very likable one-on-one just doesn't like politics. and mitt romney has been showing that he doesn't have the touch. he's picked great britain, israel and poland, three countries that have three different completely different reasons to not like barack obama and to embrace mitt romney and he seemed to bungle those three trips. >> yeah, it's true, joe. i think your point is very well taken. people like politicians who seem to like what they're doing, who are having a good time, who can drag them along and say, come on, this is going to be fun, we're going to turn the country

around. i think both candidates do lack that. they almost seem strained when they're out campaigning, like they're being forced to take their medicine. that's a very, very important point. second, this is august and you say will they remember these one incident, two incidents from this trip? it begins to pile up. after a while they just say, god, what's going on here? and the candidate almost becomes a caricature and i think mitt romney is not quite there yet but facing the possibility of becoming a caricature before the campaign starts. and lastly, i slightly disagree with mark. i think you're never going to humanize mitt romney. you can't do that. it's almost impossible. you can't humanize a robot, right? you can't do it. but can you paint him out as someone who gets things done,

who knows how to run things. i think that ad was effective. a lot of americans don't know what he did in the olympics and that ad is pretty effective. $400 million deficit, $100 million surplus, save the olympics. >> i think there's a difference between enjoying the politics and actually having a human touch. i think actually president obama, you know, even though he might not necessarily like the campaigning aspect of it, i think he genuinely does embrace the human touch and people feel that connection to him. that's the bar where i don't think mitt romney has crossed. mitt mu mitt romney doesn't have that human touch people have been able to handle yet. >> you look at barack obama four years ago and you look at him now -- when you meet him one-on-one, yes, you like him a lot but the campaigning certainly seems joyless. everything around the obama

campaign seems joyless. there is an analysis of the e-mails that the campaign has sent out and such a marked contrast between four years ago when they were talking policy and this year where, again, it's just sort of these attacks and this cajoling and this sort of long, hard slog. but i want you to put mitt romney's trip into sort of a historical frame because there's so many people that say campaigns doesn't matter, that the style of something doesn't matter, that a couple of gaffes here and there doesn't matter. i'm a big proponent of long, tough, hard, brudish, nasty campaigns because if you can succeed there, you'll be much less likely to make the gaffe when you're president of the united states that offends a key ally or sends the wrong message to an enemy. what's been happening this past week, i don't want to underline

it too much, but it matters. >> it does. and, you know, most people who become president remember have run a couple of times and that's -- romney has, too, but it doesn't seem to have caught as fully as hoped. >> except for our last three presidents, i'm point out. our last three presidents had never run for president before. >> my sense is the gaffes -- the old line of is it telling the truth, that seems to be the wrong use of the term at this point. what i would think is that romney has to make a case obviously that he can turn the economic numbers around. and this -- i don't know about the olympics. i mean, i think that it feels a little small bore in a way when you look at the whole economic

picture. i think mark's right about that. but the cumulative impression is going to be i think really taken in the fall. and this will be, i think, largely forgotten. >> you know, before we go to gene robinson in washington, for what it's worth, nothing, i want to give you my take on what you've been talking about. all of you. one, the romney olympic ad, people don't care what he did in the olympics. what are you going to do about my mortgage and kids tuition. this country is tired of looking in the rear view mirror, talking of them talking about the worst economic times we've had. let's go, get up off your ass, we can go do this, let's go. this country need as clint eastward campaign, the kind they ran in the super bowl. stop sulking, stand up and let's go. anyway, today, gene robinson,

"what romney knows about running the olympics is exceeded only by what romney thinks he knows about running the olympics. as prime minister david ram ron obliquew -- cameron obliquely knows. he etends to be arrogant about his accomplishments and dismissive of those who in his estimation fall short. anyone who falls short of his achievements must be insufficiently smart or not a hard worker and perhaps suffers from some moral debiblt as well. thus it doesn't matter if you're operating within a small, emcity or a big, crowded one.

romney earned $250 million and has a dressage horse competing in the olympics and, therefore, you can, too. why do you continue to pull the punches when it comes to mitt romney? >> it was a great halftime speech, i'm with you. let's go out and get them in the second half. i actually think that olympics ad was pretty good. simply because people are focused on the olympics now and that's why this period is at best a wash and probably a negative for mitt romney. i think people notice the olympics gaffe in london because, you know, nbc's ratings are through the roof on the olympics. people are paying attention. and in that context the ad maybe gets a little bit of that back. all in all this will not go down

as one of the great presidential campaign tours of the world and it's not really helping him. and i take joe's point that, i mean, really, if you can't go to london and say something nice on the eve of the olympics, if you, you know, we haven't had a war with great britain in a long, long time and you can't really mess up that relationship. so he hadn't done that well. >> just to clarify, i agree with what gene said. i think the olympic thing is a good one for romney. it's a little late and in the current environment an ad that's run that's not a break through exciting ad, that doesn't have a campaign message that dovetails with it to get people to focus on it i just don't think breaks through. >> ed rendell, if you're on team obama and you're looking at the

mistakes that mitt romney is making overseas, you're looking at how awkward he is in domestic campaign trips, you're looking at the bain capital stories that follow him around, you're looking at the fact that a couple weeks ago he couldn't even figure out what century he left bain capital, you're looking at the mess around the tax returns and this guy is looking awkward as can be, like you and i would sit there and be salivating and going are you kidding me? i've got to run against this guy? this is going to be fun. i'm certainly not putting myself in your category. a lot of politicians would eat this guy for breakfast, lunch and dinner. if i drew somebody like this, i would feel very lucky. if you're the ballpaobama campa though, you have to be concerned because he's not had a good year and yet he is still even with the candidate from home and change. what happens if mitt romney finds his stride in the fall and

survives the three debates and i think he'll probably do pretty well because they're structured and you can engineer those things to come up with your quick little pify talking points and steal a couple of good headlines. what are you thinking if you're inside team obama and you still haven't put this guy away? >> it reminds me of the great "saturday night live" skit where the first president bush versus governor duke dukakis and you can hear dukakis thinking how am i losing to this guy? it's still a tight race, a little better in the battle ground states but still a race clearly within the margin of error. you're also right because i think governor romney will do well in the convention speech and do well in the debates because he does pretty well in the debates in a structured environment, he's trainable, delivers the line, feels and looks a little presidential. i think all those things are

plusses, plus he'll have the expectation game going for him. people with all these gaffes are going to think he'll get blown away in the debates and i don't think he will. this is not going to be an easy election, despite all of the gaffes, except if people think he's not presidential. the american people want a president who is presidential. has mitt montaromney let that h out of the barn? i don't know. >> goene robinson, we don't kno if mitt romney let that dancing horse out of the barn or not. this is like you going into half time, you're 2, 3 points behind, you go get a drink at halftime and say we're going to win this thing because we know if we're playing this b and we're still

tied at half time, second half's ours. i'm not saying that's going to happen with mitt romney, he may not ever be able to do better than 18% from the field but certainly it has to be a concern for democrats, just like republicans have to be horrified that mitt romney is doing as poorly as he is on what should be favorable circumstances. >> both sides could have that same view of how the election is going. on the obama side they could be saying look where the economy is going at 1.5% or we're marginally tied or doing okay in the battleground states. they're tell themselves that as well. both sides can have this view, we're had a lousy first half but we can do better. that says it all about what this

campaign has been so far. this has not been an inspiring or fun campaign. i do have a friend who is actually from eerie, pennsylvania, who says that the dancing horse is going to be decisive, that pennsylvania will not vote for a candidate who has a dancing horse. now governor rendell would know. >> as they say, as goes eerie, so goes america. speaking of going, we were talking last hour about some glum news about an american institution that's been at the heart of our communities from coast to coast for centuries and may be going away soon. >> well, it's taken a rung out of the american lad ader so to speak. are you up to speed on the postal service basically going belly up and out of service? >> a little bit. >> the post office. you go out and pay minimal amount -- put a stamp on an

envelope and someone delivers it across the country the next day. it like an incredible thing. >> what about the great movie "the postman" with kevin costner when the country was destroyed by a nuclear holocaust, the last symbol of government interest was the post office. >> the movie was terrible. >> the theme was important. >> what does it say about us, never mind congress, that we're going to roll over and let the post office go under? >> clearly we shouldn't. one of the problems the post office has been having is the treasury has raided the post office a little bit. the men and women working for the post office will make that point over and offer again, right, mark? >> if we had 4% growth in this country, we'd find a way to save the post off. but right now anyone can be a casualty of where we are. >> i just went out and bought a book of ted williams stamps just

last week. >> people try so hard to have a hero recognized by the postal stamp. >> that's the problem. mike, you're talking about the post office in glowing terms. governor rendell, you are, i certainly am. i remember when i was young, you know, putting a stamp, a couple stamps on and that's how people communicating. but, wes, i asked john heilemann how many personal letters he had sent over the past month and he said none. for people under the age of 40 the post office seems irrelevant. you seethe e-mail somebody, text somebody, facebook somebody or send a fedex package overnight. i don't know what the future is for this institution. >> i do quite a bit of work with

post offices, working with prison populations, et cetera, letters is the on way can you communicate back and forth. but when you go into the post office on a saturday morning, when you look at the demographic that's standing in line and it's still a sizable line, it is not people under the age of 40. it does cause real questions about what is going to be the long-term future and particularly the long-term sustainable future of what that actual post office looks like. >> it goes back to finding every nickel of waste, increasing productivity. there's a lot of things that can be cut. for example, i love saturday service but do we really need saturday service. i'm sending a lot of my books out to friends and people all over the country. i don't want to pay fedex rates or ups rates. speed isn't that important to me. i want to use the postal service. >> joe, you mentioned something

earlier that struck a cord with me a couple of seconds ago when you said people under 40 no longer have use for the post office. i get that, i understand that with texting and tweeting and everything like that. but the post office in a cosmic sense is part of the social contract we have with each other as a country. and maybe some of the same people under 40 saying we don't need social but it's part of the social fabric of this country. >> you're exactly right. i'm glad we've been fighting to keep the telegraph operating the way we are. the telegraph connected new york city with san francisco during the gold rush. listen, unfortunately i'm afraid the post office is going the other way of the telegraph at some point because it seems that

the i.t. revolution has just passed it by. unfortunately the post office is faced with a lot of the same problems that states are faced with and that is very lucrative, according to joe,very lucrative retirement and health care plans that right now the service just can't seem to pay for. >> well, you have to assume that something will survive, the post office or some rump version of the post office. there's going be to some way to get those catalogues and that junk mail to your mailbox. and that's -- i mean, seriously. that's what sustains the post office and i think that's what's going to sustain what's left of the post office for some time. you know, look at your mail today. especially on a tuesday. you're going to find it's basically 100% junk mail. but people want that. >> joe, you're right. >> final word to ed rendell.

>> you're right about benefits costs. that's one of the areas that can be trimmed and savings put in place. but the post office need as turn around the guy. there may be a turn around guy available after the second week in november to run the post office. just saying. >> mitt romney is going to be postmaster general if he loses? >> just saying. >> transition position. >> gene, thanks very much for joining us. check out gene's latest column in "the washington post" today which is a sweet kiss for governor romney. check that out, okay? ed rendell, you're going to stick around for us. coming up, mark morial, what his group calls the hidden swing voters. but first bill karins with a check on our forecast. >> i have zero good news for people hit hard in the drought midwest seasons. yesterday these temperatures were arizona-look, 111 in little

rock, 111 in wichita. it's going to continue day after day. today we're going to easily see temperatures very similar, 105 to 110 in this area. look at the next five days in oklahoma city. no rain in sight as we head through the first week in august. temperatures drop off a little from 108 to 103 to 100 this upcoming weekend. where we are getting rain this morning, we do need it. areas of alabama are getting drenched. even now into north georgia. atlanta's airport could see problems during the day. forecast, we look okay in the northeast. the mid-atlantic not bad but storms along the immediate coast. northern plains look fine. anyone joining us on the west looking at a nice, simple weather pattern. enjoy your last day of july, everyone. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. ♪ ♪

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america says we will give you opportunity but you've got to earn your success. you're competing against young people in beijing and they're not hanging out. they're not getting over. they're not playing video games. they're not watching "real housewives." i'm just saying it's a two-way street. >> i'm just saying that's all a live look at the white house in this last day of july. that was the president last week at the national urban league in new orleans. when the president announced his white house initiative to help african-american students

achieve higher goals in education. with us to talk about that and much more, president of the national urban league, marc morial. we hear so many contrasts, how is the president received at your conference? is the excitement still there? >> i tell you, the excitement is incredible. what the video clip didn't capture is the president was actually talking to about 500 teen-agers in the audience at the conference. when he walked in, they went wild. they were wildly enthusiastic about the opportunity to see a president and to see barack obama. so that conversation was a bit of a colloquy which was going on between them and the president at our conference. but he was well received.

think about it, the opportunity for people to see a president in person, maybe for some of us, you know, it's common. but many people may get one chance in life, one chance in life. so he was well received and i thought his message was not only the education message but he did talk about violence and he also talked about his record and made a few points. >> let's talk about that for a second, if that's okay. let's talk about his record. of course it had to be so exciting for those students to see the president, you're exactly right. i'm so glad you gave them that opportunity. but let's talk about the president's record. obviously for african-americans especially but for all americans this has been a tough three, four years. is there a growing sense of frustration that this president and this white house is not able to do more to help african-americans in the economic plight that they've been suffering through over the

past several years? >> joe, it's a very fair question and i'd make three points. one i think the audience and the community and consistency, the urban league is mindful that things are better today than they were in 2009. no doubt by every measure, by every stretch. number two, that things are not where they would like them to be in urban communities and in african-american communities. but then, number three, i think the constituency understands the narrative of the congress, understands a role that congress has played or not played and that the president is the president, not the emperor, not the king, and therefore it takes a combination in order to be able to move meaning full initiatives. and i don't think that's lost on an audience like the urban league audience, which is i think a sophisticated audience that follows public affairs and follows public events. >> in the urban league report

last week you allude to hidden swing voters. who are they? >> there was an interesting thing in 2008 where african-americans and whites turned out at almost the same level. if you compare that to 2000 and 2004, it made a significant difference in the outcome of of the election in ohio, in virginia, in north carolina and in indiana and played an important role in states like pennsylvania and wisconsin. so the idea that these voters who are not thought of as swing voters, if they turn out in '12 like they did in '08, it's going to have a material impact in key states. >> if they turn out. >> if they turn out. and i believe they will. african-americans come up to me and grab my arm and say "we

can't let him lose." i think there's a sense that the president hasn't accomplished all that they would have hoped but i think the third point you made is a good point. black voters are sophisticated enough to understand he's been up against a very difficult obstructionist congress and they don't hold him accountable and want him to have an additional chance. i expect the turnout in philadelphia to be every bit as high as it was four years ago. >> the biggest concern i have in that area, i think enthusiasm will grow across the electorate after we get past labor day, the olympics and convention. my concern was the voter i.d. laws. and the spate that all of a sudden suv had 40 new voter i.d. proposals since 2009, if you will. and that people ask the question why and why now is there all of a sudden all of these new laws,

new ways, new restrictions, new things. people are saying did i miss something? did i miss some voter impersonation scandal? did i miss some problem? >> there's another thing that african-americans understand and that's alternatives. if you look at what happened even just this past week with mitt romney. there were two significant gaffes this were not lost on african-americans, one was the ang ang ang anglo-saxon comment. for him to talk about economic disparities and chalk it up to culture, the question has to be asked women make 77 cents to the dollar of every man, what's the

rationale behind that difference? and because the question is if you don't even understand the context of what you chalk it up to, how in the world can you be part of a larger solution to actually decrease that gap? i think that is something not lost on african-americans. >> but, wes, let me interrupt. i understand your point but has that gap increased or decreased since january the 20th, 2009? have the rich gotten richer and the poor gotten poorer since january 20th, 2009? if you're talking about a disparity gap, and i'm just asking you factually, hasn't that just increased since barack obama's been president of the united states? >> no, factually it has increased but i think it also goes back mark morial's point.

what are the increases in the disparity gap. >> but you're talking about mitt romney. you can't blame mitt romney for what's happened over the past four years with the disparity gap. if barack obama gets the disparity gap in a way that you're suggests mitt romney does not, and i'm not arguing that point, i'm just asking you, why doesn't barack obama do something about it? it seems to me you can't attack mitt romney for what's been happening over the past four years in this area. >> you can't attack mitt romney for what's been happening in the past four years but you can attack the fact that if you're applying for the job of commander in chief, president of the united states, and you've shown you don't even have a context of where these gaps are coming from and how to attack the gaps, what is going to be your plan to help decrease them? that's one thing president obama has done not just on the campaign in 2008 but even since. in the laws he's put forward and things he's tried to address, he's tried to go over the core

elements that have caused disparity gaps, everything from education, everything from sentencing issues, et cetera. the president has tried to put together policies. even though people understand the realities and the complexities of with this multi-cam rahal system of government, if you're listening to mitt romney talk about economic disparities are caused by culture, you know you don't necessarily have a champion that's going to fight to address a lot of these issues. >> well, culture -- i mean, culture, we can have the debate on what causes economic disparity. i would guess economists have probably looked at different cultures across the world and i'm sure that does go into part of the discussion but, givagain economic disparity explodes when the economy gets worse.

and unfortunately when the economy gets worse, who suffers the most? african-americans. and other minorities. it's not just specifically what a president is willing to do to focus on one group or another. you have to look at the macro picture as well. and if the economy continues to slide over three or four years, sadly in this country where you've seen it's african-americans who suffer the most. the president certainly has to take some responsibility for that, mr. mayor, does he not? >> the president does sort of co-own because the congress co-owns, the federal reserve co-owns the conditions of the economy. the fact on the table is employment is stronger today than it was in 2009.

whose plan is best for the future and who has a better understanding of the problems that we face? we can't dismiss the growing gap in this country. it's a long-term trend exacerbated by the recession. at the end of the day, presidents and people who want to lead this very complex nation have to have more than a superficial understanding of the problems. and also i think the question is whose plan is better for the future. i mean, i think we're going to get to that part of this discussion and i think in new orleans i think the president just gave a great talk, great talk. >> marc morial, thanks very much. >> thanks for having me. >> coming up, domestic affairs. we'll ask brigitte siegel about her revealing new novel. and new details on which leading figure democrats have tapped to

share the stage with former president bill clinton at the party's national convention. we're going to be right back. ♪ these fellas used capital one venture miles

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welcome back to "morning joe." a live look at the nation's capital. man, it is hot, not only in washington but across most of america today. mike barnicle, what a democratic national convention we're going to have at the bank of america center. i know the democrats are so excited to be going to the bank of america center convention center. >> they have party hats on and everything, showing their visa cards. >> they're probably going to hand out debit cards to everybody that walks -- it's going to be so exciting. but we got bill clinton. he's going to be talking. that's going to be big. but now we find out that the $25 million woman is also going to be center stage in charlotte. >> joe, i want you to calm down because i'm going to reveal this to you. new details this morning on the lineup at the democratic

national convention. opening night will include speechs by first lady michelle obama and mayor castro, who will be the first latino key note speaker in dnc history. but here's the big news, joe. it was also revealed that massachusetts u.s. senate candidate elizabeth warren will also get a high profile billing. she's going to speak just before former president bill clinton. how about that. >> that's amazing. that is amazing. jon meacham, that could be very big. i have a prediction to make, much like i said facebook would plummet like a led zeplin and it did. when a lot of people saw the president speaking in '04, then a senate candidate, they knew that they were looking at the future. i think elizabeth warren knocks it out of the park in charlotte. i think a lot of people may be saying the same thing about her.

>> it can happen. i mean, obviously there are moments, we have friends who have given speeches that haven't taken off and some who have. you know, it's a moment where it's such a fluid thing because it a tv performance but you have to have the room with you. so it's a tough, tough venue. and one that i think is always fun to watch. >> joe, also, though, keep your eye on mayor castro. he's an extraordinary political talent. a lot of the viewers of this show haven't seen him or met him. he is going to really impress people. >> the hispanic barack obama conceivably. >> the hispanic barack obama. >> remember, too, joe, you can fail on the stage and still recover. bill clinton's nominating speech for governor dukakis, you wouldn't have thought he was the future. >> which is actually still going on. >> it was horrible. >> just about to wrap it up,

joe. >> up next, briget siegel on her new novel about sex, money and politics. ♪ [ male announcer ] let's say you need to take care of legal matters. wouldn't it be nice if there was an easier,

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♪ hajimemashite. hajimemashite. hajimemashite. you guys like football ? thank you so much. i'm stoked. you stoked ? totally. ... and he says, "under the mattress." souse le matelas. ( laughter ) why's the new guy sending me emails from paris ? paris, france ? verizon's 4g lte devices are global-ready. plus, global data for just $25. only from verizon. ♪ all right. here with us now, former campaign finance director for the 2004 kerry edwards presidential campaign, briget siegel. she's out with a new book "domestic affairs," you wrote this entire novel on your

blackberry while riding the subway. >> i did indeed. you'd be amaze of how much practice you get on blackberries during campaigns. >> spell that out. how did do you it? >> everyone thinks i have this romantic notion of writing a book and you go to a coffee shop and find your seat and you sit down and you find your perfect chair and then you have to go to the bathroom soor like i have to bring it all together. for months i walked around trying to find the place to write and every time i got into the subway, the novel would come out on my blackberry on the subway. i went to coney island and back and forth and wrote the whole book. >> pull the thread of the story for me. you've got money, politics, a campaign, sex, all of the things we admire here. >> can you imagine that? pure fiction. it is the story of a

presidential candidate having an affair while on the campaign trail, believe it or not. shocking! >> where did that idea come from? >> but a lot of people say why do these guys think they can get away with it but my is more the of the guys who do get away with it, because for every affair you hear about, there are ten more going on in those campaigns that you don't hear about. >> that a proportion, about one in 10? >> about that. i wanted to write that story about the campaign workers who get on these campaigns and have the affairs that no one ever hears about that go under the radar. >> who is the principal character? >> the principal character is for everyone to guess. i will say almost every single story in the book is true. it's not one complete true story, but every campaign story in the book is true, and i think

people will be surprised. >> so what other campaigns have you worked for besides john edwards? >> i dinh say they wedn't say ty stories, they're a combination of stories. but i worked for the clintons and obama and cuomo, but they were stories from friends. at first i was like, i'm not going to write that story, but i started talking to friends, and it's amazing the stories everyone has on campaigns, because things that just never do get out. >> you say friends. you talked to friends. >> friend. >> how many friends are you going to have left? >> a lot. well, i didn't name any of them. but yeah, i got great stories from great friends, and hopefully really interesting and surprising things to people about campaign life and about what goes on. >> i'm spinning in my head about

all the possibilities. this is like "primary colors" with more sex. >> that's what i was trying to do. >> they say game change was a big seller. this is the real deal. >> if i can live up to game change, i'm heading in a good direction. >> the book is "domestic affairs, a campaign novel." bridget segal. thank you. >> also, deepak chopra joins us on the set. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbuck's. i look at her, and i just want to give her everything.

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okay. on tomorrow's show, fresh off his trip to israel with mitt romney, dan senor, ladies and gentlemen. he's going to talk about what was a bumpy ride for the former governor. but up next, the end of an era for a post office is facing a make or break moment and what it says about our economy right here on "morning joe."

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good morning on this last day of july. it's 8:00 a.m. on the east coast, 5:00 a.m. on the west coast. as you take a live look at new york city. back with us on set. mike barnacle, john meacham, john heilman, jillian katz and william at the olympics. it's like edward r.murrow. there is a different jacket from london. you're looking very edward

r.murrow-ish here. >> toyou have to roll with the weather here. it's cold and rainy here. >> if it's the olympics, there has to be some kind of doping scandal. what's the latest from the olympics along with our doping scandal. >> it's not a doping scandal, but there are allegations of doping from 16-year-old she win, which is possibly the greatest name in the world of sports. she shattered the world record. she won gold in 48.23 seconds. here's where the controversy comes in. she swam the final 53 metres of that race faster than ryan lochte did. an american coach has now gone public, calling this unbelievable, disturbing and

suspicious. this american coach said it's simply not possible or conceivable that a woman, let alone a 16-year-old woman, could swim that last leg faster than did the fastest man in the world, and he did throw the term doping out there. he says, there is a history of it. it has to be looked into. we'll know because all the athletes here are tested for some 200 banned substances. >> tell us what else is going on over there. what's the big story? >> a couple quick ones for you, joe. missy franklin, the 17-year-old sensation who goes to high school in aurora, colorado won her first gold medal. she won the 100-meter backstroke. a lot of pressure on her, a lot of hype, and she lived up to it. matt grieveres, 6.8, he picked

one up in record height. ryan lochte finishing fourth in the 200-meter trfreestyle. he was beat out by yannick agnel. ryan tweeted out, not happy about that swim tonight. tomorrow i will be better. weaver got the medal board here. china and the united states, we knew that woulding the competiti -- would be the competition for these two countries. she's in a little bit of a twitter fight with the world famous brandy chastain, took off her jersey, made herself famous around the world. brandy chastain is offering color commentary around the world on women's soccer, and she was a little tough on the game in columbia, so she went on this tirade on twitter where she

blasted brandy chastain, saying she shouldn't even be there calling the name. yesterday when solo was asked about it, she doubled down. she said, it's not about what made me unhappy. it's not about one game. i have my beliefs that the best commentators and the best analysts should be analyzing come olympics, come world cups, and it's only my opinion. you can take it or leave it, to be honest, so it's my opinion, and i think analysts and commentators should bring energy and excitement and passion for the game, and a lot of knowledge. brandy chastain says, i'm calling them like i see them. i'm trying to be objective. >> put down the iphone. stop tweeting. you're at the olympics. and i know, willy, you would know this especially, a guy like me, i'm shocked and stunned that anybody would fire off angry tweets. >> who does that?

who could text so impulsively? >> they take on north korea, so we'll see hope solo in action today. >> let's go right to mike barnacle with news. something so american as apple pie and, you name it, willie geist at the olympics may be a thing of the past soon. the u.s. post office in big trouble. >> that's our lead story. we're going to lead with the hard to believe it could happen news file. the u.s. postal service could default for the first time ever this week. the postal service is legally required to make two payments or roughly $5.5 billion to the treasury for the future retirement's benefits service. one is due wednesday, another one due late september. with only $1 million in the bank, our post office says those

bills will go unpaid and other payments may be delayed as well. the mail will continue to be delivered day to day and post offices will remain open, but the post office's long-term outlook appears grim without an overhaul. the postal service is estimated to be losing $25 million a day. >> wow. >> first class mail volume, which has fallen 25% since 2006, is projected to drop another 30% by 2016. joe, let me ask you, i mean, this is a service that nearly everyone in this country takes for granted. it is unbelievable. you put a stamp on an envelope in new york city and someone in los angeles gets it a couple days later. i mean, we've absolutely taken this for granted. the rate for buying postage stamps is minimal compared to what you spend for other things in this country. how could this happen, joe? how does congress sit there and allow that to happen?

>> it's unbelievable. it's also sad, because john meacham, post offices throughout at least the 20th century were at the center of american cultural life, the center of so many small towns, and it's hard to believe that time may be passing it by. sono sara wrote a piece in the "new york times" this morning talking about, like a lot of other agencies, this one has been strapped with health care benefits and retirement benefits, that sara said have been outrageously high. but here we are on the brink of the post office facing extinction. >> yeah, it's been buffetted from every which way, obviously from competition and technology. it's one more phase in the death of print, i'm afraid, in a lot of ways. post offices were -- lincoln's first job was as a postmaster.

it was the only federal government anywhere, and the beginning of the british empire was the victorian post office. anthony trollop was a postmaster. >> but why is this happening? reality is you're seeing these kind of pressures across europe as well. and do people think the postal service should bakesically be a public good, almost like a service, a utility, a charity, or is it going to be a business? because as a business, as mike said, there are very big problems right now in terms of the fact we're shifting to texting and e-mail and things like that. but if there's a social function to it, you have to ask, should the government get involved in trying to support it, because that idea is less popular for people in america. >> john heilman, $25 million lost today. obviously that's not going to be popular to keep that post office going. but let me ask you, over the

past month how many letters have you written and put a stamp on personally and sent out to a friend? >> a goose egg on that, and first of all, i love being on the show because it's 6:08 and we've got references to both lincoln and trollop. joe, you've talked a lot about it, and we've talked a lot on this show about the incredible transformations that have happened to the economy. this is a great example of that. you think about not just e-mail and text, but the way the fedex came in and then the united parcel service came in using sophisticated technology to build transportation hubs around the world that could move postage much faster than the post office. life-changing ways that are family beneficial, it's made everyone's life better and more productive, and yet there is this cost of things, jobs in the

old economy, institutions in the old economy that people grew up with. i don't know if people would miss the post office that much. they would miss it more as a concept than a reality because, as joe said, who -- most people now writing letters, you're banking on line, you do all this stuff on line. it's just changed. >> it has changed, and you look at it, and if you look at -- as jillian said, you've got e-mails, you've got text messages, but when you want to get something somewhere overnight, look at the other great invention from the 1980s and look what fred smith did with fedex. there is a ceo that completely changed the way we moved mail quickly overnight and they're the big innovators there, so you don't talk about express mailing something, you always talk about fedexing it and just a competition, mike, as commented on the post office from all sides. it's hard to see how they continue if they keep losing $25

million a day. let's go, though, from the post office to politics. mitt romney continuing his magical mystery overseas. actually some highlights and, of course, some daily gaffes. what was his daily gaffe from yesterday? >> well, joe, the governor spent his final day overseas in poland. yesterday mitt romney visited the birthplace that eventually toppled communism in poland. speaking at a fundraiser in jerusalem monday, he commented on the palestinian area saying, quote, you notice such a dramatically stark difference in economic vitality. culture makes all the dimps. and as i come here and look out over the city and consider the accomplishments of the people of this nation, i recognize the power of at least culture and a

few other things, unquote. those comments drew sharp criticism from top palestinian leaders. >> today mr. romney takes another step forward with his statement saying that because -- that they may be in conflict. and such a statement does not help those trying to save looiv in this region. >> a very weary romney spokesman said this is not meant to slight the palestinians and everyone knows that. the chicago tribune quoted our old friend rob emanuel saying, i don't know how he'll handle the head of state job. he's made a mess of being a tourist. and david axelrod tweeted, is there anything about romney's

rolling ruckus that would inspire confidence in his ability to lead u.s. foreign policy? not a great day for the governor overseas, joe. >> not a great day, and obviously, if american voters are paying attention to romney's trip, and i just think this will have a negligible impact in the fall, but for those who are paying attention to his trip, they can't be comforted by mitt romney's performance. >> no, it's sort of a running s & l skit. sometimes you realize politicians make it too easy for the rest of us. compare this to obama in '08 where you had the celebrity charge and the big speeches. that created a certain impression of obama. i think this will create a certain impression, but if you're going to do this, i think the last week of july, the first week of august is a good time to do it. >> it's complicated what he said, but one thing i think he's shown on this trip is a lack of

full awareness of the context and place and timing matter in what you say. you can say something in iowa or in a book and no one cares. you can't say the same thing necessarily in the middle east in particular. and the palestinians' reaction, the campaigns complaining it's unfair but the reaction is what it is and it can dominate a day as it did. >> mark, this also under lines the fact that mitt romney is a successful businessman, he's done a great job at turning around the olympics, he's a great family man, but this is not something that he feels in his bones. this is not something that he's been like most of us around the table. you know, we've been reading these books on history and politics and foreign policy, you know, since we were young. this is a businessman who has decided to get into politics for whatever reason, and mark, there just doesn't seem to be the

nuance there, whether you're talking about mitt romney on the campaign trail in iowa or mitt romney in israel. >> what his two gaffes have in common, the remark about the olympics and the remark about the palestinians versus the israelis is romney as analyst, kind of businessman giving an analysis as if he was pundit rather than recognizing he was auditioning to be head of state, and you've got to engage in settling the diplo speak and not analyst. >> you know what's fascinating, too, john meacham, if you look at the candidates we have right now, if mitt romney were to win the presidency, our last three presidents would be mitt romney, barack obama and george w. bush. three men who personally have very little love for politics, very little love for the sport of it all, very little love or

understanding of the grand sweep of history, unlike a, say, bill clinton or ronald reagan or fdr. there just doesn't seem to be the joy in these guys either on the campaign trail or when they're governing. they seem to be -- well, at least the two running this time, george w. bush, he just didn't seem to like politics and he'll still tell you he doesn't really like politics a whole lot. >> they're competitive without being cheerful, i think, is one thing about this particular group. i think what mark said is exactly right, that politicians get in trouble when they act as though they're pundits or color commentators. you think about obama -- he wandered into the truth in that editorial meeting in washington state in 2008 when he said that reagan was transformative but clinton wasn't. however true that might be, it's

just the wrong time to say it. >> you can say it on a groundskeeping company, you can't say it on the campaign trail. he joins his children to watch a new youtube channel aimed at inspiring growing change. our conversation with the chopras is coming up this hour. jean chatsky joins us with troubling information on the economic forecast. in london, it's not a pretty day there today. it's the worst day of the week. they're having a lot of rain. temperatures are a whopping 52. talk about chilly. let's go to the forecast for the rest of the day today. if they're lucky late there today, they'll see breaks in the sun, but as i mentioned, it's the worst day of the week and we'll see scattered showers continuing. as we go through the rest of the

week, it doesn't look like it will get much warmer in london, either. w w wettest part of the country? birmingham and montgomery, alabama. 105 to 110 from texas to kansas, all the way through missouri and arkansas. we just continue to bake. that will end as we get to the upcoming weekend, but until then, it's going to stay very, very hot and very dry. for the last day of july, it looks like how the whole summer has been, extremely hot and dry in the middle of the kcountry ad still cool on the west coast. we leave you with that gloomy shot of london. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbuck's.

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carole king. i like that song. here with us now, financial editor and financial guru jean chatzky. jean, i'm begging you, give us some good news. is it over for the middle class? is it over for this country? >> no, i don't think it's over. the charts we pulled together for this segment, john meacham was walking out and said, could you just give us a little bit of a break? if you look at the data, since 2000, the incomes for the average american family have actually fallen by about 6%. that hasn't happened since the

depression. so those signs are truly negative. but i was on the internet early this morning, i was reading a couple of stories on cnnmoney.com, one of which talked about how trade schools enrollments are rising. the other talked about these new sort of mini nbas -- >> what's a mini nba? >> i'm using the wrong word, but they give you the skills of learning a job cheaper and faster than getting an mba. so putting people back to work, and it seems in the day of trillion-dollar student loan debt that we might actually be learning how to get what we need to turn the job situation around. >> let's set the mini mba thing aside for a minute and get back to what we just mentioned briefly during the commercial break. being a plumber is an honorable profession. >> absolutely. >> in addition to being an honorable profession, it's a very well-paying profession.

how do we, as a culture, get more people thinking trade school is a terrific option? >> well, i think it's happening. i don't know exactly what we're doing to get people to think about it, but the fact that enrollments are going up for these jobs that actually can earn you $100,000 a year is a very positive sign. we need these people in this country. i need them in my house. >> but everything against the economy that's sort of forcing this, the dream has been, go to college. every parent wants their children to go to college. you see college grads getting out and they're bartenders. that's the jobs they can get. the economic reality is start to go take hold and they look at those jobs paying $100,000 a year, and they are honorable jobs. where the need won't go away, and as you said, mike, can't be outsourced. so i think people are wising up and starting to channel their energies into the right area. >> i think parents are wising up, too.

sally may issued some research a couple weeks ago where if you dug into it showed that parents have been less willing to take on debt for those more artistic professions. the kids are still willing to take on the debt, but the parents are saying, no, we want you to come out and get something that looks like a real job. >> we had a period of great economic growth through technology which became a bit of a bubble. is it possible that there is an area of growth for real jobs for people, not just high-end people in the silicon valley but around the country that we can get off the internet and other technology? >> i think so. i hope so. i think we need to refill the pipeline where these jobs are concerned. and that's part of what you're seeing in these sort of enrollments. part of what you're seeing with nursing. if people want to come out and get a job, they're looking at nursing school, and nursing school enrollments have actually gone way up. i think we're reading the headlines, we're sort of taking it all in and we're figuring out, what do i need to do in my

own little mini economy at home to take care of myself? >> when you talk about nursing, there's also been a shift in classification as well. what you're seeing is a significant growth in men who are seeking nursing as a profession, where you're like, oh, men, don't you mean being a doctor? no, i mean being a nurse because it's one of the fastest growing professions. one of the things, too, is geographic changes. are we seeing a shift in terms of suburb versus city, north versus south, east versus west? how has the economy reflected that at all? >> i think we're seeing a shift in people being more mobile to go where the jobs are. you see parts of the country with mining, fracing going on, and you see people working around that activity and families saying, we're going there. which used to happen all the time and then sort of shut down for a while. >> jean, this whole discussion

is interesting, because i think this is one area where the government can drive growth, absolutely. if we invested in a restructuring revitalization program, a ten-year restructured revitalization program, we would be filling $100,000 a year jobs, and we need to rebuild our industry desperately and these are those jobs. >> the bad thing about the data, the most demoralizing thing about the data that we've been reading the last few days, weeks, months is it looks like we're building a country of working poor and that the middle class is disappearing. >> you know, listening to you and listening to the questions here, it's kind of an indictment to the system itself, a pretty harsh indictment, when you consider terrific positions like -- we mentioned plumbing, so you take an electrician, you

take master carpenters, you take stone masons and the fact that now we are continually slogging around without anyone addressing the housing crisis in this country is an indictment for people thinking about the real economy. solve the housing crisis, there's four elements of the housing crisis right there. people go to work immediately. >> absolutely. but i do think what the governor was saying, too, about -- we have bridges that need work, we have streets that need work. you can't drive through new york without hitting a massive pothole and that's just one city. >> fix the subway. >> i took the subway last night. 20 minutes sitting on the platform waiting for the subway. >> there was a power outage, yeah. the treasury app challenge competition. what is that? >> the treasury has gotten behind a contest to say to people, let's work on helping you manage your money better. the contest is open to people who have an idea for an app,

they don't even have to build the app, which i like, because i can't even build anything to everybody's point here. the website is mymoneyappup.gov, so if you have an idea for an app that can help people save better, manage their debt, help people with their finances, you can sign up and maybe win some money. >> financial literacy is no joke, though. when i was governor, we embarked our secretary, bill shank, on a great bank of illiteracy. >> we talk about this all the time. only 14 states have mandated personal finance across the country. >> grammar school and high school. >> grammar school and high school, absolutely.

middle school, too. >> sorry about the subway last night. >> that's all right. i'm over it. >> you can write a book down there. >> i heard. >> thanks for joining us. coming up, business before the bell with brian sullivan. strap yourself in. brian is on the way. keep it right here on "morning joe." ♪ ♪ i want to go ♪ i want to win [ breathes deeply ] ♪ this is where the dream begins ♪ ♪ i want to grow ♪ i want to try ♪ i can almost touch the sky [ male announcer ] even the planet has an olympic dream. dow is proud to support that dream by helping provide greener, more sustainable solutions from the olympic village to the stadium. solutionism. the new optimism.™ ♪ this dream [ female announcer ] weak, damaged hair needs new aveeno nourish+ strengthen. active naturals wheat formulas restore strength for up to 90% less breakage in three washes. for strong, healthy hair with life,

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mitt romney campaign still trying to do damage control after remarks that romney made while in the u.k. probably romney's worst gaffe was when he visited buckingham palace and said to queen elizabeth, you call this a house? [ applause ] >> of course, romney is in israel now. over the weekend, mitt romney was in jerusalem and he flipped a prayer into a crack in the waling wall. and while he was at it, he also stuck in $3 million of taxable income. >> conan, two for two there. the feds begin a critical two-day meeting that could have a big impact on the economy. i don't know if it's going to be a really effective meeting because they're not going to have brian sullivan there. he's at cnbc's global headquarters right now, and brian, any meeting about the economy without you, come on.

>> i'm not sure what i would add except for stop it. why doesn't the fed and congress take about six months off, come back after the election and we can figure it out then? >> what are we figuring out today? >> we're figuring out there is more uncertainty out there. you talk about this meeting tomorrow where the fed will make an interest rate call. nobody expects them to make a move on rates. what can they do, they're already effectively at zero, the big goose egg. the question is whether or not we're going to get the third round of so-called money printing, call it qe-3, whatever you want to call it. the expectation now, according to cnbc surveys, is that more on the street expect that we will, by the end of the year, maybe tomorrow, maybe not, maybe at another meeting, get another round of at least a couple hundred billion in mortgage buying, another couple billion in bond buying to try to keep driving down interest rates. all those home buyers, i heard

you guys talk about the home situation, go out and try to buy a home. 3.5% interest rate, you can thank the fed, but that can come with the cost of massive inflation down the road. i'm calling it as of now on "morning joe" the bernanke rally, taking ben bernanke and the head of the bcb, combining them. it is the synchronized diving, if you will, of fed policy. >> brian, two-part question. first, would you pull off your brian sullivan mask and show that you are, in fact, jack cafferty? or are you not willing to do that? >> no, cafferty is not blessed with these. >> is there any way to do this in a federal election year, or will they be prohibited from doing that? >> that's a good question. there's no big history unless you go back to the '30s when action was taken by the fed, but they reduced the money supply during the great depression

while fdr was spending which, as we know, probably got us into a war situation early in the '30s. no situation there. the fed is supposed to be apolitical. there is a group of people out there that probably read the book "the creature of jekyl island" which argued that the fed is anything but apolitical. he's a member of the g-30 which some people call a lobbying group. they say draghi shouldn't be a member of this group and also european federal policy. is it apolitical? it depends on who you ask. at 2:00 we get the press conference and we'll learn more. >> you talk about inflation, and i've been warning about inflation for years, bad debt, higher interest rates, and then all these other things. the united states of america doesn't fear inflation the way

europe fears inflation. it's almost as if we think that it's a concept that can't reach our shores anymore, when, of course, anybody that remembers 1979-1980 remembers the nightmare of inflation. gerald ford had "whip inflation now in 1975." you hear it from money men, i hear it from money men and women. they say, listen, if everything happens just right, we have all this extra money out there and we grow too quickly, inflation could be a massive problem for the united states of america again. >> maybe. but i will add this, joe, and it's a good point. of course, the late '70s you're probably paying 14% on an interest rate when you bought a house. however, i read a very convincing piece over the weekend by a milken review written by a harvard professor why we need more inflation.

yes, if it's 20% like it is in many emerging markets, that's a bad thing. but a little inflation may be a good thing, he argues, because what does inflation do? yes, it hurts the value of money, but it also reduces the value of outstanding debt. if we're talking about reducing our debt, maybe rather than just pure austerity or revenue raisers, a little more inflation may not be a bad thing. convincing article. you should check it out. >> okay, we'll check it out. of course, that's what everybody in northwest florida -- and tucker will be reading over lunch. thanks for being with us, brian. i think we figured out -- i don't know, halpren, is he a poor man, jack cafferty? what is brian sullivan? >> just the educational value of brian here is worth the ticket of admission because up until a few moments ago, i thought qe-3 was a cruise ship i could board, but he's explained things so

well. >> without the restraint. mike, coming up next, we've got an old former neighbor of yours talking about how to change the world. logging into happiness with deepak chopra, one click at a time. "morning joe." back in a moment. not in this economy. we also have zero free time, and my dad moving in. so we went to fidelity. we looked at our family's goals and some ways to help us get there. they helped me fix my economy, the one in my house. now they're managing my investments for me. and with fidelity, getting back on track was easier than i thought. call or come in today to take control of your personal economy. get one-on-one help from america's retirement leader.

my name is molly chopra. >> my name is deepak chopra. >> i'm deepak chopra's daughter. >> i've made a living under deepak chopra and i'm ready to come out on my own now. >> i made a lig oving out of th

dust of the big bang. >> it a place where we get to explore what deepak chopra does, but also for the audience to explore what's important to them. sdp >> we launched in october of 2012. >> that's a clip from youtube. it has the ability to inspire 1 million people, he said, to change the world. dr. deepak chopra joins us now with his son goth am chopra and daughter mollika chopra. good to see you all. what did you think of your son rolling his eyes as we ran that clip, deep in thought? >> he's trying his best to bust the myth that makes everyone upset. >> do you ever get to him? >> he can't do it. >> you cannot upset deepak chopra. tell us what you're up to? what's the big idea? >> we want to reach critical matters, as i said, in a younger

demographic. my audience is now about my age or a little younger, but this is a whole demographic out there who have the same questions. but it has to be cool. >> what are some of those questions, gotham, that you hope to answer? >> you guys talk about it every morning. it's a strange time around the world with the market up and down, with education being so expensive, graduating and not having jobs, so a lot of people are struggling with what's going on in the world and i think asking questions of, what's my purpose? how do i contribute back to the world in a meaningful way? how do i build a family life for myself? so one of the interesting things with my dad is it used to be people came to him or came to us all the time and said, i've read all your books and i follow everything you're saying. now people come to him all the time and say, i follow you on

twitter. i've never read a book before, but i try to live my life based on what i see from you on twitter. so there's been this shift, and i think that's kind of what we're also trying to engage that community, build that community. >> how difficult is it in this day and age with all of the stresses and all of the tensions, and it doesn't matter your age. you could just be getting out of college and not able to get a job, or you could be our age, and how are we going to pay for the house and stuff like that? how difficult is it to tell people there is a great advantage to slowing down the pace of life to meditation, stuff like that? just slow it down. in sports we always say slow down the game. it will play better for you. how do you slow down the pace of life? >> i'm a great example of someone that needs to slow down, like all of us. i'm a mom with two kids trying to work, totally crazed, managing a lot of things. but i know from my own experience, and both gotham and

i learned how to meditate when we were nine years old. how slowing down and actually just being silent, even if it's for five, ten minutes a day, which sometimes seems too daunting and it's so crazy we even think it is daunting to take five minutes for ourselves r day. but in doing that, you find more energy, and there's so many health benefits and mental benefits and connection with some sort of spirit gives us meaning, purpose, insight. >> you say you learned how to meditate. >> yes. >> what are the steps? how do you learn how to meditate? >> we'll have a daily meditation on the channel, and there's a 21-day meditation challenge that the chopra channel is launching which you can find out from our channel, the chopra well. >> we've taught half a million people in 180 countries just through our channel and through the chopracentermeditation.com

network in just five months. half a million people in 175 countries on line learning meditation. >> i think many people think it's daunting, but it's really just taking a few minutes, and you can use simple words like "i am" and go in and be silent. it's taking foive minutes a day but it has tremendous consequences. >> even when i'm at rest, i could sense my blackberry next to me like i should be checking it. >> i take time and i slice it up into bits every day, so sleep time, exercise time, meditation time, there's focus to work time, there's relationship time, and then there is the iphone/blackberry time. when i'm doing that, that's what

i'm doing. it's a myth now that your brain, at least the cortical brain, can do more than one thing at a time. if i'm checking my e-mail on my blackberry and talking to you, i'm doing inneneither. >> that's right. and another term for meditation is mindfulness or awareness. it's sort of being aware of what you're doing and just having that level of consciousness to it, being aware that i'm sitting across from a yankees fan keeps me very calm. >> i do want to show one clip from one of the shows here. who are you? of all people, deepak chopra sitting down with vinnie from "the jersey shore." >> vinnie, thanks for coming by. >> it's an honor to be here. >> i say a word and you say a word that comes to you. spiritu spirituality. >> deepak chopra. >> thank you.

love. >> hearts. >> gratitude. >> family. >> forgiveness. >> jesus. >> karma. >> the nightclub in jersey. >> that's pretty good. >> i like that answer. quote, karma. answer, jersey shore. the channel again is the chopra well, and mollika and gotham, good luck. not that you need it. we'll be back with "morning joe" in a moment.

former vice president dick cheney did an interview with abc news, getting a lot of attention because he said picking sarah palin as a running mate in 2008 was a mistake. part 1 aired yesterday. i got to say they ended this first installment with a pretty big cliffhanger. >> i don't think she passed that test of being ready to take over. and i think that was a mistake. >> for more from my interview with former vice president cheney, tune in tomorrow.

i'm a moeteorologist with your business travel, and if you're traveling anywhere in the deep south, bring a fan or something because it will be incredibly hot in this part of the country. 105 to 112 degrees in dallas, oklaho oklahoma. have a great tuesday.

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you learn? >> if you look up on wick med immediate paid ythere is a picture of john meacham. >> i learned that kevin costner's "postman" movie is one of the cultural touchstones of our time. >> i never heard anybody say it was a great movie. mike barnacle, the man who lived in the number 4 country, what did you learn today? >> i learned two things. ed rendell is not a movie reviewer, and secondly, i learned that it might be time to bring clint eastwood back and give this country a half time speech. let's get this country up and going, joe. >> i think so. i'm tired of people talking about the past. it's time we start talking about what we're going to do in the future to getme