but "love sensation" is a fantastic song, and it completely relaxes me. and i was doing that until about, what, ten seconds before we went on air. that was just supposed to be between me and the gang on the set. now you're all in on between me and the gang on the set and i feel horribly violated. "morning joe" starts right now. ♪ a good morning. it's wednesday, the first day of august. as you take a shot of the olympic stadium in london. great to have you with us. also with us this morning, msnbc contributor mike barnacle, pulitzer award winning, john meechum, writer for post -- msnbc, contributor and part time dancer jonathan capehart.

msnbc political analyst and visiting professor at nyu harold ford jr. >> good morning. >> and the host of "street signs" of cnbc brian sullivan. and host of "andrea mitchell reports" andrea mitchell. of course, in london, willie geist. willie geist, quite a day yesterday at the stadium behind you and the united states turning in big wins in women's gymnastics and other areas, of course, history being made by an american swimmer. >> it was a get day yesterday for the united states. we'll start with gymnastic. women going for the first gold in the team all around since 1996 winning it in atlanta and they got the job done and by a wide margin beating russia more than five points. bela karoli said this 2012 team

is the best ever in usa women's gymnastics. you mentioned history, michael phelps setting the all-time olympic record with 19 career medals, more than anybody's ever had in the history of olympic games. he won it in the mens 4 x 200 free relay. he said afterward, i started smiling with 20 meters to go. it's the first time i think i've ever done that in a race. get it is 19th medal and makes a little history. he'd been a little disappointed in number 18. he won the silver in the men's 200 meter before the 19th. he was outtouched at the wall by chad le clos of south africa. 19 gave him the record. little dream team hoops. long night for tunisia. 110-63 was the final. they actually -- team usa led by 13 at halftime and turned it on.

they move on to play nigeria on thursday. women's soccer at old trafford. home of man united. >> wow. this was big. >> won 1-0 over north korea. they scored that goal in the first half. a couple off the post and dominated the game and came away with a 1-0 win. they move on to the medal round. now they get new zealand on friday. and an incredible moment in badminton. remarkable. we can only show you the still photographs unfortunately. a couple of teams, china and south korea charged with trying to throw their matches. if you watch the video, they're hitting on purpose in to the net. time after time. hitting it out of bounds on purpose. they were trying to avoid the dominant chinese duo in doubles play so that they didn't have to face them before the gold medal game. committee came out, warned them. the referees and judges said if this continues we'll disqualify both teams from the games. they didn't care.

they hit it in to the net on purpose and it finally did get but all that to get an around. not necessarily the olympic spirit. usa and china tied with 23 total medals each. great britain waiting to break through with the first gold of these london games. joe? >> well, of course, willie, that's what the boston red sox have been doing from april -- >> yes. >> -- through the end of the july. we're pacing ourselves. throwing games intentionally because we want to get the second wild card position. i'm not exactly sure why. >> right. >> but that's our story and we're sticking to it. thanks, willie. we'll be back with you. so much going on over there. a real historic day yesterday in london. before the news, john meechum, i want your feelings about the passing of gor vidal. a novelist and disappointed he

was not a popular novelist. he published 25 novels. two memoirs and the writing that i enjoyed the best were her essays. they were extraordinary. he also wrote plays for television dramas and even screenplays like "ben hur" and he loved politics, was believing in conspiracy theories and hated truman and the military state we game after world war ii. talk about gore vidal. >> the iconic moment was in the 1968 conventions back in the golden era when everyone was polite to everyone in the politics and he called bill beckly a crypto fascist and beckly threatened to punch him in the nose directed at gore's

sexuality. i think word "queer" at least part of the slur but he was a fascinating, discomforting voice. anyone around him or in concentric circles knows i think lionel chilling said of a character of "jane eyre" an evening with her would not be undertaken lightly. an evening with gore vidal would not be taken lightly. there was i think probably no more interesting novelist, dramatist of modern american politics than vidal. the best man, long running twice revived at least play was his burr-linco burr-lincoln, great historical novels. >> right. >> he wrote a novel called "washington" about the city. i think a series of four novels

in that that are about american power and toward the end everything was connected to the military industrial complex which i think went too far. >> right. >> but there's an artistic record there i think people will read for a very long time. >> very long time of the essays, again. i disagreed with most everything i read he wrote but he was an extraordinary essayist and he's doing quite well right now on broadway. of course. and we'll be talking about him later on in news, but let's go right now, mike, to news. political news. we have got a new set of polls out that should cause the romney team much, much concern. and also, i guess you'd call it an upset in texas, but the republican party is a conservative party and tngs exa

one of the most conservative states and i think young conservative star was born last night a texas republican runoff. let's go to news. >> that's true, joe. the poll first because it is kind of surprising. i think we'll be kind of surprising to a lot of people. that was very artfully done, meechum. >> thank you, thank you. >> quite artfully. anyway, joe, a new quinnipiac pal shows president obama with leads in three major swing states. obama leads mitt romney head to head by six points in florida, six points in ohio and 11 points in pennsylvania. governor romney's unfavorable outweigh his favorables in all three states. on the other hand, president obama's favorables top 50% in each of those states. on the economy, the polls show voters overwhelmingly believe the economy is staying the same or getting worse. just a quarter of those polled said it was getting better.

people in florida said governor romney would better handle the economy. people in ohio and pennsylvania narrowly chose president obama. joe, i have to tell you. if you pull out some of the questions that were asked in this poll i don't know if you're as surprised as i was but there's some really as you said some really stunning developments for the romney campaign to deal with in terms of who cares more about the economy, people -- who cares more about average people, president obama or governor romney. the president runs away with that. very interesting numbers here. >> yeah. really interesting numbers. of course, comes from the same polling organization, "new york times," when they were teamed up with cbs with romney ahead nationally but you look at the swing states, the president's doing very well in one swing state after another. harold ford jr., the state of florida, a republican state. people call it a swing state.

go talk to the state legislature for a little bit. it is so conservative. it has one of the most conservative governors in america down there. and yet, the republican nominee, presumptive nominee, losing by six points in florida and things are not much better in ohio. this has got on the troubling on the first day of august for the romney team. >> i would agree. probably in addition to what mike said and you are sharing, this is the first time i have seen these numbers and battleground states where either candidate, particularly the incumbent, hit 50. joe and joe, you and i understand, when you're polling this close to an election and incumbent and below 50, there's great cause for great concern. we have commented. for obama now, for the president now above 50, in key states at least in one poll, an i might add to your point i thought the "the new york times" showed a different set of numbers, but if indeed you follow numbers, not

only have to be discomforting to romney but validates for the obama campaign whatever they're doing specifically in those states. they should continue doing. >> well, and the question andrea mitche mitchell, in washington, is, how much does this lead belong to barack obama and his team or just to be blunt how much of it belongs to mitt romney's own blundering? he goes to three -- three countries that should be the most favorably inclined for reasons discussed yesterday and bumbles his way on the world stage. at some point, even swing republicans are starting to worry about romney and it's showing up in these swing states. >> i think that the foreign trip, while not a success, and while missed opportunities, actually accomplished some purpose for him. he was playing to a particular audience, particularly in israel and no apology.

he doubled down on the culture comments of the palestinians in an op-ed in "the national review" so he was very much catering to i think the big jewish fund-raisers who were there, and the israeli, you know, the pro-israeli christian evangelicals back home, as well. i don't think that will turn out to be as much of a setback is being discussed in the press. but i think what had an impact, joe, is the negative advertising and the way that the obama campaign has just hammered romney on creating this persona. if you look inside the questions of this "the new york times" poll, if it's to be believed it is a snapshot and he is completely defined in terms of not caring as mike was just saying, not caring about people's lives, not relating to them. it's bain capital and the taxes and that answer to brian williams and his consistency on that, he's absolutely not going to release more of his taxes

because for some reason that we can all infer, surmise, they think that it would be worse to release them than not release them but people don't relate to that. >> right. brian sullivan, we have president obama presiding over a weak economy. it appears to be getting even weaker. they're now talking about launching a strategy to actually attack mitt romney for being weak on the deficit when, of course, we know the debt has gone up $5 trillion since president obama has been in the white house. and yet, you almost get the sense that mitt romney's not going to be able to deflect criticisms like that. he appears to be a punching bag in these swing states and not able to get out of the way of a punch that everybody else sees coming. >> i don't understand, joe, what the romney camp is doing, i guess, more importantly what they're not doing. right? i mean, you've got by any

measure one of the weakest recovers in the developed world in the last century. the recovery we have out of the collapse is one of the slowest and most e 'm innic in the developed world -- >> hey, hey, brian. >> over 100 years and romney is not picking up on that. i don't know what they're going for. >> by the way, a candidate that knew what he was doing on the trail would say what you said and then follow it up by saying, and president obama got absolutely everything he wanted first two years in office. he signed one big spending bill after another. he promised unemployment below 8%. look what we have. brian, those numbers you talk about, i know a lot of people in the media love this -- love to carry the narrative, oh, well the president can't do what he wants to do because those big, bad republicans. he owned washington for the first two years. he put these policies in place

and they're not working and yet mitt romney is losing by six points in the state of florida. >> if i was advising the romney camp, i would say that when the stimulus plan was passed, unemployment was 8.3%. unemployment now is 8.2%. so you're talking about 900 or so billion dollars that eventually will need to be repaid reducing unemployment by .1 of 1%. we're nowhere near the level you discussed and in the romney camp that's what i would say. i would say why's the recovery so slow? why are 14 million americans unemployed? why are millions more underemployed? what will we do about it? paying a higher tax rate is a badge of honor in this country. >> mike, i'm just going to ask it. it's the reality and sometimes people get upset when we tell the truth on the air. but, as a politician, mitt

romney is inept. he's stiff. he's awkward on stage. we have talked about it for a year. he obviously isn't winning over florida voters or ohio voters. what was he like as governor in massachusetts? was he this stiff? was he this inept? because we've said it time and time again. he succeeded in everything he's done throughout his entire life. but as a politician, when he puts on that politician's suit, he's just not good. >> yeah. well, joe, he was not inept at governor but in putting on the politician suit, he took a suit off the wrong rack. you know, mickey rooney's suit and tried to put it on because it didn't fit him. he was a -- he had a distance to him about politics but he was not inept. politics is not his game.

joe, i think you can prove that out by one question extrapolated here in this poll which, again, off of what brian said, nobody here add vivising the campaign anything. to me, this is a real danger signal. maybe the ultimate danger signal for the candidacy. if mr. obama is re-elected, do you think his economic policies would help or hurt your financial situation? the same question is asked with governor romney's name in that same question, and you can either say, help, hurt or make no difference. makes no difference wins. it's the same number. for both guys. if i were the romney campaign looking at that question and those numbers, i would say, wow. i haven't done a job selling myself. >> and the reason why is -- i mean, we have been saying it all along. at least i've been saying it all along. as a conservative, you look at what mitt romney says.

you watch him through the primaries. you listen to see if he understands why we're having the economic problems that we are having. and he doesn't speak like a conservative. and i'm not just talking about the talking points that will farrell would be able to spit out. he doesn't talk like a regan or a thatcher or like he understands milton friedman. he doesn't talk like he understands there's no such thing as a free lunch in america. that if the federal government spends a trillion dollars on a stimulus plan, if a federal government spends $5 trillion over 3 1/2 years, if the federal government spends $7 trillion on a medicare part d plan, if the federal government is $22 trillion in debt, if the federal government has $70 trillion of obligations facing it over the next 50 to 60 years, that's going to have to be repaid somehow. and you're not going to be able to repay it by sort of --

>> joe, joe? >> by starting new government programs. you will have to grow the economy and grow the economy by trusting people who run the economy and they aren't in washington, d.c. but mitt romney doesn't understand that. he's a micro manager. he's a technocrat and why people don't believe, mike, that romney's policies would be that different from obama's policies. >> but, joe, you know, before -- you know, brian's got a lot to say on this, obviously, but before we get to brian, i would say off of what you said, it's probably a lot of that. i don't understand a lot about economics and conservatism or liberalism. what i think i do understand is that -- >> what do you understand, mike? >> i think this, while this still remains a nation where most people meet the candidates and get their information from tv commercials and tv news, stuff like that, it's still at ground level an nye contact nation and when people see or

hear governor romney, they don't think that he gets their live. it's the absence of money in their pockets that counts. not how much he makes or they make. >> you're exactly right. i want to follow up quickly with john meechum and then you, brian sullivan. we have talked about this. americans aren't ideological. i just -- what i just talked about may have sounded ideological and perhaps it was ideological but americans aren't by and large ideological. but they'll vote for somebody who's ideological if they believe. if they can look in their eyes and hear an fdr talk and they believe they have nothing to fear but fear itself or look in regan's eyes and believe they need to get government out of the way, to get the economy kickstarted again. they don't get that from mitt romney. and because they don't get that from mitt romney, well, they

don't see a big difference. like we have said time and again. this is more like 1976 than 1980. >> there's a '88 analogy to go to what you're talking about and what mike was alluding to, which is people don't vote for president based on the dukakis formula of it's competence not ideology. what romney's offering is a powerpoint presidency and people aren't buying. the only larger theme here you might be able to argue and i i don't think this is true but it's at least worth throwing out is particularly in florida, ohio, pennsylvania, the three states in the poll today, it is possible that some people in the swing voter side are thinking about divided government in the way they thought about it over the last 30 years of the republican presidential majority where they want -- they might want to check on the -- the conservative at home has in florida but having a democratic president's not a terrible thing when he doesn't seem to far out

there. >> i would vote for the first candidate, fozzy bear, anybody, if they came out and said what anybody who looks at numbers knows, right? i don't know politics. i know numbers. we aren't going to solve our problems with the current tax scheme. >> no. >> nobody pays enough. if we raise taxes on the rich, that's going to fund the government for about six days. that's actually the number. right? all the talk of the buffett rule. that's a week of funding the government. where's the rest coming from? we have a structural issue in this country. >> yeah. >> that no politician has the guts to say what i think most of the smart viewers of "morning joe" know is the president is largely ineffective of the structural problems facing the country. capital fled to where it's cheaper to produce goods, thus wiping out well-paid manufacturing jobs. and until american consumers decide they're willing to pay a premium for american products, those manufacturing jobs will

never come back. any president that can solve that, they have my vote. >> fozzy bear. >> kermit the frog. anybody. i'll vote for a sock puppet. >> very good. very good. thank you so much forthis shall confessional hour on "morning joe." we thank you for turning in. we get the dancing confession and the sock puppet confession of brian sullivan and ask him to keep those thoughts inside his head. i don't know than capehart, let me -- don't share anymore. jonathan, i want to go back to this polling question that mike barnicle brought up because i believe it's the most devastating for mitt romney's campaign that americans don't think his economic policies will make any more of a difference than if barack obama remains president of the united states. i talked before about -- >> right.

>> -- why we conservatives don't believe he's going to make a difference. but, you have both candidates. james carville said this. i said this. a lot of people said this. you have both candidates talking about the past, talking of bain capital in 1999, romney talking about past 3 or 4 years. neither candidate is talking about the future. their big plan to reform the tax code. their big plan to save medicare. their big plan to save medicaid. their big plan to save social security. their big plan to grow the economy. >> right. >> i medium watching the olympics with my family, my 8-year-old daughter is actually laughing at the attack ads between the two candidates and asking me what they stand for. dead serious. and i said, kate, that's a really good question. jonathan, nobody's talking about the future. if mitt romney doesn't talk about how he's going to get us back to work, who's going to say, hey, you know what? i'll kick this guy out for this

untested guy? >> i think after the conventions i think that's when we hear them talk about the future and talk about where they're going to take the country but to, you know, mike, i'm glad you brought up that particular part of the poll getting at something i was thinking about. i think mitt romney's problem is a credibility problem. he can't break through because i think the attack ads on his tenure at bain are working and also i think the american people don't trust the fact that he won't release more than two years of his tax returns and i think people sit there and think if the irs came to me saying give my your tax returns, i have to do it. i think -- >> this is not the irs in fairness. >> no, no new york city. it's not irs but mitt romney wants the american people to entrust the presidency and their alives to him. and so, i think that's why as long as he continues to hold out on that he won't be able to crack through on the president on the economy. >> still ahead on "morning joe," dan senor is back and an

economic reality tweak with miles nadal and todd purrdum's new piece questioning whether or not we need a business leaders in the white house and the top stories in the political playbook but first bill karns with a check on the forecast. >> first day of august and we put jug in the record books as one of the hot nest this country i. doesn't look like much changes this start this month either. worst weather in the country this morning, eastern north carolina. numerous thunderstorms affecting the outer banks a. cluster of wilmington to fayetteville. to the north, an area of showers between maryland and you look dry in d.c. a shower up around new york city, too. this is trying to kick from northern portions of manhattan up through yongers and west cher chester. temperatures in the 80s. most of the wet weather will be late this afternoon. and how hot is it in the middle of the country? continues to roast.

105 today in dallas. oklahoma city, by the way, you're supposed to be 110 degrees today for the first day of august. so what a period of drought and heat in the middle of the country. you're watching "morning joe." we're brewed by starbucks.

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vandehye in boston talking to a campaign today, jim, not as upbeat ant the swing state polls. man, florida. it is such a conservative state. mitt romney down six points in florida. down i think six points in ohio. he is getting pummeled in pennsylvania. what are you going to be asking romney today? >> well, it's interesting. we have already started to talk to romney folks last night. their view of the world is none of this stuff matters. all the stories about london and gaffes, they burn off so quickly. nothing matters until the convention and introduce romney to the american people and they look at the polls and say, who cares? obama has outspent us. they'd say just wait until after the conventions and they can start to spend their general election money and they're going to dump tons and tons and tons of negative advertising on obama

and think think it will move numbers. >> jim, do you buy that argument? they're raising a lot of money. he's going to be raising tons of money in aspen today and spending a lot of money. but i guess the big question is, is he getting boxed in to a corner? is the obama team defining him in a way he won't be able to erase with an etch-a-sketch over the fall campaign? >> i think they sure as heck need to be concerned about that because there's no doubt he is defined negatively, especially among independents in the state that is matter. they think they can outdo most of that. they think that the stories are silly distractions. they feel that once they get to the conventions they'll define it on their terms. when's curious is why they don't do both simultaneously. you can have the candidate elevate himself and talk about the vision for the next four years. you were just talking on your segment, neither candidate's

actually doing that. david brooks had a good column i think yesterday in "the new york times" of one of the dumbest cam pans he's seen in sometime from both sides because nobody's talking about the issues that matter. so the big question and the romney folks are not clear on this, will they come out and intellectually sort of set the terms of a debate that's different, thrilling to people looking for new ideas and looking for people to challenge the conventional wisdom in both parties. >> you know, jim, andrea here in washington. >> why. >> the numbers with so many headwinds on the economy that mitt romney isn't doing better and that the president is holding his own and if you believe this -- these polls on these battleground states doing as well as he is in the three states. if he does this well in the three states he's got it locked. >> that has to be troubling of the polling number this is morning. the fact that the favorable i

those three states above 50% when the economy is this bad defies what we think about the link of politics and the economy. and it's not going to change. both campaigns think that the unemployment number on election day will be basically precisely what it is today, they think europe as bad as it is today. they think that growth numbers will be being talked about almost in the exact same numbers as today so this is the environment we're going to have on election day and if it's not hurting obama more now, that has to be cause for concern. >> jim, thank you. we'll be reading about your interview on politico later today. stick around on "morning joe." we have the morning papers next on "morning joe" brued brewed starbucks. ttd#: 1-800-345-2550

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back to "morning joe" on this first day of august. i hope everything's going all right with you and your family and having a good start to your day. let's go to the morning papers and "the new york times." the white house and congress reached a deal for severe sanctions against iran. the new package of financial penalties targets iran's energy,

shipping and financial sectors and it's going to impose sanctions on anyone that mines uranium with iran or leases or provides oil tankers to the country. iran dismissed the move as, quote, warfare. >> also in "new york times," joe, about 670 million people in india were left without power yesterday after several power grids crashed causing a largest blackout in recorded history. much of india's electricity is restored but questions remane of the nation's infrastructure and the ability to handle india's growing population. >> from "wall street journal" leaders in congress extend funding levels of next year to avoid the threat after a government shutdown. now the full house and the senate must approve the measure by the end of september. >> "usa today," a jobs market is

forcing more adults than ever to move back home with their parents. they're now considered boomerang kids. that number jumps to 43% when you only consider adults ages 20 to 24. financial insecurity and college debt are said to be two of the major reasons that your kids are down stairs on the couch while you're upstairs watching tv. >> and from the file of thanks a lot for nothing, guys from "washington post," rhode island fans of the british rock band the who are finally getting their chance to see the band 33 years later. in 1979, a who concert was canceled over safety concerns. now the band's returning to the same venue and say they're going to honor the tickets of the 19 n't 79 show. the catch? the fans have to have the original stub to take advantage of this one-time offer. >> that's nice. >> my generation, it's been a

generation since then. i don't think they still have the ticket stubbs. stick around. mika just faxed in the must-read opinion pages from the south of france. we'll look at those when "morning joe" returns.

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even sister golden hair playing in the background doesn't cheer you up when you have a shot like that. so, anyway, it's time for mika's must read opinion pages which i guess you get and from a telex. in nice this morning or monaco? >> on her way to monaco from nice. >> oh. okay. very good. >> yeah. her caravan is probably two thirds of a way there now. almost there. >> okay. all right. so what did she pick out this morning? >> well, she sent me the first one from one of my favorite people in the world. maureen dowd. showed new colors as he intended but they were not flattering ones. we now know how little he knows about the world, how really slow on his feet he is. what meager social and political agility he has. the odd odyssey underscored mitt's outputting mix of 0 pasty and insularity.

romney was in the forefront of a revolution in american finance. he was the governor of an important state. and he was an elder in the mormon church but that's all the stuff he doesn't want to talk about so we're left with a narrow spokesperson. an empty look. not like president obama and bill clinton where you always see the brain whirring behind the eyes. harold, how'd you like to have that written about yousome. >> it was, actually. >> let me say this. as much as these polls this morning are hurtful and damaging in a lot of ways, you know, we are going to have a whole new set of polls friday morning with the jobs numbers. i don't think there's a doubt the point raised romney campaign has to pay attention to. i find what maureen wrote this morning equally disturbing. he went overseas and not only performed poorly but performed poorly repeatedly which to me

says a lot about the judgment he may advise. i know dan will be on later an curious to know what was said to him after london. what was said to him after his first and second and third misstep. fundamentally, brian touched on it well and even better not on air. >> sorry. >> disappointment -- >> some of that may have gone on air. >> with the policies, food prices, what are we doing about the number of people in this country to be retrained to find new jobs. what are we doing to create manufacturing jobs going forward? >> we are the answer. >> we are not -- >> mike, we have all touched on it. it's unfortunate we are not there. >> andrea, maureen's full piece in addition to just the paragraph i read gets to obviously what might be outside of what happened in india with their disconnect one of the biggest political disconnects we have seen going on in quite a while. the inability of governor romney

to connect on a visceral level with the american public. >> well, to that point, "the washington post" today quote a republican strategist saying, why didn't he want to fill out the resume about his olympic success in london? why didn't he have an event or strategy there? they had no plan. the point of doing london was to elaborate on what was a success in salt lake city and instead he had nothing planned to make that apparent. and therefore, his stumbles, his gaffes became even more noticeable and certainly the offense to the brits. that as i say is i don't think a long-lasting bit of damage but speaks to what their strategy was going in to this trip. one other thing. we talked about "the new york times" post. where is the president going today? ohio. he can practically move the white house to ohio and campaigning there for the obvious reason that republicans don't win the presidency without

winning ohio. and i think might increase the possibility that portman really does have the best shot at being the running mate because he has a good organization in ohio. >> i just wanted to ask jonathan who showed us earlier what it is like to show us who you are on television. >> and when you think nobody is watching. >> more "american bandstand" meets c-span. to me, what mike read from maureen which is fascinating is romney can't talk about what he's done. >> yes. >> so how do you -- what do you do? >> the only thing he can do is talk about who he is. i mean, if mitt romney were to allow himself to talk about his mormon faith, what it means to him, what it meant to him growing up, going on mission tear in france with the door slammed on his face, talk about

the experience at bain and in the world of financial capital and how that informs his world view, then it might not be popular but at least people get a sense of who he is because when you do see him talk about these things, however briefly, there's a light that shines through just a little bit but he won't allow himself to do it. >> joe, you know, actually, one of the best movies ever, not talking about the movie review of yesterday -- >> god, can you please do not say water world. let's not bring in another bad kevin costner movie. >> a movie is "cool hand luke" and saying what we have here is a failure to communicate. and what we have here, apparently in the romney campaign, is a real failure to communicate. >> well, you know, the biggest problem is that mitt romney either doesn't know who he is or

he doesn't want americans to know who he is. again, we go back to the two great presidents of the 20th century. fdr and ronald reagan. they knew who they were before they raised their hand and took the oath of office and, frankly, they couldn't give a damn if people didn't like the direction they were going. they didn't -- they were agitated by their critics but they just didn't listen. look at mitt romney. what are the three defining things of mitt romney's personal and political life? they're actually three ms and i just thought about this while my mind was wondering and brian sullivan talking about the sock puppet fetish, the first "m" is mormonism. he's proud to be a mormon and can't embrace it too closely for a lot of different reasons. the second "m" is money. he is a money man. he's done extraordinarily well.

talk to democrats. talk to people that worked alongside him. talk to steve ratner. they'll tell you. he did great work setting up bain capital. but he's -- he's sort of afraid to go there. and then the third is massachusetts. he doesn't want to talk about his massachusetts record because he was basically the godfather at least intellectually of obama care. when you can't talk about who you are, when you can't talk about what you believe, when you can't talk about the core of what you have been over five decades, then you've handcuffed yourself and you're not going to be able to do what you need to do to win elections. i think that's his biggest problem. not just a failure to communicate but the failure to embrace his own biography and to brag about it a little bit because he's got a lot to be proud of.

back to you. >> could argue he's put himself in a swiss bank account. >> whoa. >> pretty good. still ahead, we're going to talk to todd p yourdum. keep it right here on "morning joe." sometimes, i feel like it's me against my hair.

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republican presidential candidate mitt romney wraps up his historic vacation to england, israel and poland. and i'm sure he's glad to finally be coming back homes. of course, the liberal media has been hammering mitt throughout the trip for a couple of hiccups, like when he offended palestinians by suggesting they aren't prosper because of their culture and offended the english when he questioned whether london was ready for the olympics. why is that controversial? every week, hank williams jr. questioned if americans were ready for some football. come on. double standard. well, today, in poland, folks, romney's press secretary pushed back at the info jack els. >> do you feel your gaffes overshadowed the trip.

>> show some respect. >> this is a holy site to the polish people. >> show some respect for this man's ass. which is apparently a holy site for the polish people. >> welcome back to "morning joe." it's the top of the hour. it's a gloomy sight on this first day of august. my god, it's a scene out of "matrix 3." it's just absolutely a miserable day in new york city. but it's warm inside, i guess. i don't know. may be bad inside. anyway, welcome back to "morning joe." happy august 1st. we have mike barnicle with us, brian sullivan, with andrea mitch knell washington and so excited about this next guest. joining us the table, former foreign policy advise tore the bush administration, now an adviser to the romney campaign and the man, i got say, dan -- >> joe, before you can get through the intro, you are

bursting out laughing. >> so explain the setting. you guys are up in boston and saying -- and you go, i got this great idea to show strength, go over to london and attack the olympic organizers and if you could, get the conservative prime minister to come out attacking you and get the conservative mayor of london to use you as a punchline in front of 50,000 people. like a rock concert and say -- >> joe, you've gone through day two of the trip. it was a six-day trip. let's talk about israel and poland. >> yeah. well -- >> what did you think of those stops? >> well, i thought israel -- a wash. >> a wash? >> i think -- he was a wash. come on, dan senor. >> let mess just say -- no, no. let me respond. a wash. >> talk about the trip and there there are going to be long-lasting ramifications for the gaffes.

>> i think if you strip away all of the hyper kinetic press coverage of what you would call the gaffes and actually look about the big takeaways, the big takeaways, seriously, london was bumpy for the reasons you said but if you strip that away and look at the big takeaways of the trip you had two of the leaders of two of america's most important allies give virtual endorsements to mitt romney, the prime minister of israel talked about mitt romney being an old, dear friend, both of israel's and of his with mitt romney standing next to him. he actually unleashed a seething critique of the administration's strategy for sanctions and said they weren't working. he then went from the prime minister's office to meet with president perez who basically hosted the equivalent of a state visit for romney. like they would give to a head of state. the president walked in with

glowing remarks. every meeting he had with officials in israel was like that. then he went to the western wall and images where he was treated like a hero. let me finish here. and then he give this is speech -- >> we don't have 20 minutes just to talk -- you're not even -- >> we haven't gone to poland. we have to talk about poland. >> dan, you are not even out of israeli air space and taken up 20 minutes. okay. so israel, check. he goes to poland. i thought poland was actually a success. >> endorsed him. who wouldn't meet with barack obama. he requested a meeting with the president in poland. he endorses romney. one of the most iconic figures in modern western history in terms of the fight of freedom stands with mitt romney. no small feat. >> i haven't vanquished by dan senor once again. >> i want to focus on the

culture comment not only because of dan's position with the campaign but an author of an israeli entrepreneurship. what did the governor mean with culture in the economic factor of development of israelis and did it really not apply to the palestinians? >> it was -- it was actually, what he said was very important. we were struck by the reaction it provoked. and quite frankly, it is a discussion we're ready to have because what he said was, the cultural choices that a society makes, the choices of political culture, economic culture are big factors in determining its economic vitality. that's what he said. he said this many times before in talking about different parts of the world and in the case of israel, there's no doubt the fact that there's this enormous respect for rule of law, private property, freedom of the press, respect of minorities and for women in israel and this

celebration of entrepreneurship and innovation which i talk about in my book. and so, they encourage people to take risk in israel, to go produce things. that's why israel's the leader in world of medical innovation and green tech. all right. let me finish. let me finish. he said the choices people make about culture determine -- has a huge impact on economic vitality. and by the way, the u.n. human development report on the arab world in the last few years basically with tremendous data make the same argument he was making. >> all right. all right. dan? >> because they lack those factors. >> all right. we've got a lot of people that want to pummel you about -- >> exactly. >> if you can make your answers much shorter so we can get much more punches in. meachum, do you have a follow-up question? >> i do. >> and then to andrea mitchell.

>> culture obviously matters. that's why we call it culture. what is the governor's view of the palestinian culture and its future role in the middle east? >> i would say he believes there's a divide. there's a big, internal struggle within the palestinian world. he met on sunday with the prime minister of the palestinian authority, leader in the west bank, a real moderate trying to do really serious things, developing civil institutions, the economic growth in the west bank actually in the last few years interestingly picked up once they stopped engaging in terrorism from the west bank. economic growth in the west bank has been strong. he's in a struggle. fayad an enthe cohorts in a struggle with hamas who dominate the gaza strip which is in shambles. they launch hundreds of rockets from gaza, thousands since hamas took over in to israel. the chaos in gaza, let me

finish, not because of the israeli occupation. israel is out of ga zach randolph if a few years. the culture that celebrates. you are a kid and strap on a suicide belt and blow up a bus full of 15 israelis and kill them, they name streets and auditoriums after you in gaza whereas the contrast is to israel, you know, you go develop some technology that winds up on the nasdaq and save lives in the realm of bio tech, you're a hero. that tells you something about the culture in gaza. it is not the culture i might add in the west bank. >> okay. let's go to andrea mitchell in washington. andr andrea? >> dan, if governor romney made those points in that speech i don't think people would have raised questions and had the response from palestinian leaders. the fact is he made the point much more broadly about the israeli economy, the israeli gdp in contrast to the palestinian

gdp without mentioning the palestinians faced because of the terrorism, because of the second anti-fada and the history and israel's need for security and faced a wall. they have faced closures where it takes people an hour to get to their jobs to go two miles because of all of the restrictions and the way they have to -- if you have driven through the west bank in recent years you would understand the difference between ramallah and the intervening years because of all of the reactions. those were not the points that governor romney made. just -- he was talking about borders and about adjacent economies in the most generalized terms. >> so -- >> that's why it was so deeply offensive. >> andrea, there's a lot in there. what you just said. let me unpackage it. first of all, the trade restrictions and the roadblock

that is are burdening the gaza strip in particular -- >> i was talking about the west bank. got the gaza strip. >> fine. either one. the trade restrictions and roadblocks. >> they're very different, dan. you're talking about a war zone versus -- >> let me respond. you said a lot. let me respond to it. choices that certain actors make in the palestinian territories as it relates to security and violence and terrorism against the israelis requires the israelis to do certain things, to protect basic security. you talked about the security fence. roadblocks. they don't put up the roadblocks to have fun. they can actually see if someone coming in israel has a suicide bomb strapped to their belt. to inspect a human or vehicle takes time. people at a roadblock and checking every car and every body to make sure someone's not coming in to blow up a classroom

full of school children, that takes time and that absolutely imposes that time and hassle and inconvenience absolutely imposes an economic burden on the palestinian society. but this isn't a choice israel is making. it's a response israel is taking. in response to these decisions that these terrorists are making. so you tell me if that is israel's fault or that is a choice that certain actors in the palestinian territories are making that are hurting their own people, that are hurting the people who just want normalcy. >> and let me say, we'll continue this conversation later this morning on "good morning tel aviv." there's a new set of polls out. >> but joe we never talked about poland. >> poland was a slam dunk for mitt romney. okay. >> why? why was it a slam dunk? >> culture. >> i won't get in a good morning krakow and talking about culture

and they're great allies. >> good day. >> i'm not bigoted. i'm polish. they're the closest allies. mitt romney did well there. you just like to fight, senor. you neo-cons always want to fight. >> i'm on this set with six people, four people here and two via remote that are unleashing. you can understand why i want to get my few minutes and make my case. >> wait a minute. >> i'm called a gop hack, too. >> oh. >> you don't know how i vote. >> you're the only gop hack. >> yeah. i want you to know, dan, i'm not for romney or against romney but i get hit, too. don't worry. >> the shoe fits snugly. mike barnicle, the polls come out, swing state polls in florida, pennsylvania and ohio. >> what polls are we talking about, joe? >> more news. no, no, no. yeah. so anyway, another good excuse

to keep pummeling poor dan senor about the head. let's -- why don't we get in the polls? >> okay. >> holy site for the "morning joe" people. >> more good news for you, dan. all right. >> the trip was -- >> a new quinnipiac/"the new york times"/cbs news shows president obama with a lead in three states. head to head by six in florida, six in ohio and 11 in pennsylvania. the governor's unfavors outwaig the favorables. on the economy, the polls show voters overwhelmingly believe the economy is staying the same or getting worse. and just a quarter of those polled said it was getting better. people in florida said governor romney would better handle the economy. people in ohio and pennsylvania narrowly chose the president. how did you like that coming back from your trip? >> first, the polls bounce

around very tight margins for the next few months and talking about it every day. and try to, you know, have these interpretations of movement of one -- i got israel -- speaking of -- >> speaking of israel. >> no. one point here and there. important point is, the economy's as we all know is most important. romney's graded higher and over last four months, the campaign outspending the romney campaign nationally three to four to one and the swing states seven to one. so obama has been unleashing an enormous amount of resources, an enormous amount of resources testing every -- >> nothing compared to the obama campaign spending and so you see that reflected in some of these numbers and even steal with the spending of the obama campaign, this is the super tight race. >> i appreciate the comments on israel and maybe off air love to

know what's romney planning to do there differently than the administration. >> let's keep that off air. >> all of the challenges facing the economy, with the headwinds, with the numbers, brian mentioned this morning a trillion dollars spent the president, the joe mentioned this morning obama's gotten everything he wanted but the unemployment number didn't move much. you find people more under water than before. in short, the economic situation of middle class families is tough. isn't it distressing to find mitt romney better overseas and unable to articulate here and finding himself according to the most recent "the new york times" poll which in fairness showed obama down ten days ago and now ahead, isn't it distressing for the campaign to not be ahead or at least trends ahead in the battleground states? >> like i said, it's very close. i think romney, to your point, gave two excellent speeches abroad. by the way, joe, not going back to the question but answering

harold's question. and gave two excellent speeches abroad that relate directly to some of the economic issues we're wrestling with here. i think you can see him talking along those lines here. a vip pick coming up. he's got the convention coming. and then three debates and the vp debate and plenty of big moments between now and november for him to continue to talk about the things he has been talking about. >> you can see not gotten really clear on the economic issues and waiting until september. >> here's what i think. i think that romney's getting outspent like crazy right now. and i think that, you know, when barack obama goes on tv spending a fortune saying, you know, mitt romney would have done this in the auto bailout and this on tax reform, mitt romney is an evil man and possibly a felon and spending four to one, five to one, six to one that has an impact. >> hey, brian, brian sullivan,

dan senor makes a good point. you have had in "new york times," "wall street journal," "washington post," several stories of the obama team spending a lot of money, romney's people seem to be holding much more, raising a lot of money and preparing for a fall blitz. dan does make a good point but the question i guess is whether he's going to be painted as out of touch so much so early in august that by the time the fall comes around it's harder for him to change those perceptions. >> you know, perhaps. i'm listening to everybody speak and there's a lot of great commentary here but i wonder why we're not talking about the senate races coming up. say the senate swings over and now you have complete control in congress by the republicans and you've got a democratic president sort of isolated out there. nothing's going to get done. right? which some people would argue is a good thing, joe. i'm wondering, at what point do

the american people just go on and don't look to washington for answers? that's kind of why i made that sock puppet comment earlier. right? i'm at the point where i imagine your viewers are of general disgust of washington. d.c. you guys stay in the bull ring inside the beltway. fight it out over here. hi, america. we're going to go on with our lives. i just got back from wisconsin. i have friends saying they're sick an tired of d.c. let's live our life. buy a home. go to work and forget about d.c. because it seems to be increasingly irrelevant if not incapable of solving their problems for them. >> let's say it right now. mike read the poll question to mitt romney's economic policies, do they make a difference moving forward over four years? you can expand it out and ask independent voters and swing voters whether barack obama or mitt romney make a huge difference and most say no and they have a good point.

john meachum, you look at the state of washington right now and you look at the fact of the republicans probably pick up the seats in the senate. and they may hold on to the house. regardless of whether democrats have 51 senators or republicans have 51 senators, we're deadlocked. we're in the same position in january of 2013 that we are today. i don't know where the hope is. but as you said, this two-party duopoly that dominated for 150 years. >> yep. i think that it's, you know, we have an establishment party in this country with two wings and there are important differences but by and large the country and the broad economic future to to go your point, brian, is set between these two sets of arguments. and i don't know.

we're 140 years in to this two-party system. i mean, it's remarkable. >> you know what the two parties are? people with jobs and without. young and old. political concept is over. i don't get it. >> they can tumrn the ballot access. that's the problem. >> they certainly do. let's finish. we haven't talked about a big win for ted cruz in texas last night. 41 years old. he ran against the establishment. he ran against the governor and the party gop. like marco rubio in florida, he's cuban american and won going away. this guy is going to be a rising star in the republican party starting today. >> yeah. totally agree. ted, who i know and worked with a number of years ago and fond of, he ran on ideas which is important just like marco rubio did. and i would just say coming back

tohe point of brian and john, the discussion they were having, it's easy to throw your hands up and saying washington is dysfunctional. >> washington is dysfunctional. >> it wasn't dysfunctional. the president with democratic majorities in the senate and house and passed big things. i disagree with the things but passed obama care, the stimulus, dodd-frank. you cannot argue washington didn't work. washington was effective in 2009, 2010 passing big legislation that i would say tragically has not improved our situation. in fact, made things worse. we have had over 40 months of extremely high unemployment but you can't blame it on washington not working. obama got what he wanted. it was just ineffective legislation. >> okay. andrea, thank you for putting up with all of this this morning. we appreciate it. >> fun to be with you. >> i'm going to throw my hands up in the air, washington is dysfunctional. easy to do.

>> i agree. a star is born, ted cruz. >> stay with us, please. go out in the hallway and talk about poland. up next, the cost of not spending. miles nadal stops by the set to break down how consumer restraint is impacting recovery. here's bill karins. >> dealing with rain this morning. two locations. london and new york city. unfortunately, rain has moved in as we have gone through the day. going to be on and off rain showers. wet right now. tennis is delayed at the wimbledon site. hoping to resume that in two to three hours and also watching rain through new york city this morning. going to cause some delays at the airports. thankfully, it is hit and miss. very in and out. we should by 7:30, 7:45 be dry in new york. here's the new york city radar. already moving through manhattan heading for brooklyn and for queens. other areas of the northeast, you are pretty much dry this

morning. hit and miss showers this afternoon and evening. away from i-95 early and then the big cities probably after the dinner hour. the rest of the country, more of the same. it looks like august is at least the beginning of august is going to be just like july, extremely hot, extremely dry through the middle of the country. the highlight today, oklahoma city expected to be 110 degrees. that's six degrees warmer than the deserts of arizona. ridiculous. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. the capital one cash rewards card gives you a 50% annual bonus. and everyone likes 50% more [ russian accent ] rubles. eh, eheh, eh, eh. [ brooklyn accent ] 50% more simoleons. [ western accent ] 50% more sawbucks.

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hey, welcome back to "morning joe." happy august 1st. let's bring on set with us right now, chairman and ceo of mdc partners, miles nadal.

a man that "the wall street journal" described today as having obsessive compulsive advantage. miles, what exactly are you plagued with? what is obsessive compulsive advantage? >> i think actually it's a benefit. if you channel compulsive energy in a positive direction you can accomplish great things. most people like you, joe, are obsessive compulsive. it is an advantage if you channel it correctly. that wasn't even mine. that was a kenny dichter expression. i like other people's expressions so i use that one. >> well, you -- i think you politely just called me crazy but the "the wall street journal" also taunged about some great work you're doing in staten island. talk about that really briefly and then the economy. what are you doing on staten island. >> there's an extraordinary woman i saw on "60 minutes" and

started something in a one bedroom house to called global medical relief fund to help children in war torn areas where they've lost limbs and disfigured. getting people to volunteer services and doctors to perform surgeries and prosthetics on the kids. i said we should buy her a house. she was having to house the kids at places like youth hostels and ymcas and ronald mcdonald house and we started something and raised money and called dare to dream house and opening it on thursday and she's just a remarkable saint of a woman who by willpower, helped 100 kids all of whom were completely disfigured and i was quite inspired by it. >> good for you. >> it is an unbelievable story and would ask our viewers to read about it in the "wall street journal." brian, let's talk about the economy.

i'd love to get miles' reaction. miles is a businessman who understands what causes the economy to grow and retract and what causes him to hire people and have to let people go. show us your chart, brian. >> yeah. miles can certainly respond to this. we talk about business but, miles, you are in business, right? what we're talking about here, folks. i'm a business guy. i like pretty-colored lines and this is a chart of how economies in japan and finland and the u.s. and other places have done coming out of deep recessions. right? and if you look at this chart, you will notice the u.s. is since 1970, this is statistically the worst recovery out of a recession in a developed nation. so in other words, in over 40 years, this is officially the slowest recovery when compared to other countries. so miles, there's a report out recently that canada, right, is

now wealthier on a per capita basis in terms of net wealth per househo household. how can we fix that? what can america do better? >> if i knew that answer i would be george soros and i probably wouldn't be on this show. >> do you think that anybody has the answer? >> i'm sure somebody might have the answer. the question isn't -- but i think you said something earlier, both you and mike said something earlier, which is, it's not just about getting the answer but an it implemented and the disfauxality of government. you asked an interesting question. you know i'm canadian. >> i lived in toronto. yes or no in utica, new york. my family in utica is upset when they have they feel like i'm denying it. >> people in canada blessed by the ovarian lottery. they were born in a physical location rich in natural gas and oil and water and pulp and paper and lumber, et cetera.

second of all, they're fiscally far more conservative. >> smarter banking. never had the housing bubble because of bad lending we had. >> 50% of all canadians have no mortgage. you need 25% of equity. mortgages are not tax deductible. second of all, you need 25% equi equity. they're levered at 11 to 12 times capital. >> that's the key. >> they never got caught up in subprime and, you know, very high lbos. >> they never had the policy of, hey, buy a home, buy as much home as you can, deduct the mortgage interest. we have encouraged through poor government policy speculation even at the household level. canada has not. >> miles, the prime minister of canada also done important things here that we could emulate. >> no question. but let's go through the facts relatively. okay? so, the average canadian -- american savings gone up 10% in

the month of july to 4.4%. with 2.4% in a year and a half ago, it was 3.2% in november. canadians save at the rate of about 8%. okay? they're far more conservative. gdp growth in the united states slowed. it was 4% in the fourth quarter. it was 2.4% in the first of this year. it's 1.5%. so you got to decelerating economy. i think the most important thing, though, is about consumer confidence. confidence is at 69. 90 is very high. we have one of the lowest consumer confidence levels in america now than ever. i think it's -- the reason why people save and don't spend is because of lack of confidence in government. i actually think in canada there is greater confidence. i didn't say we have so much more competent government but a consistency of policy and an expectation to do that which will be prosperous for the country. >> i'm serving putine this

thanksgiving in your honor. >> how do you deal with the fiscal issues? the notion of kicking the can down the road forever is something we all know is not sustainable but who takes on the key issues? that's the challenge and until that's addressed you will continue to have economic instability because it's a reflection of confidence. >> you know, so we have been talking about culture. mitt romney went over to israel. made comments about the difference between the culture and the israelis and the palestinians. mike barnicle, we're talking about culture here. there's a difference between the canadian culture of saving and the american culture of saving. when's so fascinating, though, is this is a learned trait of our culture. we used to save like germans. we used to have a 10% savings rate, personal savings rate. on september 15th, when we had the crash back in 2008, savings rate was 0. inched up to 3%, 4%.

but mike, were you as blown away by miles' statistic as me that half of canadians do not even have a mortgage? >> well, yeah. >> unbelievable. >> that's my question back to him, joe, is that -- that absolutely to my mind is the biggest difference in our two cultures. 50% of the people in canada have no mortgage. we can't live without mortgages here because of the tax deductions on mortgages. so explain it to me. spell it out a little. i am from ontario. i go to mcgil university. i graduate, get married. i work, my wife works. how do i buy a house? >> well, but exactly right. so to these. joe's point. he said that we are a -- we are not -- we are spenders here. but we're spenders on leverage. that's the key issue. we're spenders on leverage. canadians spend what they have, what they have earned, what they have got from their parents and

what their wife or their siblings or whoever helps to contribute. so, it's the leverage issue that's killed the country in that regard. there's nothing wrong with spending if you have the resources. so people have two jobs, three jobs. you have an immigrant population, as well, in canada. and everybody's contributing the household and -- >> sounds like saying canadians work harder than americans. >> no. they have a priority of having one house, pay for it. pay off the mortgage and then look at something else but only -- it's the protestant, only buy that which you can afford. >> america at the -- >> average american home from 2,300 square feet now. we are house poor. got to have a great room, two stories, right? with a couch to watch mike barnicle on. >> do you want behavior, you create economic rewards that reward that behavior. you reward people making mortgages tax deductible and

incentivize people to have bigger mortgages. it is really simple. >> if you tell wall street as they were told back five, six, seven years ago that you could leverage your money 40 to 1, 50 to 1, of course, bad things will happen. miles, you are exactly right. at the end of the day, it is about leveraging. and you know, it's funny. i think you're proud to be canadian and you should be. did you see how senor just sort of jumped back? >> no, no. i don't want to neglect utica, new york. utica, new york. >> are you ashamed of? dan? >> i was someone that lived in toronto and mile cans appreciate that. he mentioned perry sound, ontario. >> you must be fishing up there or something. >> where do you know perry sound from? >> probably the hometown. >> that's right. >> bobby orr. >> i was very impressed with that. >> i was sort of taken aback. >> that was very cool.

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lead us out of this stagnant obama economy and in to a job creating recovery. >> joining us now from washington, neighal editor of "vanity fair" todd purhum says that ceos master with loyal subordinates who will jump when told to jump but politics is always the art of the possible, a game in which personality, charm, people skills, the ability to communicate and a swing for the fences still all matter so much. as the romneys of the world like to say, most politicians have never met a payroll but most business people have never dealt with the wiley, needy, fickle types who populate a typical legislature either. todd, i was crushed in part reading your piece. an all-time hero, abe lincoln.

a bust-out as a businessman as it turns out and tell me about this. >> he kept a store for a while in new salem, illinois, getting started and he accumulated so much debt that he referred to it as the national debt and he was paying it off for a long time. just like harry truman. he was paying it off for 15 years and strapped for cash well in to his career in the u.s. senate. >> todd, it's john meachum. wondering what you found about the management style question. you talk about harding and carter. what is it -- what's the distinction between the two worlds? >> well, there's actually been a lot of scholarship as you might imagine on what makes a good ceo and actually the answer seems to be enormous discipline, ability to work long hours, ability to execute over and over again on the things you are good at whereas communication skills, personality, charisma and think

of as important in political leadership is not that important in business leadership. i think it's a funny thing thinking of passionate ceos but they're not typical. >> thinking of business people, i have worked with, i think of people good at recruiting talent. good at managing investors and keeping them happy. good at negotiating with the unions. they're good at cajoling suppliers for better terms. dealing with payments and pressures on payments and all these various external party that is are pressuring you on any given day and got to keep online and keep moving. it seems it's more complicated than just having a bunch of people that work for you jumping at every command. >> every business leader has to manage a constituency and share holders and virtually every business leader had much more control over the environment and

the decisions happen quickly. a typical c eo makes decisions really kind of on a moment's notice. it is not the same sand in the gears way that washington works or a state capital works and, in fact, when romney was govern nor of massachusetts, he didn't like dealing with the legislature. he was not much of a pol in the sense of working the room or getting to know people or dealing with people in the way that we think of, you know, a master politician like lbj or bill clinton. >> i'm not sure, though, we have a large representative sample of really successful business people who gone in to politics. >> i think -- >> the kennedy family was very successful in business and politically. i'd say differently but mike bloomberg is as successful a businessman as we have ever seen and successful politically, and his style is that which, you know, articulated in the "vanity fair" piece and adapted to the political environment with great success. so, i actually think you can't

make generalizations. i think it's dependent upon the style and ability and passion of the individual more than any generalization. >> i think it's fair to say in the modern era politics is not attractive to the attractive to typical business person because of the necessity for the compromise and the inefficiencies of politics are not very appealing. i agree with you about mayor bloomberg, he's been success until in a special environment of new york and i'm not so sure and i don't think he's sure how those skills would translate to a broader national constituency. >> do you think he doesn't have the ability to manage on -- >> bloom left about halfway when i was there. mike's got a singular vision and he goes after it. and i think to todd's point, which is an excellent one.

i guess, todd, what i'm suggesting is that in business you need to be a little bit more auto cattic. i believe in what i'm doing with a product and i'm going for it regardless of what else. >> but do you think, todd, that good presidents would then become good ceos, can we invert it? >> that's a very interesting question. i never really thought of it in that way, i suppose if they had a team around them that could help them with the numbers part, the effective president could conceivably be a very good leader of the team in business. that's a very -- in some ways, president clinton has been a venture philanthropist in his requirement, he's not pursuing the bottom line, but he's certainly built an organization that's successful all around the world in doing good. >> but if you were to say which had a higher probability of outcome, a successful president becomes a successful businessman or a successful businessman

becomes a successful president. >> we haven't had a successful businessman who has had a successful presidency. it might yet happen and maybe mitt romney will be the first one. but it hasn't happened yet. >> in this month, this piece, this issue of "vanity fair" on newsstands riflgts now. an unprecedented look at new york's own big dig. you're watching "morning joe," brewed by starbucks. [ female announcer ] great taste is always in style

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washington and the great willie geist. >> all across london, the united states turning in some big wins in women's gymnastics and other areas of course history being made by an american swimmer. >> yeah, it was a great day yesterday for the united states. we'll start with gymnastics, team usa, the women going for their first gold in the team all around since 1996 when they won up in atlanta. they beat russia by more than five points. bella carroli says this team, the 2012 team is the best ever in usa women's gymnastics. you mentioned some history, michael phelps setting the record for 19 career medals that's more than anybody has ever had in the history of olympic games, he won it in the men's 4 by 200 meter free relay, particularly the gold medal where he had the anchor leg. he said i started smiling with

20 meters to go, it's the first time i think i have ever done that in a race. he gets his 19th medal and makes history. he won the silver medal in the men's 200 meter shortly before he won the 19th. he was outtouched at the wall. he led the way and got outtouched at the end. that was number 18 to tie and that gave him the record. long night for tunisia, there's no other way to say it. 110-63 was the final. team usa only led by 13 points at halftime. but they turned it on to win by 39 in the fourth quarter. women's soccer at old trackford, joe, home of man united. they won 1-0 over north korea. they had a couple go off the post. that's all they needed to go on to the medal round. now in the knockout round, they

get new zealand on friday. and an incredible moment in badminton, we can only show you the still photographs unfortunately. a couple of teams, china and south korea, charged with trying to throw their matches, if you watch the video, they're hitting on purpose into the net, time after time, hitting it out of bounds on purpose, they were trying to avoid this dominant chinese duo in doubles play so they didn't have to face them during the gold medal games. the referees and judges came out and said if this continues we're going to disqualify both teams from the olympic teams. it didn't make any difference, they kept hitting it into the net. after four days of competition, u.s. and china still on top of the leaderboard, tied with 23 total medals each, china leads with 13 gold, great britain still waiting to break through with its first goal of these london games, joe. >> mike, to news, political news, we have got a new set of

polls out that should cause the romney team much, much concern. and also, i guess you would call it an upset in texas. but the republican party is a conservative party and texas is one of the most conservative states and i think the young conservative star was born last night in the texas republican runoff. let's go to news. >> that's true, joe, but let's get to the poll first because it is kind of surprising. it think i will be surprising to a lot of people. before we get to the poll, that was very nicely done, meecham. >> thank you. thank you. >> anyway, joe, a new quinnipiac "new york times" cbs news poll shows obama with leads in three major swing states. obama leads romney by six points in florida, six points in ohio and 11 points in pennsylvania. governor romney's unfavorables outweigh his favorables in all three states.

on the other handlogten, president obama's favorables top 50% in each of those states. on the economy t polls show voters overwhelmingly believe the economy is staying the same or getting worse. just a quarter of those polls showed it was getting better. people in florida said governor romney would better handle the economy, people in ohio and pennsylvania narrowly chose president obama. joe, i have to tell you, if you pull out some of the questions that were asked in this poll, i don't know if you're as surprised as i was. but there are some really, as you said, some really stunning developments from the romney campaign that they're going to have to deal with in terms of who cares more about the economy, people, who cares more about average people, president obama or governor romney. the president runs away with that. very interesting numbers here. >> really interesting numbers, this of course comes from the same polling organization, the "new york times" which are teamed up with cbs that actually

had romney ahead nationally. but you look at these swing states, the president's doing very well in one swing state after another. harold ford jr., you look at the state of florida, it's such a run state. i know people call it a swing state. go talk to the state legislature for a little bit. it is so conservative. it has one of the most conservative governors in america there. this has got to be troubling on the first day of august for the romney team. >> i would agree. probably in addition to what mike has said and what you're sharing, this is the first time i have seen numbers in battleground state where is numbers for the incumbent has reached 50. wherever you're polling in late in the election -- others have

commended on this show across the network. for the president now to be above 50 in key states, at least in one poll. i thought the "new york times" showed a different set of numbers, but these numbers this morning, if indeed you follow numbers are not only going to have to be this confidenting for romney, but it validates for the obama campaign whatever they're doing specifically in those states they should continue doing. >> the question, andrea mitchell in washington is how much does this lead belong to barack obama and hiss team and just to be blunt, how much of it belongs to mitt romney's own blundering? he goes to three countries that should be the most favorably inclined for reasons we discussed yesterday and he bumbles his way on the world stage. at some point, even swing republicans are starting to worry about romney and it's showing up in these swing

states. >> i think that the foreign trip, while not a success, and while missed opportunities, actually accomplished some purpose for him because he was playing to a particular audience, particularly in israel and you saw no apology, in fact he doubled down on his culture comments about the palestinians in the op-ed and the national review. so he very much was catering to, i think, the big, the big sheld sheldoned aal sons and the big fund-raisers that were there and the pro christian evangelicals at home as well. i don't think that will turn out to be as much of a set back as is now being discussed in the press. but what has really had an impact, joe, the negative advertising and the way that the obama campaign has just hammered romney on creating this persona. if you look inside the questions of this "new york times" poll, if it's to be believed, it is only a snapshot, we have seen

other polls, but he's been completely defined as mike was saying, not caring about people's lives, not relating to them, it's the bain capital and the taxes. he is absolutely not going to release more of his taxes because for some reason that we can all infer or surmise, they think it would be worse to release them than not to release them and people don't relate to that. >> we have got president obama who's presiding over a weak economy, it appears to be g getting even weaker, they are now talking about launching a strategy for attacking mitt romney for being weak on the deficit, when we know the debt has gone up $5 trillion since president obama has been in the white house. but you almost get the defense that mitt romney is not going to be able to deflect criticisms

like that and he appears to be not able to get out in front of a punch that he knows is coming. >> we have got by any measure one of the weak es recoveries over -- the recovery that we have got out of the 2007, 2008 collapse is one of the slowest and most anemic in over 100 years, and romney is not picking up on that. i don't get it, i don't get what they're going for. >> by the way, a candidate that knew what he was doing on is campaign trail, would say just what you said, and follow it up by saying, and president obama gets absolutely everything he wanted his first two years in office, he passed one big spending bill after another big spending bill. he promised us unemployment below 8% and look what we have.

brian, those numbers that you talked about, i know a lot of people in the media love to carry the narrative, oh, well the president can't do what he wants to do because those big, bad republicans. he held washington for the first two years, he put these policies in place and they're not working. and yet mitt romney is losing by six points in the state of florida. >> if i was advising the romney camp, i would say that when the stimulus plan was passed, unemployment was 8.3%. unemployment now is 8.2%. so you're talking about 900 or so billion dollars. that eventually will need to be repaid, reducing unemployment by .01%. but we're nowhere near that level that you discussed. if i were in the romney camp, that's what i would say, why is the recovery so slow? why are 14 million americans

unemployed? suddenly paying a higher tax rate is a badge of honor this this country. >> mike, i'm just going to ask it, it's a reality and sometimes people get upset when we tell the truth on the air. but as a politician, mitt romney is inept. he's stiff on stage, we have talked about it for a year. he obviously is not winning over ohio voters. what was he like as governor in massachusetts, was he this stiff? was he think inept? he's succeeded in everything he's done throughout his entire life. but as a politician, when he puts on that politician suit, he's just not good. >> joe, he was not inept as a -- he put on mickey rooney's suit

or tried to put it on because it didn't fit him. he had a distance to him about politics. but he was not in ept. clearly politics is not his game. joe, i think you can prove that out by just one question that's extrapolated here in this poll, which again off of what brian said, when nobody is advising the romney campaign, but you think they would pay attention to this. to me this is a real danger signal. the question is if mr. obama is re-elected, do you think his economic policies would help or hurt your financial situation? the same question is asked in governor romney's name within that same question. and you can either say help, hurt, or would make no difference. makes no difference wins. it's the same number for both guys. if i were the romney campaign looking at that question and those numbers, i would say, wow.

i haven't done a good job selling myself. >> and the reason why is, i mean we have been saying it all along, at least i have been saying it all along, as a conservative, you look at what mitt romney says, you watch him through the primaries, you listen to see if he understands why we're having the economic problems that we're having. and he doesn't speak like a conservative. and i'm not just talking about the talking points that maybe will ferrell would be able to spit out. he doesn't talk like a reagan. he doesn't talk like a thatcher, he doesn't talk like he understands hyatt, he doesn't talk like he understands that there is no such thing as a free lunch in america. that if the federal government spends a trillion on a stimulus plan, if a federal government spends $5 trillion over 3 1/2 years. if the federal government spends

5 -- if the federal government is $22 trillion in debt, if the federal government has $7 trillion of obligations facing it over the next 50 or 60 years, that's going to have to be repaid somehow. you're not going to be able to repay it by starting government programs. you're going to have to grow the economy, and you're going to have to grow the economy by trusting the people that run the economy who are not in washington, d.c. but mitt romney doesn't understand that, that's why people don't believe, mike, that romney's policies would be that different from obama's policies. >> brian's got a lot to say here obviously on this. but before we get to brian, i would just say off of what you said, it's probably a lot of that. what i think i do understand is that this -- >> what do you understand, mike? >> i think this, while this

still remains a nation where most people meet the candidates and get their information from tv commercials and tv news, stuff like that, it's still a ground level and eye contact people, and governor romney, people just don't think that he gets their lives. it's thes a sense of mon sthe a their pockets. >> i'm not ideological, but americans aren't by and large ideological but they will vote for somebody who is ideological if they believe, if they think, if they can look in their eyes and they can hear an fdr talking and they believe that they have nothing to fear but fear itself. or if they look at reagan's eyes and see that they need to get

government out of the way, they need to get the economy kick started again. they don't get that from mitt romney, this is more like 1976 than 1980. >> stunning images from beneath the earth go inside manhattan's subway zone. we'll talk to the photographer who captured the amazing pictures. plus, chuck todd weighs in on why ug could be a make or break month for mitt romney. but first bill karins with a check on the forecast. >> good morning to you, mike and everyone else. worst weather in the country continues to be coastal areas of north carolina, the beautiful beaches near wilmington and on into the outer banks. camp lejeune right there in jacksonville, florida. that will be moving through over the next couple of hours, except

for that, much of the country is off to a dry start. there will be another chance for showers late today for the northeast. the middle of the country continues to be the story. you just got done with your hottest july ever recorded, denver, indianapolis, louisville, st. louis, and one of your hottest julys ever for minneapolis and chicago and d.c. and we're starting august off very hot. how hot will it be in oklahoma today in how does 110 degrees sound in oklahoma city in we're going to see this today and tomorrow and then you'll, quote, unquote cool off in oklahoma city through the weekend. things will continue to get hot through august. see those rain clouds spitting new york city, you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. with the spark cash card from capital one,

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. for a long time now words like compromise have been considered to be dirty words. and people on the right and the left who think that if you compromise, you're a coward, you're a facilitator, you're an appeaser, i don't know what the democratic term is. i suppose it's a dyno. the art of being a legend for is finding common ground to see what legislation you can get to solve the countries problems. >> that's steve latourette in

ohio. he's not going to be seeking a seventh congress. joining us now from washington, nbc news news chief, white house correspondent, political director, chuck todd. there aren't many moderate republicans left. what happened to governor latourette? >> it was an automatic win. it was done, he didn't have a real democratic opponent. and let me throw something else out, the afl-cio was going to endorse him. i think they may already have. it wasn't that long ago, mike, in the '80s and '90s when there were, you needed your hands and your feet to count the number of

republicans in the house that would regularly get labor endorsements, particularly in states like ohio, upstate new york, basically any state in the v in the northeast. you could find pro labor republicans, it was just another aspect of the republican coalition. >> what provoked him to leave now and under these circumstances? >> you know, what he says, th e there's some, it has to do with some committee assignments. remember he was the republican co-sponsor of bowls-simpson when he brought -- i think it got 36 votes in the legislature. so that would mean 399 against it. so he was -- he was under the impression or he at least thought he was getting targeted, that he was a marked man, that he couldn't get stuff done, he

wasn't going to get good committee assignments. despite his personal -- that there were going to be other members who weren't going to have it. this is sort of -- what i find fascinating, you have latourette leaving going after his party and the democrats. on the same day, you have ted cruise cruz elected down in texas. club for growth aired an ad on behalf of ted cruz that said that david dewhurst, it said david dewhurst is not a moderate. that was the attack ad. of course 15 years ago attacking somebody as a moderate, that wouldn't have been attack ad, it would have been a positive. as the tea party has gotten stronger and the conservative

wing of the party has gotten stronger inside the republican party, you've seen the numbers overall for the favorable rating of the republican party go down. and i think this is one of these untalked about pieces of baggage that mitt romney is carrying around that we don't spend enough time dealing with. >> chuck, does this concern you, the seeming drift away from any moderate republican to achieve any role at all in the house of representatives and the swing towards a really foul right republican -- >> i think there were some positive developments some of the attacks by dewhurst were -- a minority american wins a hard right conservative primary. >> let's stick to latourette in ohio. would mitt romney like to have,

never mind an endorsement from the afl-cio, he's okay with us? >> where the afl-cio is today on the positions they have taken on a number of economic and fiscal issues is not exactly where the -- where independent voters are today, in terms of what direction the u.s. is going tyke over the next few years. >> what happened with the relationship between speaker boehner and let me ask you, are there any moderates left in the republican majority in the house? >> there are a few, but it's a very small group. and they don't have much power and they're treading carefully. what made latourette different is that every other moderate that we have seen leave, and i always do have this -- i always, part of me wonders why these lawmakers, they also complain and say, if it's so broken, why are you leaving, why don't you

try to stay and fix it? what was different about latourette is that he was leaving and he didn't have the threat of a primary opponent. you know, you can make arguments about olympia snow, i think her primary statement was almost identical to the latourette retirement statement. maybe it's what they want, but it's going to compartmentalize the party to the south. obviously parts of the sun belt. they're going to go away from the northeast and they're going to make it harder and harder for them to stay relevant in the u.s. >> can you talk about the blue dogs because of the same problem on the other side? >> they're gone too. now they have left -- because they didn't think they could win, they weren't having primary

problems, right? they were just -- they couldn't have a d next to the name in the places where they were running, take heath shuler in north carolina. this is sort -- another part of the problem, right? the democratic party did everything they could to protect these guys in primaries, right? they would discourage primary challengers, they would try to do everything they could to sort of steer clear and help them get through their primary and the ones that have run, they have been largely successful, but the problem is, then they can't seem to run away, even as they run away from their party and their party doesn't care if they do run against them, it's still not enough, they lose because they're in just too much of a republican area. >> you know we had these battles in '96, '97, and people like latourette, why like very much

who would roll their eyes every time we got up and gave a fiery speech. but it does seem, does it not that the moderate wing of the republican party has all but vanished and you've got people that idolize -- this debate is all but over. the small government conservatives, at least in word, if not deed -- >> but joe -- >> now own the republican party. >> that happened in 1994. i think what you've got a lot, what i think and i have heard you say this before t question is not what your philosophy is, the question is whether do you believe if you get 60% of what you want, is that a win? can you vote -- and that, i think is what's missing, right? that's the complaint i hear

privately from republican senators, mostly on the senate side, but from republicans on the senate side, who sit there and say, hey, i'll take a 60-40 win, a 70-30 win, but we can't do it, our leadership won't let us do it. >> but all the world's a stage, as the shakespearean saying goes, the republicans are the minority party in washington, yes, they own the house of representatives, but they know they can't do anything, if the republicans take over the senate, watch the battle, the new battle lines that are drown or between the republican senators and the republican house members, we hated them, they hated us, john mccain said, well, you know the house just doesn't matter, we call -- you know, we called republican senators members of the house of lords, bob dole openly criticized newt gingrich, i don't -- if they're not, quote, responsible right now, it's because they don't really have the power at the end of the day.

they probably, though--don't you think we'll see this battle redefined if they take over the senate as well? >> well, i think it's possible. i think it all depends on what happens in the presidential. it's funny, there was a great bob dole profile, i think it's in "gq" either last month or this month. he talked about that he was in such nonspeaking terms with newt, that he would actually go to clinton and clinton would speak to newt on his behalf. but i go back to something here that i think is something we don't talk about, which is romney does have one big problem that he can't do anything about right now and it wasn't of his making. the republican party has been under water among all voters, but particularly independent

voters, basically about two months after republicans took over the house and they have been in worse shape in the republican party. that isn't hurting romney, can you win a presidential race when your party is viewed more unfavorably than the party you're running against. >> chuck todd, i thought you were going to say it's one big problem we can't do anything about is dan seener. chuck todd. >> i think dan needs combat pay for showing up today. >> it's unbelievable, it's like five on one, six on one, seven people via row moat, re-enforcements, understudies. >> we're trying to make it a fair fight, dan, trying to make it a fair fight. it is cultural. >> all right, chuck. >> chuck todd, a man who cannot live without mlb tv, chuck todd. >> on your iphone. up next, tunnel vision, a look inside new york city's

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80 feet below, it's like you

ventured into another planet. those subterranean blasts will make way for new york's long delayed second avenue subway. this one's been on the drawing board since 1929. they even started building part of it in the '70s. but the money ran out and the tunnels were sealed. this time however the city swears the trains will be running by 2016. >> that was a nightly news report on the much anticipated building of the second avenue subway in new york city. here with a behind the scenes look at the construction is richard barnes, richard is the photographer behind the upcoming cover story in the "new york times" magazine, new rock city, in the photo essay, wrote the essay, in manhattan where street traffic tends to stall, only one subway runs the length of the east side every weekday, 1.23 million passengers, more than

are carried by the subway systems of new york and san francisco combined. the chaos above and below has inspired a fete of 475 -- more than half an empire state building by volume, out from under two miles of metropolis, in december, 2016, that tunnel will make its debut as a portion of the second avenue subway t great failed track in new york city has been postponing, debating, financing, definancing and otherwise meaning to get in the ground since 1929. it's an incredible construction project. you go under ground, you take these pictures. tell me when you first went down there. what you saw in your mind's eye, never mind the pictures we're going to see here shortly. in your mind's eye, what did you see? what did you feel? >> my first experience was, i lived in italy for a year, and

there's a wonderful italian artist, he did these engravings and he did this fantastical spacings, it was fantastic. then it turned into a more cinema graphic quality. i was thinking of the term doom of 1984. it was an amazing experience, i think that cinema graphic quality was just, the space is massive. i mean there's nothing else that rivals it in terms of what's going on in the country, maybe the world trade towers right now, but it's all happening under ground and very few people, except the people that live above it, who are somewhat impacted understand that this is happening below their feet.

there's just a huge amount of -- and it's going to be two miles and that's only the first phase. >> can you envision a subway there? i mean can you -- when you're on a subway, do you think, you know, x number of years ago this was cinema graphic? >> i had no idea until i took that rickety elevator down 90 feet and felt like it was another world. it was another planet. it really feels like that down there. amazing, amazing space. >> so to jump on to the question that john asked, so now when you ride the subways, and you're going through those tunnels and those -- and those stations, can you envision what this -- you said two miles, just two miles, which i think -- phase one, what it's going to look like when it's done? >> it's hard to envision it when it's done because now it just looks like a gigantic cave and

it's all one color, it's all gray. >> and is it all one size? i mean -- i mean are the stations visibly different from the tunnels? >> at this point the stations aren't visibly different. you understand where you are because it opens up that this will be a station, there will be three stations on this line. so it has this other component, kind of a claustrophobiic idea of what the tunnels are. but when you get out into these station areas, it's massive. >> when did the project begin? >> the project began in 2007. >> so under bloomberg? >> so it will be finished long after? >> long, long after. >> 2016 for the first phase. i find it ironic that it was started in 1929 just before the crash. it started up again in 2007 just before our own great recession.

>> just before the next phase. >> tell me quickly if you can about the sand hogs, those guy who is work down there. how do they get down to work every day, do vehicles emerge at a point? >> vehicles used to emerge at a point, you take a rickety elevator down, the vehicles have been put down there and i could be wrong about this, this is something the mta needs to talk about. the vehicles were brought down early on through trenches from the 96th street entryway. >> about how many people are working down there? >> there's upwards of 400, there's full shifts that run 24 hours a day. >> an incredible project, the article and photos are in this sunday's issue of the "new york times" magazine, richard barnes, thanks very much. up next, a look at some of the big headlines from the west coast papers. "morning joe" back in a moment. with the spark cash card from capital one,

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here's your invoice. welcome back to morning joe as we look at lax, the early morning on the west coast. it is 5:46 in l.a. right now and let's take a look at the west coast papers. the los angeles times, swiss banking giant ubs claims that nasdaq cost a company $357 million in its handling of the botched facebook ipo in may. ubs claims the gaff lowered their second quarter profits by 58% and now the company is seeking legal action. last week nasdaq filed a plan to repay $62 million to investment firms who were affected by their blunders. according to to the times,

nasdaq's system malfunctions led brokerages to buy more facebook shares than they had intended. and my god, mike, that sure was a costly mistake. >> they set it too high and it cost them big, big bucks as we just pointed out. las vegas reyou nurnl, congress has agreed -- lawmakers feared another budget battle would influence voters as they head to the poll this is november. the full house and senate must approve the measure by the end of the september. the "new york times" reports that 670 million people in india were left without power yesterday after several pour grids crashed causing the largest blackout in recorded history. much of india's power has been restored but questions remain about the india's ability to -- the white house has -- the

new package of financial penalties targets iran's energy, shipping and financial sectors, it would impose sanctions on anyone who mines uranium with iran or provides soil sanctions to the country. iran dismissed the move as wear fare. a down -- forcing more young adults than ever to move back home with their parents. 24% of adults aged 20 to 34 are now considered boomerang kids and number is jumping to 49% when you consider only adults aged 20 to 24. security and college debt are said to be two of the reasons for the return of all of these kids back home. good lord, mike, we're in trouble. for a long time to come. when we return, i think -- >> i think the headline on that, joe was, collin, it's time to

get up. >> yeah, collin, wake up, get out. when but return, the best of late night. sometimes, i feel like it's me against my hair.

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the vp selection will come after the olympics. >> it's quite lightly there will be no announcement at least until then. >> yes, there will be no vp announcement until after

rafaelca is done competing. and that can mean only one thing, romney has chosen rafaelca as his running mate. folks, this is an historic choice, like sarah palin. like palin, rafaelca's female, also doesn't read newspapers an has completed the same number of terms has governor. >> i'm glad they're not michael the athletes during the competition. have you noticed that? they don't mike the athletes. they have tried that before. it turned out it's distracting when you can hear the athletes during their events. check it out. >> whooo! [ heavy breathing sounds ] >> a total waste of time. >> ping. >> pong. >> ping. >> pong.

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this is new york state. we built the first railway, the first trade route to the west, the greatest empires. then, some said, we lost our edge. well today, there's a new new york state. one that's working to attract businesses and create jobs. a place where innovation meets determination... and businesses lead the world. the new new york works for business. find out how it can work for yours at thenewny.com. welcome back to "morning joe," it's disturbing. jonathan capehart rapping, way too early.

jonathan, i guess america learned something this morning about you. what have you learned? >> i learned, actually i learned something substantive. 470 people are working 24 hours a day to get the second phase of the new subway done. >> amazing project. >> dan senior, he should get combat pay, gate job today. >> i learned on "morning joe" that managed to persuade about 80% of you that mitt romney's trips to poland and israel were a smashing success. >> john meecham, an eloquent balanced eulogy, what have you learned this morning? >> the dog is no longer with us. wow. moving on. >> oh, my god. >> joe, i learned that i was stunned that 50