sleep. >> i hope you're healing okay. second of all again, none you'r. second all, none taken that this is how you get through the pain by watching this. "morning joe" starts right now. >> no one is more excited about ryan than the kids. there could be a generational up side. the 42-year-old ryan, who is joined on stage by his wife and small children could help the gop tickets appeal to younger voters. >> oh, yes, the young ones love him. after all, he's the chairman of the house budget committee or, as the kids call it, "the budj." this dude wants to cut government entizzlements and, of course, he looks just like tina fey. i cannot way to see snl this

fall. under the romney/ryan plan, romney would pay a tax rate of 0.82%. ryan gives out all these tax cuts without ballooning the deficit. we just have to cut all military spending by 91% over the next 40 years. we'll need that defense spending to protect ourselves from the gang of moroton seniors. >> good morning. >> what's going on? >> willie, i'm just upset. >> what are you upset about? >> i don't want to talk about it. >> you sitting down and mark insulting you? >> that, too. >> it's okay. it's just i'm not ready. >> she sits down and you say she looks like she's from petty coat junction. >> to be precise, is there a petty coat junction reunion

today. >> i'm with you. you called this kennebunkport chic. >> i think it's lovely. great summer dress. that's what i meant. >> you ought to articulate. >> if i may say, john meacham is the author of the forthcoming book "thomas jefferson, the art of power." >> good book. i was reading it on the plane two days ago. >> were you really? >> it's amazing. >> wait a minute, you giving him advanced copies? >> no, i gave you one, you foisted it off on him. >> maybe i did that. >> i'm surprised. i was surprised. >> well -- >> do you think mark halpern knows why? because i don't get it. >> i don't get it either. i'm obviously in the tank desperately.

maniacally in the tank, deeply in the tank for paul ryan but i'm surprised. are you surprised he's upside down? mark halpern, what's that about? let's get a snapshot. >> i think most people don't know him yet and the democrats have done a pretty good job as being part of defining him. >> i don't think mitt romney has helped him. i have a sound bite to show him. >> you don't know, you don't like him -- >> me? i think he's adorable. he's adorable. >> new polls offer a snapshot of how americans are reacting to mitt romney's choice of paul ryan as running mate. according to a vaughn/abc news poll, 38% saw the decision as

favorable, 33% found the decision unfavorable. numbers in a "usa today"/gallup poll weren't so promising among republicans. among registered voters, 42% say the wisconsin congressman was a fair or poor vp choice compared to 39% who find he's a fair or good choice. the poll only dan quayle and sarah palin have rated lower on that question. >> as mark said, the messaging from the democrats has been very clear. paul ryan wants to take care of the rich, gut medicare, slash programs for the poor. maybe they're winning the messaging battle, at least in the first couple days. >> there's a couple of problems. >> what are they, mika?

>> let's do chris christie later and go to ryan. this is paul ryan's record as a fiscal hawk, which is coming under scrutiny. politico reports ryan backed major spending plans during the bush administration. he voted in favor of the biggest medicare expansion in u.s. history, a highway bill that included the bridge to nowhere and was one of just 32 republicans to vote for the auto bailout. he also backed the $37 billion bank bailout and voted to preserve the free enterprise system even though it "offends his principles." paul ryan has voted with republicans -- what does this mean as i read? are you saying that there is some, like, this is good?

>>. >> i don't think it's good. i think it's reality. >> it's reality. >> he's a politician, he's living in the arena. >> but i think his reputation is that he's bold and true to his principles. >> we say that's his reputation. obviously at this moment the public doesn't particularly care what we have to say about it. you have a republican president of the united states. remember the fall of 2008 had a hugely, in my view, a hugely important impact in showing why the current system is inadequate to what we face because you had a republican president who functionally nationalized the banks, who authorized the -- put in motion one of the greatest interventions of the state in the private sector in 80 years and did it, if you watched george w. bush's last press conference, which is a fascinating youtube document, he says when challenged about this, wasn't this against your principles, he said if you were sitting there and you had every

smart guy in the world falling apart if you didn't do it, what would you do? that's what he was doing. it's burkian, it's practical. i agree it that there's hypocrisy in coming out saying i've never been part of the system and all of that but, come on, any member of congress who has been in congress for a while has cast votes -- >> except me. >> yes. >> and rand paul and ron paul. >> and there's a reason they're not on the ticket. >> it's the reason they don't return my calls. anyway, mika, democrats are going to have to pick their poison. they can either go, oh, he's a hypocrite, he's a big spender, he's a big government guy, oh, he's not what he says he is or they can continue setting their hair on fire every night and going "he's going to eat your babies, he's going to kill your grandma "pou. they can't have it both ways. >> well, i think they might be

able to. >> no, no. >> they're not going to be concerned with these votes for big government. >> lots of luck. when the stories come out -- no, i hear a lot of liberals saying he's a hypocrite, he's really a big government guy. in the next breath they see have you seen himself budgets? >> i think they ought to stick to the budget. >> but ronald reagan was a hypocrite by that standard. >> of course. one of the biggest ones. but symbolism was a deficit -- you are know, one of the reasons i split from my party durk the bush era was because a lot of republicans lined up and went blindly behind george w. bush's big spending bills. but i have to say paul ryan kept his head longer than most of them and he when given the budget chairmanship, he came out

on the other side. i mean, there are very few people, i think pence, twomey, a couple other guys did the right thing on medicare. i remember he was more of a party man than somebody else. >> well, he took one for the team and you doesn't get to be budget chairman by attacking your party and going rogue. the other thing is his district. he's got a pretty moderate district for someone as conservative as he is. i'm sure some of those votes were at least influenced by thinking about politics being local for him. i don't think that matter much compared to the biggest thing going on right now, which is every day the discussion is about paul ryan and tax cuts for the wealthy. people in chicago are deliriously happy. i don't see this ending any time

soon. >> so they like this pick? >> i think democrats were ecstatic the first day and they're happier now. >> after what happened, i believe they're in miami. yesterday they were happier because mitt romney is not really handling. >> explain. >> the difference between him and paul ryan. >> explain this because mark wrote this last night. >> he wrapped up his bus tour, went to florida and hammered obama on the economy, looked to connect with the hispanic votes while avoiding the hot-button issue medicare. >> can you give us an idea of any principles in the ryan budget or significant provisions with which you disagree? >> well, i can tell you what's radical and extreme is to spend a trillion dollars more than you

take in. it's ras i'm sure there are places that my budget is different than his but we're on the same page. as i said before, we want to get america on track to a balanced budget. >> you said during a debate earlier this year that if it absolute absolutely. >> we haven't gone through piece by piece and said here's a place where there's a difference. i can't imagine any two people, even in the same party, who have exactly the same position on all issues. >> don't you think you ought to be prepared for that question? i mean seriously, i'm just wondering. i'm going to ask you right now. joe, what's the difference between your point of view and paul ryan's budget? >> yeah, a lot.

no well, you could say there are things he did on the legislature in chief. i'm running to be command are in chief. we're not in the back rooms of capitol hill anymore. we're talking about the future of america so let's talk about the future of america. we are going to save medicare, something barack obama will not do because he doesn't have the courage to look into the camera and tell the american people he could that all day. you said this guy yesterday was not prepared to be vice president with his answer. >> maybe i'm wrong but on two things i feel pretty confident. one is -- >> there is a santa claus. >> and there is no easter bunny. >> what? >> those are the two -- >> i don't know where you go g to sunday school but let me just say --

>> i may have those backwards. >> on the third day the easter bunny rose again. >> meacham, why don't you write a time con on that one. >> i think they're badly underestimated to the debate that they th can swallow up the -- mitt romney doesn't have a comparablely specific budget. >> maybe he ought to come out with something. >> he should say how and why he differs from paul ryan. i don't think it should. he made some very specific choices. it's been endoesed by almost every major republicans in the country. mitt romney has to own it or say specifically how and why he differs. >> it's not foreign policy. this is what they're going to campaign on. >> but they're talking about tax

cuts for the wealthy and changing medicare. and the democrats will have a field day with that forever. they're not talking about the economy and i don't think they'll ever get off of it it governor romney doesn't say here are my big budget ideas. >> by the way, i think it a little early too call this pick problematic. it's been out for a couple days. >> i think it could be an opportunity. i can't believe it hasn't been seized. >> i think it's a great opportunity. in paul ryan, you have a guy who can go out there and say look at what this president promised us, that woo would keep and go through the list of all the big spending items the president has done and we've got nothing -- and they just keep hammering away and hammering away. they're two radically visions of

america here. barack obama is a big, big government liberal, paul ryan is a small, small government conservative. that is -- there's a hunk difference. >> look whose name you just didn't use. >> whoa. >> well, mitt romney needs to be defined by paul ryan. and the thing is they are going to be fools if they run away from this fight. and the mitt romney yesterday was running away from this fight. they need to engage this fight because americans trust -- and value it. americans do not trust big government. let me say it again. americans don't trust this government. if it's 2008 de15th, december 7th, 1941, john, they trust big government. find another time in american

history where americans trusted big government. they inflexionably run from -- inflexibly run from it. >> from 1963 until the '66 mid terms was about the same amount of time kennedy was in office. had you the high water mark, you had medicare, you had all the great federal programs and then immediately the backlash set in. it wasn't even a presidential cycle. it was a congress an cycle. it was 64-66. >> and that backlash lasted through 1992. >> i'd argue we're still in it. >> we're still in the backlash from the great society. this is not lbj's america, this is ronald reagan's america. there was a blip on the chart in 2008 because of a bad -- i would

say because of eight fumbled years by a republican white house and then a crisis. >> and also because the democratic nominee in 2008 ran a center right cultural campaign. >> right. >> this was not a nominee who talked about gay marriage, this was not a nominee to talked about guns. >> he didn't run giving anyone the idea he'd run up as much in deficit as he got shot. have you talked about balancing the budget. look what he said to dal -- he sounded a lot like paul ryan. >> they don't like changes debt and they don't like -- >> if we're going to have the now famous adult conversation,

it's a very narrow channel. >> you got to get in it. >> it's a very narrow channel. and romney has to, as mark was saying, has to figure out what he's going to say about ryan. if this becomes obama versus ryan -- >> but the question that he got from the reporter was a perfect opportunity to save the future of of this country. >> and he's been running for president for six years. >> is this the same strategy as the tax returns, we're not going to hand this out. is that the idea, we're not going to get specific with our differences? >> it's a little bit crazy. to not be prepared for that, i think against they underestimate the democrats and media are going to be interested in the question of paul ryan's budget for as long as it takes to get some answers. yesterday he was asked three times. he was treated like a big deal

on special report on fox last night. that is a problem. >> but here's a problem, though. mitt romney doesn't want that battle. ronald reagan, margaret thatcher -- >> werelish. >> newt gingrich in any year, erik ericsson, they would love it. oh, you want me to debate paul ryan's vision of america versus romney's vision of america? how long do i have because i really could go on for five hours. imagine margaret thatcher or somebody with those values, emergency ronald reagan who believed it in -- and i would run to that fight so quickly.

i remember a guy who got out of politics said -- involuntarily -- said to me a couple of weeks ago that one of his biggest regrets was he said we were born for this time. guys like you and me, joe, were born to run in times like these. this is our battle. >> yeah. >> the stakes have never been set up more for everything we fought about since 1994. >> yeah. >> and yet he's -- i'm not making this about me. i'm making this about people who actually believe in small government, who actually believe in personal liberty, who actually believe that the federal government doesn't have every answer to every problem. but i don't -- but mitt romney runs from it because he thinks it doesn't matter. >> he runs for it, didn't have an answer went and ma'amby pamby on the question of the campaign. >> i wouldn't break out the

ma'amby pamby. >> he had no question on this campaign. take a look. >> i don't thinkman ryan has given definition to the vague commitments that romney's been making. there's definition to it now. it's clear. when they talked about their plan, not just their budget plan but they their plan across the board, they called it gutsy. i'm serious. now, look, what's gutsy about giving millionaires another tax break? what's gutsy go b gutting medicare, medicaid, education? what's gutsy? folks, this is only not new. it's not fair to the fair to the middle class or poor and it will

not reduce you're commit and we've seen this movie before. we knee how it ends. >> let's give mitt romney another chance. how do you respond? >> what's gutsy about kicking the can down the road for the next four years in mexico. what's gutsy about allowing the truth. it's not going to be sustainable? what's gutsy about straeling $1 trillion a year from future generations? >> what's gutsy about never having the nerve to stand up and tell americans the truth about the real choices that stand in front of them. >> what gutsy about being just like every other coward that has been in washington d.c. over the past generation and has run up $17 trillion worth of debt, has allowed medicare to tweet toward

the virtually millions and millions of senior citizens to face a require tiermt without social security, clearly because they don't have the nerve to sand up because guess what, they may actually lose an election. they don't have the courage to sale america because they're so desperate to win the election in november. >> okay. what's so gutsy about that? really? >> yeah. >> and mitt romney can't articulate that? >> no. i don't know why honestly. >> but this is not hard. so many people are wondering why mitt romney can't give voice to his frustrations. >> i'll play media consultant.

the one term that needs to be added to that for them is bring it back to the economy. if you fin down this path, a lot of americans don't think the economy is going to come back. >> i remember alan green speen testifying before the budget committee in 1995. he said if you guys have the guts to bring a little built of sanity to the budget process, you will not believe how the world markets respond. we did and guess hough the word markets responded. they exploded. but joe biden is part of a team that's starting to make -- >> wa are you saying? >> they've now chalked up nearly $5 trillion worth of debt in four years. i yesterday al for doing seven.

they're well on their way of making making it look like an awful lot of work. >> up next, where in the world is corey booker? he's -- right now i think he's climbing in a window and helping an elderly woman down the ladder. >> i know where he is. >> where is he? >> he's off the tax grid. find out next in apay loyal ] >> the green on this map will show you light rain. it's been raining in harrisburg.

just some light rain over the next half hour. then it will dry out for you. also we had rain showers this morning in atlanta. maybe a little slow on the roads there and maybe a thunderstorm as you head down toward peach tree. the big concerns actually late this afternoon. that area in yellow, which includes new york city, philadelphia and d.c. a slight risk of severe storms. we could see storm with gusty winds and maybe airport delays but we will have thunderstorm late this afternoon. as far as the rest of the country goes, still her than you'd like it. another before day around chicago and minneapolis. you're watching "morning joe", brewed by starbucks. ♪ ♪ ♪ he left home on a winter day

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all right, 29 past the hour. time now to look at the morning papers. the wall street journal, syria may be using russian banks to dodge oversight on financial transactions. >> syrian rebels say they have shot down a government fighter jet. state-run tv said the jet crashed. >> a gunman shot and killed two people before being killed in a 30-minute shoot-out with police. three police officers were wounded and one killed as they tried to serve eviction papers to the 31-year-old man. the texas a&m campus went on

emergency alert because of the shooting proximity to the university campus. >> from the "boston globe," french's economy saw zero growth in the second quarter and still managed to beat analyst expectations. it is france's third straight quarter without gdp growth. the number sparked new concern that europe's second largest economy is on the brink of a new recession. >> the good new is they're going to lower the retirement age and shorten the work week. that will really help. go socialists. >> the "seattle times," an unmanned aircraft is set to fly at 3,600 miles per hour. a passenger aircraft tlaflg speed could fly from los angeles to new york in 46 minutes. count me in. >> and from new york to london in less than an hour. willie, sign me up! >> you'd likely be vaporized but

it's worth a roll of the dice. >> what? >> 46 minutes is 46 minutes. most won't make it but the ones who do, you're there for lunch. >> we're joined by mr. john harris. how are you? >>. >> good morning. >> you did exhaustive conversations with gop operatives in washington, asked them what they felt about the paul ryan pick. tell us what you found. >> three of our very best reporters, jonathan martin, alex burns, maggie haberman talked to nearly 40 or more political operatives in washington. the rhapsodic view that joe scarborough has is not shared among the republican operative class in washington. >> course not. >> reaction ranges from they

find it excite but they're worried about it or they find it reckless and they're certain it's going to back fire in a dr dramatic way. they're worried about the back throw down the republican ticket. the consensus in washington is exactly the opposite of joe scarborough. >> thank good. we're talk the about the republican party not liking this pick. this is, after all, the same republican party that has run the brand into the ground and i think led to four pretty disas tour years. it's not playing it safe. they would have loved him to pick pawlenty or portman.

a great quote from george will. >> when his speech accepting the avenue 74 republican nomination, goldwater said extremism is no vice and pursuit of justice is no virtue. a media wit at the convention exclaimed "good god, goldwater is going to run at goldwater." many thought thank god romney isn't going to run as romney. >> some like a candidate who is defined and some don't like that. >> where does the panic come from? why are they so worried about this on capitol hill? >> it is medicare. they say a voting bloc as being elderly white voters and those people are overwhelmingly

thought to favor mitt romney. if that swings in biden's favor, there goes mitt romney. some people wonder how well he's going to withstand scrutiny and the fact here on "morning joe" we're talking about this rather than president obama's record on the economy. it's those three factors. >> let me ask you about corey booker. >> where is he? >> that ring as hate bell. >> i remember. >> what is his role in the obama campaign? >> the world thought he laid an egg with those comments. he's gone off the public screen. the wall street journal has an article saying he's very busy

beneath the radar. they do point out he will not have a starring row at the convention in charlotte. i think that's notable, given he was such an attractive rise. turns out he has to wash his hair that night. he doesn't have hair but he has to do something. >> i think cory's great. >> is it wise to punish one of the brightest rising stars in the democratic party? is it fair? >> their kens is only three nights. i bet cory booker is not at all unhappy he's not getting a speaking role. both have done a good job of eliminating distractions under the speaker roster. he would have been a distraction. >> so smart move. >> smart move and he and the president have a great

relationship. like i said, republicans got rid of people they didn't want to have speak. >> mika, this also frees him up. he can go around charlotte and if there's a grandma having trouble crossing the street, he can help her across the street. >> or a child that might fall out of a stroller. >> might. >> saving kittens out of trees. >> there are a lot of opportunities, willie. if you have to stand there tweeting and -- >> are you tweeting? >> no, i am not! >> i just feel safer when he's around. >> did you follow his tweets over the weekend about making sure some block party could go on? that block party would have been shut down --

>> if it weren't for him. >> preserving fun in newark. >> he's gone an amazing guy in newark. >> we're making fun of him. we really like him. >> we're lauding him. >> you're twitting while running out of a burning building carrying a baby. >> you need a suri. >> it's a compliment. >> would you believe the pirates, pittsburgh pirates in playoff contention? >> is that not great, willie? >> and the washington nationals have the best record in baseball? >> you mean the senators. >> stargill's having a great year.

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playoff battle. both contender. tie game in the fifth inning. shane victorino in pittsburgh. neil walker, watch this of the pirates lines one right back.

randy choate gets the glove up and stabs at it, makes the play, probably saves his own life. dodgers hang on to win 35-4. the pirates are tied for the lead. the last time they were in the playoffs -- >> 1979. >> 1972. >> 1992, i remember i was watching it, little joey scarborough in pensacola. that was sid who just stumbled around third. what a great guy. >> three runs in the bottom of the ninth. >> i forget the pirates. >> you have two wild card teams this year. the pirates look pretty good. giants need to win over the nationals to stay a game up on the dodgers in the nl west. nats up big. roger hits a liner that hits ryan vogelsong in the throat.

another run comes in to score. bruce bochy not too concerned about his pitcher's throat, just wants to know if the guy is out. 12-0 nationals. another two-run home run gives the nats a two-touchdown lead over the giants. as i said, washington has the best record in baseball, 72 wins. >> willie, where did that come from? >> pitching. i mean, hitting last night but pitching. >> first in war, first in peace, first in the national league east. >> did you just think of that? >> i've been tweeting that for about a month. >> how are the yankees doing? >> good. they beat the rangers last night. >> how are the red sox doing? >> not as as well. you know, the great johnny pesky died, 92 years old, one of the great characters. left baseball for a couple of

years in world war ii to fight in the navy and one of the boston red sox family if you ask mike barnicle, one of their favorite, favorite guys. >> no doubt about it. the outpouring yesterday was really something for johnny pesky. >> up next, we'll look at mika's must-read opinion pages. ♪ talking about sweet seasons on my mind ♪ ♪ sure does appeal to me, you know we can get there easily ♪ [ male announcer ] if you stash tissues

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a look at washington, d.c. at 48 past the hour. it is time now for the must-read opinion pages. joe nocera, "new york times." he said "on the one hand talk

about limiting the federal government and shrinking the deficit has been central to republican rhetoric for years. on the other hand, the republicans haven't really meant it. ryan, however, means it. what sets him apart is that he is the rare politician who has been willing to put meat on the bones so that everybody can see what he has in mind. mitt romney lacks the skill and genuine fervor to have this debate. with ryan on the ticket, it is at least possible. the democrats will win this debaut but we need to have it openly and nationally. >> what do you think of that? >> isn't that why they chose him? it should be.

but then you see mitt romney on the campaign trail not even being able to say this. >> they've got to win this fight to win the election. the democrats are going to start advertising extensively on the ryan/romney budget and mitt romney is going to have to own it. if he disagrees with parts of it, he can do two things at once, he can enunciate it and maybe do a little sister solja. >> my feeling is they think they can win the convention in the next ten days. that's my sense. >> that would take some really, really terrible work by the republican party to let that happen. >> they've done it before. >> they don't seem prepared for this fight. they seem to think it's going to slide off the table.

>> wow. >> how can they -- how can they -- john, how can they not be prepared for this? >> i don't know. the only thing i can think of is a biographical answer is it possible the cultural land of romney is so managerial that they make decisions in a clinical, power point way and to deviate is to go off clinical point? you would think new incoming data would require adapting to circumstances. so maybe as this happens -- >> i was incredulous when ryan was being talked about he'd be picked. i thought why would he want to take on this fight and then looked like a good pick, the energy and all that. this politico story we talked about earlier and this discussion just reminds me, you have to win this fight you have to say the ryan budget would

make america's economy better and the middle class stronger. >> i think mart part of the pro is, let me sound like a true blue republican here, i think part of the problem is the media has not focused enough and because most people in the media are democrats and most people in the media are liberals and most people in the media have a propensity toward big government and most people in the media believe if you talked about cutting any program from the centralized state that it's their responsibility to go find the three people in america that the cutting of that program is going to hurt and that's what drives their agenda day in and day out, day in and day out. and i think that causes problems for the paul ryan pick. that said, if you're mitt romney, you're going to drive this point home. so, yeah, of course the media doesn't like this. of course 90% of them who vote democratic every four years

doesn't like this, because they like big government. they love big governor more than they love the american people, more than they love saving social security, more than they love saving medicare, more than they love saving future generations of america from having the same chance that we had. >> it's got to be frustrating to watch. >> this stuff writes itself and i'm stunned they didn't put all of this data in the super computer and having them ready to come out blaring because you can't go halfway against the chicago team. you can't. they're going to try to kill you. they've already told you, mitt, they're going to try to kill you. they've already told you they're going to try to destroy you. you can't go at it halfway, all right? you either lean if and fight hard or go back to where -- where does he vacation? lake winnipesaukee.

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next chris matthews is here in studio. we'll also bring in chuck todd. you're watching "morning joe," brewed by star bucks. hi, chris. ♪

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♪ ♪ join me in welcoming the next president of the united states, paul ryan. >> oh, whoo! what a relief! because for nine months now i thought i was going to have to vote for mitt romney. i gotta tell ya, i was worried. you got me, you got me! >> but i can tell you this, he's going to be the next vice president of the united states. >> i mean romney/ryan 2012. >> of course this wasn't great news for everyone. specifically vice presidential hopefuls like tim pawlenty and rob portman. it is tough news to break to a

potential running mate, but mitt's a leader so he had his son done it. >> tag romney, his oldest son, was the one to give the news to tim pawlenty and rob portman. >> they should be honored. chris christie got a call from refalka. i think we have a tape. >> neeiigghh! >> i think it's fascinating that his candidate doesn't call them himself. and he has his son do it. i no more would do that, my gosh, than i would have refalka

call a sitting governor. >> so much for the argument if you really knew him, you'd like him. >> even if he wins, he's got to deal with these people. >> especially when he hung these guys out for two or three weeks as the likely suspect. >> chris is the author of "jack kennedy: elusive hero." >> we're talking a lot about paul ryan. you thought it was a very successful launch. >> fabulous saturday. i thought it energized and juiced up romney. i hadn't seen romney before like that, where he was proud of having made a bold pick, he had done something in public life he wanted to brag about. >> he looked good. it showed something in himself he liked, a little guts and power even to say this is going to be the future. people talk about a gaffe. when he said "next president of of the united states," i think he meant it, he's going to follow me. this is the future of the republican party.

i think ryan gave a real gung ho speech, juiced up and selling the boss. >> you said they made a mistake and they should split up. >> it's a team. it always goes back to history. with all thinks problems, clinton solved a lot it have by picking gore because together they were better than just two guy. >> and when they were on the tour, they were together. and mitt romney looks better with paul ryan by his side and paul ryan looks a little smaller without mitt romney by his side. they make each other look better together. >> i agree. i'm down in waco, texas on a bus with clinton interviewing him back in '92. he had all these troubles going into the election. and there he was down in -- i go into this three-star hotel and i say who do you think is going to win the election? the guy said "i kind of think those two boys." when i heard that, "those two

boys," you don't hear that about democrats down south, "those two boys." when i said there's a comfort level here in a part of the country that hasn't been comfortable in years with civil rights, i said this is going to click. >> i agree they shouldn't have split up. the launch was great. but then did you see what happened next? >> sunday it want important but monday it began to fall apart. romney doesn't like to commit. he doesn't commit mitt romney. that seems to be the problem. >> let's show a clip when he's asked to describe the difference between his view of medicare and his. >> go for it, the big issue. >> can you give us an idea of any principles in the ryan budget or significant provisions with which you disagree? >> i can tell you what's radical and extreme is to spend a trillion dollars more every year

that you take in. it's radical and extreme to pass on trins of dollars of de-- trillions of dollars of debt. >> you said before of paul ryan budget absolutely right on. i'mious, is there anything about it that you disagree with? >> the items we agree on outweigh any differences there may be. we haven't gone through piece by piece where we said here's a difference. i can't imagine any two people even in the same party who have exactly the same positions on all issues. >> that's a meaningless statement. anybody can say anything like that. it's mumbo. you go p now at 80 years old you have to go out and find an insurer who will insure your health at 80 and you've got to do it with less money than the

government spends on its own program. medicare has a lower insurance ra rate. why give another slice of the pie to somebody else? they're going to have less money going forward it and they have a new share out there, that's the insurance companies and their rates of inflation are higher than medicare in terms of cost. i don't know how this deflates the cost of medicare. >> what would be wrong with answering that question if you were mitt romney saying i don't agree with the voucher system but there's so much that paul ryan and i agree on -- >> they might say name it. >> couldn't he just say there are things we don't agree on? >> there's two mitt romney. the mitt romney that says, yeah, yeah, i'll sign it if i have top yesterday madden said he'll sign it if it comes to his desk, the

the solving plan did everything for a year but when you ask him where he stands, he just pulls back. >> you're right. here doesn't want to commit, does he? i read the paper this morning about how christie is going to run a positive key note. the purpose is to get the campaign rolling and great lot of incredible applause lines out. christie is doing to do the most last reshape the -- we have the most of "the morning rundown chuck todd. do you agree with christie? >> we know the theme that romney's running on. he's trying to adopt the whole, hey, it's tough talk, the government is not going to give you everything anymore republican party. this is the new republican party.

so i think thematically you see where romney is trying to go with this convention. i was a little surprised that it wasn't rubio, that you weren't going to go for the -- maybe they thought, well, the democrats named a hispanic at he's -- as his vice president. we're going to tell you government's not going to have all the answers, we're going to tell you government is not going to do all this stuff anymore. thematically it fits. >> so let's talk about the story for the day, the weeping, the gnashing of teeth of republicans supposedly internally on capitol hill and people starting to think this could possibly be a disastrous pick. i mean, it's been 72 hours. i mean, what what are we looking at here?

what does romney need to do to win the day? they only need to win the day and then the theme changes to the greatest pick. >> winning the day, i'm not a believer in who wins the news cycle. >> except for this fact right now is the story is moving and we saw it in '88 with quayle, we saw it -- >> sure. >> we saw it four years ago with sara palin, i personally they can't afford two more days like yesterday because if they two two days going in and particularly i look at the rebs running for the u.s. senate. we already have one, denny, who voted against all of the ryan budgets. reminding people in montana he didn't do that. >> that's not good. that's not good. >>s me going to lose. that doesn't work. >> he's on one end. but the fact is i didn't -- you have a lot of political

strategists for these republican candidates who have been talking for three to six months, okay, guys, what's our plan to inoculate ourselves on ryan and medicare? we know the democrats are coming after us. all of a sudden -- you've been being told that, all of your advisers and pole lance, and how am i going to distance at the same people and then all of a sudden you get dropped with this stink bomb. okay. these campaigns ands they why you're hearing the hand wringing. you wonder why the hand wringing is coming out now. mitt romney for the first time looks like a candidate joining himself, for the first time looks comfortable in his own skin. thor foes reasons and those reasons alone to me is already a successful pick as far as mitt romney is concerned. i think it brings some political baggage that it has to deal with

thnd clearly there are a lot of republicans gnashing their teeth because they've been trying to figure out who to respond to democratic i've been just handed this. >> john meacham, these consultants i think have dedee steroid the republican party. they always try to play it safety, 1980 about ronald reagan, look what they were saying in 1994 about most of us who won. lock what they were saying in two they always got it wrong. they play it save and that gets our brains beat out. if we don't say anything, people won't vote for us. >> it seems to me romney had and has an obligation if he's going to, as he's done, take a conservative plan, put it

ecentese way that -- he's got to find a way to demagogue it. he in his own character on crisis is going to fall back on what chris is talking about and wobble. the chance here of taking a serious guy about a serious issue and impoverishing, not enriching the conversation about what we have to do on debt. >> chris matthews, don't they need to own this? it's not going to be foreign policy. this isn't a. ticket that's strong on -- >> no, they're not into that. >> this is it. >> they have one powerful going for them, the right direction, wrong direction. everybody knows that that's the gut decision to make when you walk into that voting booth. are we on the right course, if

you're not on the right course, you make a change. it very much -- they have to offer a direction. it looks like the country is in a downward slope and it doesn't look like they're going to say. 31 of the people say they're happy with the country. 61% say they're not. if you're the republican party, ride that direction. we have a different direction we want to take you, here it is. they're saying, no, we're not that direction. okay. okay. >> what are you? >> you've got to give us another direction. and i thought romney ticking ryan but you got to stick to that and say, no, no, i'm going that way. no, that's the way he wants to

go. they knew he had the budget. that's why they picked him. they picked him because of his budget and now it's become like bain, don't look at that, we're not for that. we're not bain and we're not the budget. >> why can't that budget be a starting point for a great debate? doesn't have to be the end point obviously. >> say it going to hurt. say it going to hurt. the people aren't going to believe it's not going to hurt. >> the thing is -- no. if you want to be president of the united states, you do not adopt your vice president's choice, but you allow it to influence you, you allow it to color your decision, you allow it to help shape the romney budget, which you put out there which takes the best from ryan but tells people this isn't going to be easy. i'd love to tell you we're going to be able to cut your taxes, more, we're going to spend more on cap tapt.

but, chuck -- >> it a different age. they will respond to -- >> but you just touched on something. the biggest credibility romney and ryan are going to have is the phrase, hey, we're not going to be able to cut your taxes as much. up said that. bowls-simpson have said that. they have it. so then it becomes a -- republicans are wanting always tell you the government goodies are there. they want to take their of their the "straight talk" if you will. >> i don't understand why paul ryan can't be an addition to the very important discussion we're having on the economy. look at biden, he had ideas

about iraq, ideas about afghanistan. did obama adopt all of his idea. >> no. but he brought him in as an adviser. >> but it's risky and you have one of the most risk averse nominees in menry. >> is that the problem, chris? >> let's go into ryan for a second. he's not like a leon panetta. he's an iron rand believer. he's an objectiveness. so he really wants to reward the winners. it's end income with case, the rich. raise them up to pa what a working woman has to pay. cap gains believes in getting rid of the caps gain hats. he wants to help out the

winner -- i think he's eyeing rand. >> you think that paul ryan doesn't like people or -- >> let throw down. i don't think he's sitting worried about the people on pell grants. i i don't think he's worried about the working poor. i think he's working for the winters. that's who he wants to incentivise i noticed about the conservative movement is they believe the way to get richard is to work harder is to give more opinion. the way to give poor people money is to -- let's give the richest guy a tax break because it will give them both off their butts. >> how come it isn't, joe? >> that's what it ticket believes. we understand that. >> we understand that you want to encourage people to work hard and not urchish them there's

always a -- if you do, you'll get punished. it's not about hurting people. i know this will be very shocking about a lot of people who are watching this show, but actually there are some of us who actually believe you help people by actually putting incentives in there that promotes hard work, that promotes industry promotes industriousness. we were told by everybody on every network that it was the coldest, cruelest thing the

first t first two team -- it's not that simple. >> where's mort zuckerman? >> look how quickly in historical terms the war turns. the democratic party pre'96 had that view and now the white house is screaming about inaccuracies in the assad taking away work requirements for welfare. >> but the government is not -- >> that's what i mean. they're saying wait, wait, wait, that was the conversation. the kifrts profit -- some of my highest i approval ratings were people who made less than $50,000.

>> they like your personality. >> whatever. the wine and cheesers didn't vote for me. they voted for a guy who talked about cutting taxes, cutting regulation. >> wait a minute, what wine and cheese people were in your district? i know your district. come on! these are good beer drinkers. one of the counties was a dry county. but these are good beer drinking people, right? >> the good beer drinking people voted for me. >> next -- >> actually, there is a lot of wine coolers in that district. >> chuck, definitely wine coolers. >> a lot of margarita, there. >> that's body heat country, isn't it? why didn't that guy turn on the land conditioning. he has no air conditioning. >> he just sweated the whole time! >> up got to admit it looked good, though. >> when we come back, eugene

robinson of "the washington post" next on morning joe. in your jeep grand cherokee. and when you do, you'll be grateful for the adaptive cruise control that automatically adjusts your speed when approaching slower traffic. and for the blind spot monitoring that helps remind you that the highway might not be as desolate... ...as you thought. ♪ introducing share everything. unlimited talk. unlimited text. tap into a single pool of shareable data and add up to 10 different devices, including smartphones and tablets. the first plan of its kind. share everything. only from verizon. now add a tablet for only $10 monthly access.

what does it say about a president's character when he tries to use the ad of a woman's death for his campaign? doesn't america deserve better than a president who will say or do anything to stay in power? >> i'm mitt romney and i approve this message. >> that was a new tv ad from the romney campaign responding to a string of recent attacks from democrats. joining us now, telemundo anchor, jose diaz-balart and from washington, political editor of "the washington post" and msnbc contributor eugene

robinson. >> what's the story behind the ad? it seems effective. >> they think what has propped the president up, his approval ratings are higher than they should be given the economy. what they think have propped that up is he is likable. they are presidently going -- presently going to try to affect his approval rating. >> let's think about the last ad that people said that was a fair ad, that was an ad that really pointed to us correctly and pointed to the opposition as being correct as well. i don't know that there's been any ad recently that has reflected any kind of real truth from start to finish. >> they've taken a softer tone, though. >> you call that soft? >> no. >> softer? >> barack obama talking into the

camera -- >> yeah. >> in this case, though, that could be good. >> i think one of the most effective tactics in military life or in politics is the attack from the defensive position. people root for the person who seems to be defending themselves. that is the american sympathy. everybody thinks they're using sleaze tactics. accuse the other guy the using sleaze tactics and people will believe you because it is the fact. >> i started accusing my guy of using sleazy al gore-type tactics before he ran his first ad. >> did it work for you? >> it worked. >> i talked about how sad it was that we couldn't debate because of the ad. >> he'll probably say something about the other guy's atax on him and the american people root for that guy in that moment. reagan, there you go again. the people root for the guy who

looks like he is being trashed. the people don't like watching it. and they route for the guy who has just been abused. it going to be fascinating to -- >> really quickly, mark halpern, we need a fact. >> what? >> has priority usa even run that add in any tv station? >> last i heard they had not. the funny thing is the democrats use that as an excuse, like we don't have really defend it because it hasn't been on yet. >> this is the world we live in that this ad has taken over a good chunk of the narrative for the past week and they just produced it and didn't spend a dime running it. >> a lot of tiles on the internet people see things much more than they would on open television. >> they are skeptical, especially if it's a 60-second

spot. buying 60 seconds is expensive and not normally done. it's an open question. sometimes they abuse us. it gets a lot of coverage. i don't know on net whether that has hurt or helped them. >> it's a web video. >> web video. >> i could make a web video. romney and ryan's disdain for the working class by eugene robinson. "mitt romney's selection of paul ryan as his running mate underscores the central question posed by this campaign. should cold selfishness become the template for our society, or do we still believe in community? romney has revealed that the campaign is really a choice between two starkly different philosophies. one could be summed up up as we're all in this together.

the other -- i've got mine. >> cold selfishness. that's what it looks like to you? >> that's what it looks like to me. >> joe, i'm shocked you would result like a brother and that's why it hurts me when you act this way. >> i think eugene has a very good point opinion. >> tell me why romney or ryan are cold live selfish. >> it's back to where we were earlier, the quasi subjective thing. if you listen to ryan and romney, it about rewarding the winners more lavishly than even they imagined. about the loser, i suppose they

will rise a little bit with everybody else but not worrying terribly much about them. that's the substance of any -- mitt romney said an interesting thing the other day during his roll out with ryan in manassis. he talked about how, look, if a kid makes the honor roll, you know, i don't give any credit to the school bus driver. and i just wondered did he ever think about what the school bus driver does and who that person is and the person's interaction with children or is that just, you know, is that just a cog in the machine that is there to, frankly, serve people who make a whole lot more money than the school bus driver. >> chris, you agree with that. >> it's the "we." which we are we talking about? reagan had his we. he got no african-american

votes. the "we" is always an interesting "we." i got chief's got it. i missed that the other day but i think that empathy for a guy sass a part-he's nice to the kid, he has their lives in his hands but let's treat him like a nothing, like he's not really one of us. is he one of the we? >> yes, of course. >> is he one of them or not even worth mentioning. in hollywood you have this problem we don't like money. >> i would say hold on a second, you the problem with his bus driver, you know why he's working part time? unfortunately the factor, they're afraid to because they hear that taxes are going to be

going up. they don't know what people are going to do. the small business owners, they were thinking we could use a guy like that. they're afraid to froze it because they don't know what the effects of baum care are going to be over the next two or three years. they here taxes are calling up. how can i hire john from the busline if i don't even know what's going to happen? so this poor guy i'm going to have to keep him on the bus for the next eight years. is that caring? is that -- i don't want john working part time! i want him working full time for the small business owner who is

not afraid to hire because washington's not going to raise their taxes, because watch is not going to stram baum care. >> let me try to get a question out of that. let me tell you something. to bring it all down to what i see in the streets, i come here walking. >> you're in the streets. >> i walk the street, too. we all do. i came over here and you know what people who asked me -- >> i've walked to michael's 8.3% unemployment around the country. states like nevada, the floshier crisis continues to be an issue and is also still an issue in florida. medicare. let's talk to you about a few other things. the lack of of immigration form.

>> all right, let's talk about that. >> jobs is a big issue. we great jobs by -- that's what jeanne sang. i still doesn't -- no, here's my bigger point. there are two side of an exercise in hour ineffective mitt romney in care earring this argument about john the bus driver. >> you guys have an opinion. i respect each nd every one of of you. i'll give you another issue that you guys are bringing right now. there are months of 7 kol together, it's a thanks to the executive order that obama passed, tomorrow, 1.8 million kids are going to have the opportunity to come out from the

shadows and be -- and feel it, though they're american, they weren't born here but they no know other country in the united states. i haven't heard you guys talk about that. there are so many issues that are out there in the street, joe, that people are talking about -- >> it's where you come from. >> no, it's not where i come from but it's where i walk through. let's talk about issue that a lot of people who are underemployed or unemployed or have children that were not born here but no other country, that they have the right to now do g to school. >> that's real. you know how elt we need to talk about it? there are so many but they can't because we have some people come to our country and we let them go to the best schools in the country and then we kick them out of the country.

tom paidman talks about this all the time. >> that's tuned. >> they mate want to go hope. >> you but there a lot of people who want to stay here and we don't lem them do it. >> to the extent that we kicked those people out is stupid. immigration is a big part of that and so, no, it doesn't make any sense that we don't deal with those high-end visas. but it also doesn't make sense that congress refused to deal with the dream act and the president essentially had to do it by executive order. those small businesses are going to to hire when they can sell products, when they customers and we get the economy going again. so that is a mode of attack for romney. if he can come up with a

solution other than let's continue cutting taxes, let's continue cutting taxes. we have tried that. taxes are low. >> it doesn't work. >> for years it was cut taxes, cut taxes, cut taxes. that by itself doesn't make sense. at the same time raising taxes during this time doesn't make any more sense than slashing spending across the board right now. >> well, we've tried it all. let's face it, during the 20s we had this coolidge crowd, which is basically laissez faire. that was the old belief before the great depression. the market will fix itself. these guys are -- now we've had exercise with bush more legen y

legendly -- we already have your effect of this. we don't know what's going to work. the odd thing is the united states government since 1946 said it's the job of the federal government to ensure full employment. even though democrats have been more big government in washington's point of view and republican say they're for states right and keep republicans out of our issues, that's one of the great ironies of the considerate's argument. this government want me to differ my food but this is the time and by the way, it didn't work for bush and it hasn't worked lately. >> bush was a great. >> we have the obama tax regimes

right now. >> you skk. >> when are you speaking at the convention? what about cheney? dick cheney? pronounce it, mispronounce it if you want to. do what everybody else does. >> when is george w. bush? with. >> what night is he speaking? would it be before or after. >> i know. because you're not really proud of those eight years. >> who's not? >> the republican party. the republican presidency whereas the democrats are bringing bill clinton back with them and big parade fand --

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welcome back to "morning joe" at 48 past the hour. joining us on the set, senior correspondent of "time" magazine michael grunwald who is the author of "the new new deal." you look at the stimulus and say people don't understand it. didn't it save jobs, didn't it stop us from going over the cliff? >> that's certainly the argument of the book. there was a 9% decline of gdp in the fourth quarter of 2008. essentially obama inherited a depression. people talk about how 2% is bad. right before it was the worst month for jobs since the depression, right after it essentially things started to get better. had you the biggest improvement in gdp and jobs numbers in 30

years. >> we don't people understand? is it a failure to communicate or an inability to prevent thing, you can't prevent. this's this kind of relentless public campaign of distortion, essentially arguing this is an $800 billion boondoggle. you have obama's famier to communicate. as you mentioned, there were some real mistakes made on the democratic side. you had the media really screwing up the story, not showing much interest in looking at not only the economic effect of this but the kind of new new deal stuff, the long-term investments that i'm sure we'll talk about. the main stunt is he is losing jobs a month and then you come out with this big jobs bill at a time when there's nothing you can do to stop that hemorrhaging any time soon, it's hard to sell a jobs bill while jobs are

disappearing and i think people are upset and unemployment was climbing and the recovery act was a pretty easy target. >> jon meachum? >> what did you learn about how government really works? we focus on the president, we focus on the vice president, the scuffling in the wheelhouse, but a bill like this, in its enormity, requires every level of institutional interest and implementation. what was the -- where did government work here and where didn't it? >> it's interesting. people think of this as a stimulus and of course, a lot of aid to states and unemployment benefits and this there were $300 billion worth of tax cuts, as you can tell from your discussion earlier, not too many people noticed. that was the kind of standard stimulus stuff. there was also this incredibly innovative work to try to transform to a clean energy economy, to start to reform health care to start bringing down costs with health information technologies, kind of moving into the digital era,

race to the top, which is about education reform. and a lot of this really required a new way of doing business in the government and people said that 5 to 7% of this would be lost to fraud. so far, they have documented about 0.001%. it has been really remarkably scandal-free and really started to change the way the government works. instead of just handing money around the country willie nilly, these are these competitive programs, where race to the top being a perfect example, but all kinds of programs for broadband, for, you know, for the health i.t. you have to compete and show not just that your project is shovel-ready but that it is shovel-worthy that is a really new way of doing business and i think that's one of the reasons, in addition to share of joe biden watching this stuff. >> mark halperin real quick. >> how much do you think this piece of legislation reflects the governing philosophy of barack obama? >> i think is the purest

distillation you can find of change that you can believe in that he talked during the campaign. it is, i think -- this is a microcosm of the obama philosophy and era. people didn't pay a lot of attention to his policy ideas during the campaign, partly because they were interested in his race and his pastor and the ads about paris hilton but partly because a lot of his ideas were standard democratic ideas and there were things that even republicans have been talking about for a long time in terms of cutting taxes for the middle class, in terms of moving toward clean energy, reforming education so it is not just throwing money at schools. and then he suddenly had this opportunity to spend $800 billion and he kind of did it. you know, he had a line in his inaugural address where he sort of went through how we are going to knit the country closer together with high-speed rail and new broadband lines and he went on and on and talked about, you know, all these new things that he is going to do and the recovery act is really where you see it.

there's $90 billion for clean energy at a time when we were spending maybe a couple billion dollars a year. there's record funding, not just for renewables, which have doubled on the president's watch, but for energy efficiency, for the smart grid, for cleaner coal, for the factories to build all that stuff in the united states, for advanced biofuels. this is really kind of a revolutionary approach to government and nobody really noticed it because the economy was bad. >> you know what he called this? a very big wet kiss. >> anybody that knows mike's work knows that he is a reporter. >> i know. i know. >> he goes where the facts lead. >> there is a scene toward the end of the book where joe biden is kind of giving me a hard time about this he is like, i take your articles to bed with me, i sleep with them. i really did feel at times like i was covering this bizzaro world stimulus, where, you know, everybody else was writing about this one stimulus, that was this obvious failure, ha ha ha ha ha, and i was just sitting there looking at the facts that were

really hidden in plain view. it wasn't -- i don't think people even know that race to the top was part of the stimulus. so, it really was this surreal experience for me. >> the book is "the new new deal," michael grunwald, thank you so much. still ahead from "the wonder years" to math whiz. danica mckellar describes her mission to empower young women to embrace education. that's coming up on "morning joe." the capital one cash rewards card gives you a 50% annual bonus. and everyone, but her... likes 50% more cash. but, i have an idea. do you want a princess dress? yes how about some cupcakes? yes lollipop? yes! do you want an etch a sketch? yes! do you want 50% more cash? no you got talent. [ male announcer ] the capital one cash rewards card. with a 50% annual cash bonus it's the card for people who like more cash. what's in your wallet? i usually say that.

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♪ [music plays] ♪ [music plays] good morning, it's 8:00 on the east coast, 5 a.m. on the west coast, time to wake up as you take a live look at new york city. back with us on set, we have mark halperin and jon meachum. they are so much --

>> boy, so, they are -- man maniacally in the bank for paul ryan. >> i think the democrats have done a pretty good job of being a part of defining him. >> yeah. and i don't think mitt romney's helped him. i have got a soundbite i have to show you. >> you don't know him so you don't like him? >> what? me? he is adorable. >> people don't know. he is adorable. >> he is adorable. >> partisan times, if you are a democrat, you are going to say you don't like mitt romney's pick. >> no it is a bigger problem it has to do with direction of the country. new polls offer a snapshot of how americans are reacting to mitt romney's choice of paul ryan as running mate.

according to an abc news/"washington post" poll, 38% of all americans responded favorably to ryan now on the ticket. 33% saw his selection as unfavorable. >> see, and, listen, 33% of americans think aliens and george w. bush took down building seven. >> there's no opinion at 30%. >> right. >> numbers in a "usa today"/gallup poll weren't so favorable to republicans. among registered voters, 42% said the wisconsin congressman was a fair or poor choice compared to 39% who think he is an excellent or pretty good choice. the survey also finds that 48% view ryan as qualified to be president if something should happen to romney. only vp candidate sarah palin and dan quayle have rated lower than ryan on that question. >> why is that, will? >> i wonder when those were taken for the other candidates two days after they were introduced or further along in the campaign? but the messaging from the democrats is very clear.

he wants to -- paul ryan wants to take care of the rich, wants to gut medicare, he wants to slash programs for the poor, maybe they are wing the messaging bat, maybe at least in the first couple of days. >> there was a couple of problems. paul ryan's record as a fiscal hawk, coming under scrutiny. politico reports that ryan backed major spending plans during the bush administration. according to political, ryan voted in favor of the biggest medicare expansion in u.s. history, a highway bill that included the bridge to nowhere, and was one of just 32 republicans to vote for the auto bailout. he also backed the $700 billion bank bailout and side on the house floor, he voted to preserve the free enterprise system even though it "offends his principles." according to the "washington post" had vote, paul ryan has voted with republicans at least 90% of the time since being elected to congress. what does this mean, as i read? like you're trying to -- are you saying that there's some, like,

this is good? >> not good, but it is reality. >> it is reality i >> he is a politician, he is living in the arena. >> i think his reputation is that he is bold and -- >> no we say that. >> true to his principles. >> we say that is his reputation, the public at this moment doesn't particularly care what we have to say about it. i think you had a republican president of the united states, remember the fall of 2008 had a hugely -- i think my view, a hugely important impact in showing why the current system is inadequate to what we face, because you had a republican president who functionally nationalized the banks, who authorized the, you know, put in motion one of the greatest interventions of the state and the private sector in 80 years and did it if you watch george w. bush's last press conference, which is a fascinating youtube document, he says, when challenged about this wasn't this again your principles, he

says you well, if you were sitting there and you had every smart guy in the world telling you the world was going to fall apart if you didn't do it, what would you do? that is what he was doing. it is practical. they shouldn't come out -- i agree is there hypocrisy and saying i've never been part of the system and all that but come on, any member of congress who has been in congress for a while who has cast votes -- >> except me. >> and rand paul and ron paul. >> but a reason they are not on the ticket. >> exactly. a reason why they don't return my calls. anyway though, mika. >> yeah? >> democrats are going to have to pick their poison. they can either go, oh, he is a hypocrite, he is a big spender, he is a big government guy, oh, he is not what he says he is or they can continue setting their hair on fire every night and going, he's gonna eat your babies. he's gonna kill your grandma. i mean, they can't have it both ways. >> well, i think they might be

able to. >> they are not gonna be concerned with these votes for big government. >> lots of luck. but the thing is when these stories come out and people -- well, no i hear a lot of liberals saying he is a hypocrite, he is really a big government guy you the next breath they say have you seen his budgets? they will decimate the -- >> i think they ought to stick to the budget. bush. ronald reagan was a hypocrite by that standard. >> of course. >> everybody should -- >> one of the biggest ones. >> so much of this is symbolism, but paul ryan was a deficit hawk for a good bit of his career. he certainly was, you know, one of the reasons i split from my party and attacked my party so much in the 19 -- or -- during the bush era was because a lot of republicans lined up and went blindly behind george w. bush's big spending bills. but i got to say, paul ryan kept his headlo longer than most of them. and he, when given the budget

chairmanship, he came out on the other side. i mean, there are very few people, i think pence, toomey, a couple of other guys, you know, did the right thing on medicare. we talked about it before. i remember being shocked, actually, on air, i remember being shocked ryan voted for medicare. he was more of a party man than others. that may be why he was there. >> part of what rick santorum said, you don't get to be party chairman by attacking your party and going roechlg the other is his district, a pretty moderate district for someone as conservative than he is. some of those votes were influenced by politics being local for him. i don't think that stuff matters very much compared to biggest thing going on right now, which is every day, the discussion is about paul ryan and medicare and tax cuts for the wealthy versus the obama economic record. people in chicago are

deliriously happy and i don't see this ending any time soon. >> they like this pick? >> i think democrats were ecstatic the first day and they are happier now. >> really? >> after what happened, i believe it was in miami yesterday, they are even happier. >> yep. >> because mitt romney's not -- not really handling -- >> what do you mean? explain. >> the difference between him and paul ryan, if there should be one. >> explain this, because mark read about this last night. >> okay. so, he wrapped up his battleground bus tour in ohio. he went to florida yesterday. ham order 'bama on the economy and looked to connect with the hispanic votes, while avoiding the hot-button issue of medicare. during an impromptu news conference, reporters grilled the republican candidate on the differences between paul ryan's controversial budget and his own. >> can you give us an idea of any principles in the ryan budget or significant provisions with which you disagree? >> well, i can tell you what's radical and extreme is to spend

$1 trillion more every year than you take in. it's radical and extreme to pass on trillions of dollars of debts to our children. i'm sure there are places that my budget is different than his but we are on the same page, as i said before. we want to get america on track to a balanced budget. >> you said during a debate earlier this year of paul ryan's latest medicare proposal that it is absolutely right on. so i'm curious, is there anything about it you disagree with? >> the items that we agree on i think outweigh any difference there is may be. we haven't gone through piece by piece and said, oh, here is a place where there is a difference. i can't imagine any two people, even in the same party, who have exactly the same positions on all issues. >> so mark halperin, you said -- >> don't you think you ought to be prepared for that question? seriously. okay, i'm going to ask you right now. here we go joe, what's the difference between your point of view and paul ryan's budget? >> yeah, a lot. so -- no. >> seriously?

>> you can just come out and say there are obviously some things he did when he was on the budget committee that start a process earthquake start a legislative process. i'm not running to be legislator in chief, i'm running to be commander in chief. obviously, i don't think medicare turned into a voucher system. i understand paul had pressure to do that while he was up there guess what, we are not in the back rooms anymore. we are going to save medicare, something barack obama will not do because he doesn't have the courage to look into the camera and tell americans. you can do this all day. it is not really that hard. so, anyway, you said yesterday that this guy was not prepared for paul ryan to be his vice president with his answer. >> maybe i'm wrong. but on two things, i feel pretty confident. one is they don't -- >> santa claus. >> and there is no easter bunny. >> what? >> these are the two. >> no santa claus, no easter bunny. >> i don't know where you go to science school but let me just say -- >> may have it backwards.

>> on the third day the easter bunny rose again. >> oh, god. >> there's meachum. here's godless meachum. why don't you write a "time" cover on that one. >> i think they are badly underestimating the extent to which this can swallow up the debate maybe through november f they think that mitt romney can just say, oh, you know, i don't know, all our differences, the ryan budget is dominant governing document of the republican party today. mitt romney doesn't have a comparably specific budget. >> maybe he ought to come out with something like that. >> or he should say how and why he divers from paul ryan. i think they think this is going to be like a one-day story and go away. i do not think that is true. it shouldn't. paul ryan made very specific choices, house republicans voted for it endorsed by almost every major republican in the country. mitt romney either has to own it or say specifically how and why he -- >> by the way, this is their issue, not foreign policy. this is what they are going to campaign on. >> but they are talking about

tax cuts for the wealthy and changing medicare. the democrats will have a field day with that forever. >> funny you should say that. >> you think they will ever get off it if governor romney doesn't say here are my big budget ideas. >> i think it is a little early to call this pick problematic. he has been out for a couple of days. >> i think it could be an opportunity. >> i think a great opportunity. i think it is a great opportunity. i mean, in paul ryan, off guy that can go out there and say, look at what this president has promised us and look what he's delivered. he promised us that if we pass the biggest spending bill in the history of this republic, that we would keep unemployment under 8%. i said on the floor at the time da da da and go through the list of the big spending items the president has done and they just keep hammering away and hammering away, they are two

radically different visions of america here two radically different visions. barack obama is a big, big government liberal. paul ryan is a small, small government conservative. that is -- there's a huge -- >> look whose name you just didn't use. >> exactly. well, mitt romney needs to be defined by paul ryan. and the thing is, they are going to be fools if they runaw away from this five. and mitt romney yesterday was running away from this fight. they need to engage this fight because american trust -- >> and value t. >> americans do not trust big government. let me say it again, americans don't trust big government. if it's 1932, or if it's 19 -- or if it's 2008, september 15, then yes, they are -- december 7, 1941, john, they trust big government. find another time in american history where americans trusted

big government. >> no. >> they just don't. they reflex civil run from it. the amount of time from the assassination in '63 until the '66 midterms in which ronald reagan won the governorship and the republicans made significant gains was about the same amount of time kennedy was in office. so you had the high water mark, you hadded me ka ed you had medicare, all the great program, immediate lit backlash set n it wasn't a presidential cycle, it was congressional cycle, '64 to '66. >> that backlash lasted through 1992. >> i would argue we are still in it. >> we are still in the backlash from the great society. we are still in that backlash. this is not lbj's america this is ronald reagan's america. now there is a blip on the chart in 2008 because of a bad --

because -- i would say because of eight fumbled years by a republican white house and then a crisis. >> and also because the democratic nominee in 2008 ran a center-right cultural campaign. >> right. >> remember, this was not a nominee who talked about gay marriage, into the nominee who talked about guns. >> didn't run giving anybody the idea that he would run up as much debt and deficit as it has. >> oh, my gosh. in fact, you go back and look what he said after the he was president and he talked about balancing the budget. look at what he said in january of 2009, february of 2009. he was promising to balance the budget. and that these deficits couldn't go on forever and he was sounding a lot like paul ryan. >> people don't like the government they don't like debt but they don't like changing medicare around they don't like giving tax cut to us wealthy. coming up, you can learn a lot about a person by traveling with them. >> oh, god, tell me about it.

>> that's for sure. >> holy cow. >> he fits in the air seat, the plane seat, like that anyhow. that's what happened when one magazine spent nine days with the world ast most traveled secretary of state hillary clint clinton, in history. you probably know her as winnie from "the wonder years," you do, right? okay. but did you know that actress danica mckeller is one of america's most famous mathematicians? >> i knew that did you knee? >> she wrote a book about t,is cool for girls to be smart. >> math is cool. >> she has got another book, she is going to be here to explain her love affair with numbers, just ahead. but first, bill karins to discuss his love affair with -- >> himself. >> the weather. bill? >> love thyself. she could have been my calculus tighter that would have worked out well, too. good morning, everyone. showers and thunderstorms rolling through the east this morning, could have minor

airport problems here shortly, areas like philadelphia and baltimore. baltimore light rain showers but looks like that line of storms trying to intensify as it heads up through northern portions of wilmington. should arrive in philly a half hour to 45 minutes from now and northern jersey in the act. new york city, should weaken by the time it gets there as i mentioned there's two lines, one this morning, another one late today into the evening hours w that one, we could see some damaging winds and some small hail. the poster child for the drought, kansas. they have had very little rain throughout the last two months. well, guess what? this morning, cloudy, cool, light soaking rain, right through the areas that desperately need it in central kansas. we will take that. yesterday was 104 in dallas and many areas of the west have been setting record highs. once again, as we go throughout this tuesday, where the heat is, 100 in dallas, 112 in phoenix, many areas in interior california continue easily above 100 degrees. and tomorrow, all throughout date here on the networks of

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are you all ready? >> this is big. this is big. >> joining me, deputy editor kevin do kev kevin doyle, who traveled 19,000 miles over nine days with secretary of state hillary clinton. >> says she snores on the plane. >> no i did not.

>>. [ overlapping speakers ] >> he didn't say that. >> but she doesn't snore. >> do you learn a lot about someone when you travel with them. >> yeah. you do. >> that's all i'm going to say. so, this is what he writes in the upcoming issue of "conde nast," where in the world is hillary? traveling with clinton is like chasing a woman shot out of a cannon with rocket boosters strapped to her pant suit. the world rushes past in a blur and you're catapulted into an alternate reality, one in which days are relentlessly schedule and life seems an endless progression from one meeting, interview, press conference or statement to another, with flights covering thousands of miles in between. punishing, grueling, exhausting and to a lesser degree, fun, are the words most commonly used by her staff to describe the experience of traveling with her. yeah. i think it would be pretty grueling. i've heard about her schedule. >> it is nonstop. it is nonstop. >> take us inside.

what's it like? >> you know, it is every single moment is scheduled and she just -- she wears her staff out. she wears the press out. and even in the moments where she could grab a breather, she doesn't. you know? >> what does she do? >> either she has basically rock star status, you could say. you know, she is america's most admired woman but because of her years as first lady, and now secretary of state, she is really -- she is really adored, it seems. everywhere we went. and she uses this rock star status to draw the spotlight to causes that are important to her. so, namely women and children and so, you know, we went to an event in calcutta where women who had been sold into sex slavery were being -- ngos are represented rehabilitating these women. she spent more than an hour there meeting with the women, meeting with the the ngo

leaders. what you see is she really -- she really validates the cause. she does draw the spotlight to it, it got tremendous attention. you really saw how it affected these women. >> sounds like she is always working. >> she was always working. >> she does not go to a country and says where is the nearest four seasons and i want to get in a couple of sets in. >> she actually -- yeah that is the bizarre thing. she stays in the nicest room in town, a 13-room suite in demly, and probably spent, i don't know, four hours in it. there is no down time. >> she is unaffected by time zone changes, unaffected by jet lag. she is sleep on command. >> how is that possible? how can you be totally unaffected by it? is there any pharmaceutical help? >> oh, my. >> no pharmaceutical help, which

makes it all the more extraordinary. she doesn't take any sleeping pills. she doesn't take any pharmaceuticals. she -- as -- her accommodation on the plane, she is in a little six by 12 cabin of her own, right? she doesn't have a shower. she has the same toilet any of us use on a commercial flight, basically. she has a full-length mirror, a deck and she sleeps on a pullout couch. and you know, when she lies down on that pullout couch, i guess she is just out. so, when we left, we left from andrews, she came back and said i'm just saying hello now because once i go into my room, i will not emerge. and she didn't. she was basically in there till we landed to refuel in japan, about 17 hours later. >> wow. >> what's even more remarkable about it she has to be on at all times, no rest, with this jet lag. she could say something that would change world politics or start an international incident.

she can't afford not to have her wit about her and seems to, despite a lack of sleep and whatever else she is missing. >> is remarkable. she holds the town halls the team dubbed townterviews. hundreds of people, in a school usually, ngos and leader in the community, she will take any question, any question at all. madam secretary, can you talk about the -- you know, the u.s.'s relationship with israel and its, you know, human rights abuses or madam secretary, why have you led yourself go? you know, so it is less like -- any question she will take and she speaks really, you know, volumably and knowledgeably. it is incredible. >> wow. >> one of the things we hear is that one of the reasons she's leaving is she is tired, just wants to rest, put it that way. >> yeah. there fore, may not run for president in 2016 because of that. what, from your experience, can you shed any light on that

conventional wisdom? >> you know, she just said to me what she said to everyone else, she wants to get off the high wire of politics i'm really looking forward to coming back to some of these places and not stopping traffic, but i have to say traveling in a motorcade is pretty amazing. >> you like that huh? >> yeah. she also said -- she was asked on this trip by someone in a town hall, do you think you will see a female president in your lifetime? and she said i certainly hope so i hope we don't have long to wait. if anybody can make that happen, i would say it is hillary clinton. >> wouldn't this be like the perfect, i guess, preparation really, for running for president? >> i would say. >> look at the candidates now and the experience they have and then put her up against them? >> well, as first lady, eight years, eight now secretary of state for four years, she has quite a formation. >> and as you said before, what

she did as first lady has so prepared her to be a great secretary of state. that plus being senator and now the work she has done. >> you know what's amazing, you figure, first lady of arkansas to being third lay doift united states to being a united states senator to being a presidential candidate to secretary of state, she has had a public career of 34 years, which is almost unmatched in terms of presidential history. >> yeah. >> prior to entering the white house. >> and quite an evolution, you know? i talked to reporters who followed her for a long time, since her white house days, you know, she is -- we all see, she seems much more comfortable in her skin, you know, much freer, both in the way she communicates and the way she carries herself. so it's something that you can see. but you know, she -- she really is the ultimate traveler and she said, you know, that where there's -- where there's more travel, there's greater understanding and you may not always -- you may not have agreement but you get to see

someone else's world view. and you also get to see what -- the human commonalities that that -- that that just reinforces things. >> unbelievable article. i can't believe, willie that he called her out for snoring. >> i did not! >> all that -- >> just wrong. >> burned the secretary of state. >> burn like that. >> by the way, you know what else she like to us do out on the road, dance a little bit. >> africa? >> like was to a good time. she gets out. the campaign trail, toward the end in 2008, she was having drinks. >> your dance partner. >> this is her a couple of weeks ago. >> right. >> she had a lot more fun on this trip than the one i was on. >> the article is in the new issue of "donedy thanks." >> kevin, thank you. >> thanks so much. >> she is doing with her hands. up next, girl he is get curves, actress exmathematician danica mckellar, what it takes to get young women hooked on math.

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kevin.

>> hi. >> i loved winnie cooper. and she loved me. >> winnie, i just want you to know that i know. you don't have to say anything. just know that i know, okay? >> know what? >> winnie, paul told me. and i'm glad he did. >> paul told you? >> well, yeah. isn't it great? >> paul told you? >> he says you're crazy about me. >> that was a scene from the hit show "the wonder years." remember that? and almost 20 years later, danica mckellar, known to so many as winnie cooper, is on her next act, as an advocate for math education. the latest in her series of books is titled "girls get curves, geometry takes shape," it is great to have you on the show this morning. welcome. >> thank you so much. >> i have two daughters. >> nice. >> and i am scared of math. >> oh.

>> a bad mix, right? >> well, one thing that i tell parents, especially moms of daughters, don't tell your daughters that you are afraid of math. >> okay. i already made that mistake. >> well, okay. >> what does she do now? >> watching at home. >> well, you know, never too late. never too late i'm send august set of the books i just told you. >> thank you. >> so it is never too late. math is a great skill to pick up at any point in your life and it helps to exercise that logical problem solving part. >> my daughter is amazing at math. she does her homework, i sit there and i'm in awe. i don't know what she is doing. >> that is so great. it is a foreign -- >> it doesn't make any sense. >> is a foreign language t is a foreign language, if you don't speak a language, you are not going to understand it tough practice t. >> what is she doing? >> logic. she is problem solving it is fantastic. i love math. not everybody loves math. but my books are for is to show girls they can totally do math. they don't have to love it, but can totally do that i got that. i got this. >> there is a certain sense that we are trying to break, that

girls can't do math. >> that there's a gap, whether talking about math or science between boys and girls. you are saying that just doesn't have to be the case at all? >> not at all. i mean, girls actually score just as well as boys in -- if you look at the studies in middle school and high school but they perceive themselves as not as good as math. at book signings, girls will come to me, how are you at math? oh well, i don't know, i don't really get t well what are you getting? a minus. ask the average boy are you good at math? i'm fine what are you getting? b plus. it is perception. what happens is as soon as girls hit a stumbling block, whether it be a teach they're tells them you don't have to worry about math or don't -- or they get a bad grade, a bad test, which we all do sometimes, they tend to see that instead of a stumbling block, like boys will tend to see it as, they see as evidence what they have known all along which is that they don't belong in math and it is such a tragedy because so many careers are made better, improved by having a good solid basis in math.

>> like yours, willie. >> exactly. >> i was the worst. i don't want to talk about my math career. do you feel like in the last, let's call it 15 year, math has gotten cooler because of people like mark zuckerberg, people who have used math and were once thought of as periods in and now are sort of rock stars? i mean, they are the richest, most famous people in the world. >> a whole nerd culture. >> silicon valley. >> and math is definitely part of it. i'm not sure it helped the girls as much as it helped boys maybe in terms of the perception. >> but just culturally that math can get you somewhere that is cool. >> this is a good time for math because of that. absolutely. and because nerds, you know exnerds are -- used to be the anti-social, right? now they rule social media, talk about social that is how we are social now. so i think there's actually an opportunity here. >> you know, this is an interesting format of the book, you can open it up and i see formulas that make my teeth hurt. >> yep. >> but you go to other pages where you talk about body image and you have your own diary and you're explaining to girls, it's

aokay. you may be going through an awkward stage. you even have testimony a.m.s of others telling younger girls everything's gonna be okay? >> yeah, testimonials of women who used to be afraid of math and now use math in fabulous careers that they love. it is really important. roam modelling is so important. if down the have somebody to look at and say, oh, look, i could be that, it is just a lot harder. >> yeah. i think that is a great message. and actually, the presentation of the book, i would bring this home to my daughters because i love them read it for a number of reasons. >> you know, they are math books but also confidence-boosting books in disguise p. >> yeah. >> i start off in middle school, my first book is called "math doesn't suck" ages 9 to 11 and take it up, i have got four books now, all the way through high school geometry t is all about finding that confidence that comes from feeling smart. girls are told from every conceivable source you can think of, magazines, billboards, reality shows, that the most

important thing they have to off earth world is through their appearance and how sexy they are. that is fine but that's decor rachel and that's into the going to bring them happiness. these books are happiness, confidence-boosting books in disguise. >> what made you think to write this? >> i have been an actress all my life, as evidenced "the wonder years" clip. i love entertainment. when i got to college after the "the wonder years" ended, i discovered math as something that made me feel smart and valued for something that had nothing to do with the super fish y'allity of hollywood and i clung to it. it made me feel awesome this is amazing. i love math. became a math major. then i said, you know, what i miss acting, i was on "the west wing" for a year. i don't want to miss math though, so let's combine my love of math, my love of entertainment and write entertaining math books. >> so you have five tips for raising math-confident kids. point out math in every day life, like how? >> you're at the store. here is the unit price, here is how much it costs.

>> doesn't have enough money to buy that. >> i can't afford that dress. you cannot have it because it is too much money. >> 20% off. how much will that be? >> hide your mathphobia. i failed that. >> if you are afraid of math, don't tell your kids. >> okay. use money. i can do that. >> you use money to show them that math is in every day life all the time, show them the credit card statement, how much are you paying in the apr. >> that is important. >> if you are going to bite house, what does a mortgage look like? understanding numbers like that could really help this country a lot. >> what about sports? >> there's tons of numbers sports, absolutely. i mean, it is everywhere. math is everywhere. if you just look around, you will find a gas zil yin opportunities to show your kids. the thing about showing your kids math in every day life is it keeps it from being too foreign because it is a language, mortgage foreign a language is the scarier it is. it is all about presentation, let's translate this scary language and show that it's all over around makes your life better when you understand it >> provide support and

encouragement during rough patches. >> he all have rough patches in math. all of us. aid huge rough patch in the seventh grade are i was terrified, used to come home and cry about my homework. still scared. >> willie still does that. >> seventh and eighth grade, seriously, i wandered off and never came back. >> brush up on your own math skills. >> easy to do fun books like the ones that i wrote. >> this is what we will do we can do this. >> you can do this. >> we can do this h you know what we can't save ourselves but we can save our children, mika. so, we will -- >> try and save our children. >> i believe the children are the future. teach them well. >> that is funny, i got that song in my head. >> there you go kind of fright nichblgt. >> danica so good to see you. >> i'm telling you, this really does -- >> i like the book a lot. >> thank you, i'm sending you a set. >> i'm bringing it home to my girls. >> to my 9-year-old. >> thank you very, very much. the girls "girls get curves,

geometry takes shape." danica mckellar, thanks very much. business headlines and a preview of market futures. brian shactman. >> no you like this brian. okay. >> we will be right back. t ther. t ther. - one serving of cheese is the size of four dice. one serving of cereal, a baseball. and one serving of fruit, a tennis ball. - you know, both parties agree. our kids can be healthier... the more you know. and sounds vying for your attention. so we invented a warning you can feel. introducing the all-new cadillac xts. the girls "girls get curves, when there's danger you might not see, you're warned by a pulse in the seat. it's technology you won't find in a mercedes e-class.

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to take control of your personal economy. get one-on-one help from america's retirement leader. get a check on business before the bill, cnbc's brian shactman. good signs from retail sales. >> yeah, listen good sigh guys a couple of things to share with you, retail sales, better than expected. first uptick in four months. that's positive. the best since february. also, ppi, the wholesale inflation producer pricing, that a little hotter than expected. people, you might imagine, in

these times, they are spending more money on trucks, trucks and cigarettes. that's what's leading that number higher. home depot, profits were good, typical scenario for big companies, guys, good profits, revenues a little bit lighter, that has been a trend across the board. quick question, i don't know who is in on there, anyone ever buy a groupon? >> anyone ever buy a groupon? >> negative. >> nope. nope. nope. nope. >> we actually bought our first one, a lobster bake, we are going to have it tonight, they have revenue growth about 97% year and a half ago. now it is 2%. google offered $6 billion for this -- these guys 2010. they will open up today worth about 3. so, it's like a dot com bubble part deux for these companies. stocks look to open higher at this hour at 8:48 a.m. eastern time. >> all right, brian shactman, thank you so much. on tomorrow's show, arianna huffington joins us, also congressman chris van hollen,

rnc chairman reince priebus and the travel channel's adam richman. keep it right here on "morning joe." is m e t es yrm a atio

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join me in we will come the next president of the united

states, paul ryan. >> oh! whoo! what a relief. because for nine months now, i thought i was gonna have to vote for mitt romney. i got -- i got to tell you, i was worried. you got me. you got me! >> i can tell you this, he is going to be the next vice president of the united states. >> ha ha ha ha ha. i mean romney/ryan 2012. of course this wasn't great news for everyone, specifically, vice presidential hopefuls like tim pawlenty and rob portman. it is tough news to break to a potential running mate, but mitt's a leader. so he had his son do it. [ laughter ] >> tag ryan, mitt romney's oldest son, was the person to give the news to both rob portman and tim pawlenty that they were not the pick. >> they should you can honored.

chris christie got a call from rafalca. [ laughter ] i believe we have a recording. [ phone ringing ] >> hello, did i get the job? >> neigh. >> welcome back at 53 past the hour. decades before "sex in the city" or carrie bradshaw, there was helen gurley brown you the woman who first made it okay to have frank discussions about sex in magazines. brown, a best-selling author and editor of "cosmopolitan" magazine for more than 30 years died yesterday in manhattan. she first became famous in 1962 with the best selling book "sex and the single girl." three years later, she was hired at "cosmo" and helped turn the struggling magazine into an international brand. brown said her aim was to show readers how to get the most out of life. helen gurley brown was 90 years old. jon meachum talked about the importance of her in american popular culture.

>> you know, she came along i think a year before betty freiden did, the feminine mystique and a popular voice of breaking down what we think of as the midcentury barriers to open conversation about things long considered private. her role in the magazine world can't be overstated. >> remarkable. >> she built a remarkable international magazine that remains -- remains powerful. >> by the way, look at this picture. >> this is great. this san image -- talk about an image from a time capsule, dick cavet, helen gurley brown and little richard in a neck brace. >> little richard in a neck brace and white shoes. >> i think there is an ashtray on the table. >> no, that is -- seriously you put that one into the time capsule. >> she certainly defined the conversation. i started the column that i do but then sought magazine. >> joe and i are not -- i can

safely say -- >> they talk about sex. >> the target demographic. willie s >> i'm -- yeah. are just gonna leave it. coming up next, what, if anything, did we learn today? >> yeah. [ male announcer ] when a major hospital

wanted to provide better employee benefits while balancing the company's bottom line, their very first word was... [ to the tune of "lullaby and good night" ] ♪ af-lac ♪ aflac [ male announcer ] find out more at... [ duck ] aflac! [ male announcer ] ...forbusiness.com. [ yawning sound ] welcome back, kids, time to talk about what we learned today i learned so much today willie you what did you learn? >> from danica mckellar, another

good book, smart is cool. as the father of a daughter, i'm glad she is doing it. >> i am, too. what did you learn? >> the darndest people walk onto the set of "morning joe" behind-the-scenes. like being on the -- being right there william f. buckley and "hee haw." >> a lot of people here today coming in and out. >> in and out. >> i can't give names. >> is fascinating. jon meachum? >> michael grunwald, "the new new deal." >> big wet kiss. >> big story about the stand stim plus stimulus. >> that was a big wet kiss. it was. >> to whom? >> the president. >> i'm off one -- one