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asked you why are you awake? producer john tower, the answers please. >> we got erin g in tallahassee, florida. she says i just couldn't aaron seeing bill's beautiful face. don't think my husband. >> actually, erin your husband and i have been e-mailing behind your back. sorry to break this to you. a little tension this. i have my pope notes. white smoke. new pope. black smoke, no pope. didn't happen today. "morning joe" starts right now. . you're looking at live pictures of the vatican where, this morning, smoke will pour from this chimney above the sistine chapel telling us whether or not a new pope has been elected. right now a conclave of 115 cardinals is in its second day of voting after yesterday's opening round of balloting fell short of the two-thirds majority

plus one needed to select the next leader of the catholic church. >> willie and barnicle were short. i got a contact inside. >> this is the first round of voting. >> in about an hour we will see either black smoke indicating no pope was selected in this morning's votes or white smoke and a chorus of bells ringing across the vatican city to signal a new hope has been chosen. >> do they call the new pope mike? pope michael? >> be theft call the next pope, urban renewal. >> we will be watching for that. good morning. it's wednesday, march 13th. welcome to "morning joe." with us on the set we have msnbc contributor and "morning joe" pope mike barnicle. mans analyst and visiting professor at nyu, former democratic congressman, harold ford jr. in washington, nbc news capitol

hill correspondent is with us, kelly o'donnell. >> look at this. >> yes, we have a full report on that coming up. >> what is the story here? >> the story is the beverage industry is making sure that they have deep roots in certain communities so that their brand still sells. >> what do you mean? like with yankee fans? what? >> i think they want to make sure they win the soda wars. the sad thing is, ultimately, they won't, but it will be a long process to get this nation on a healthy track. >> i'm rooting for you. i hope it goes well. what are we looking at today? >> we have a lot. that story is coming up. big show today. you know, mayor bloomberg is going to be on a little bit later. >> wow. >> we can ask him about all this. also he has a big announce want and some special guests. >> give me some money? if i support it?

>> no, no money for you. >>. i support the soda ban. >> oh, gosh. this day? >> might as well within the limit. this is a turfer. >> that is a sensible drink. >> a good drink. >> sweet tea. ah! >> baseball season has started! >> what is going on in washington? later today, president obama will meet with house republicans in hopes of striking a bipartisan deal on several issues ranging from deficit reduction to gun legislation. president obama kicked things off yesterday meeting with senate democrats who reportedly pushed back against any potential deep cuts to entitlement programs but the president's outreach which began a week ago when he dined with senate republicans apparently isn't going over well with everyone. the national journal ron fornia asks, quote, is this a schmoozeathon? is this a schmoozeathon a legitimate act of humility and leadership? or a cynical public display?

he quotes two white house officials, one of whom called the strategy a, quote, joke. adding it seems intended to satisfy the media more than anything. another said if there is a bipartisan deal it won't be because the president shared steaks and merlot with a few senators. >> harold ford, cynical thing for people at the white house to say. >> i call it a sniping going on. >> i spoke with valerie and some other people over there, they sure don't believe this. they think, like we think, after talking to members on both sides, here's a deal to be had. and valerie and the president and everybody else believes that now is the time to strike. >> the view expressed by whomever that person is you hope it's wholly wrong. if you just based it on the comments from a few senators, including a great friend of your show tom colburn and ron johnson

and others, it appears not only did it have an impact on them, it unthawed some things and made clear not only to those in the senate but particularly those republicans that not only could a deal be reached on this issue, but there is work to be done on a whole range of things. i hope they continue doing these things and whomever may have said that, i hope that person's position of power is roofed and that he or she doesn't find themselves determining what the agenda is for the next round of meetings. >> i think it's particularly dramatic this president going up to the hill. >> yeah. >> especially for this president as somebody who some have suggested believe it's beneath the dignity of the office for the president to go up to the hill and a lot of presidents would believe that. i'm not going to go up there. >> i'm not sure that is -- >> i think the president should be commended for doing it. >> exactly. >> and -- >> it's not exactly a warm atmosphere they have set up for him there. >> well, the president himself

said some really tough, harsh things about paul ryan's budget but you know what? things you say for your base and the things you do. and, right now, the president, he says what he needs to say for his base. the harsh things about the ryan budget. but he still talking to him while everybody on the base, mike, is, you know, sniping and not only at the president, but saying horrible things about paul ryan's budget and it's just -- you know, you really get a sense here, the last 48 hours has been a great, i think, window into the heart of american politics right now where you have the extremists who occupy the 5% on both sides and we see them on our twitter feeds and online and you see them on talk radio and cable news shows. then you've got the president and everybody else trying to move beyond those extremists and trying to get things done for the country. >> the interesting thing, at least to me, about the president of the united states and, kelly,

perhaps you could share some insight into this more than i have certainly, is that he is now in a position where he can't win. if he does not go to dinner with the random selection of republican senators or if he does not go up to the hill, he remains described as a loof, arrogant, removed from the process. if he does go, he's described as a fake or, you know, this is a joke or he doesn't really mean it. this is a weird city that you're operating out of and reporting from, kelly. >> mike, i think perhaps the white house official who was telling our friend ron this was a joke maybe that was somebody who visited the president not to do this because when i'm talking to senators, talked to a number of democrats who were spending time with the president yesterday and republicans who dined with him last week, to a person, they have been impressed by the president's effort and while they all say follow through will matter, the gesture of coming to them and spending time with them has been

appreciated. it's not about having a glass of wine with the president or socializing with the president. it's about having a few minutes where you have the attention of the most powerful person in the world and you're able to, as a lawmaker yourself, get some of your thoughts across, get a sense of the president and when you talk to republicans, what i was struck by is even a couple of people who are aligned with the tea party of ron johnson and pat tummi thought about see ago president that surprised them. for democrats and speaking to them yesterday they were saying they had not seen the president on the hill coming to this in this sort of setting since 2009 and it matter to them. they wanted the chance to talk about things. it was family so to speak so there were some concontentious momentship when it comes to the bug, i'm told he encouraged them to sort of be on the same team and get to patty murray's budget that comes out today and be supportive of that.

they found it valuable. the notion it's a media thing, i hope not. i hope people appreciate the president has made the evident. >> a new poll, abc news poll. favor ability ratizing down 5%. >> he has to be concerned about that right now. if you look at his approval rating at 50 that is only, right now, 41% -- you knew where he was coming in the republicans right nouchl. >> he is only at 50, they say. >> he is only at 50. the poor guy. >> any time the strike by the republicans. >> exactly. you never -- if you're president of the united states to be within 40 points of the congress' approval rating. >> in fairness, i think they reached double digits now in congress which is progress. >> i kid because i love about my party. >> harold, i think we all agree it's better than not the president is up there speaking to congress. what many people have asked for. but when you look at the

numbers, you look at the budget that paul ryan proposed yesterday versus the budget that patty murray and senate democrats have put out it's difficult to reconcile those two things. i understand they are markers and we can move from there but when you talk about paul ryan including the repeal of obama care within that, that's not going to happen. you talk about a trillion dollars of new taxes for patty murray that is unlikely to happen. where is that middle? >> it's going to take the president to forge and find the middle, which is why, again, i echo the points made at the beginning of the show and to mike's point about the weirdness of the town, there was a time when this was not weird. you come from one of the great states and one of the great leaders who helped create this environment, the great tip o'neill understood you had to work with both sides. >> and teddy kennedy. >> no doubt about it. the most productive leader was teddy kennedy in the senate and not only washington. it takes the president to unthaw this. he is going to probably take as

many arrows as you said before from the democrats as he will republicans. there are democrats who are staunchly opposed to spinning discipline around entitlement. >> can i say it's actually nice? because this president really hasn't crossed his base a lot the past four years. it's nice for me to be able to say to republicans, who say i think legitimately say he never crosses his base. he always attacks us and does what is safe for him and his political base but not the case any more. he was getting railed, hammered on social security and entitlement cuts. the president will hear from his base because they say there is not a spending problem. >> i would agree. >> the president, even though they don't want to hear this right now, the president is actually doing them a great

favor. >> i would agree. >> when nancy pelosi says there's not a spend program, americans don't believe that. when liberals say we don't have to do anything about entitlements for a decade or two deck 80s, americans don't believe that. the president is actually pulling his party back to the center by engaging in these -- >> mika makes the point that congress have a responsibility. when you recall when the budget was balanced when clinton made great strides around welfare reform, the democrats who were with him were blue dogs. he lost a big chunk of liberal democrats in the house and had it not been for the john tanner's, the colin peterson's of the world who led the blue dog coalition the president would not have found a majority. it takes that same kind of courage from moderate to conservative democrats in the house to give this president cover if he pushes and advances the -- >> it's important to remember,

mika, liberals were telling bill clinton welfare reform would throw millions of poor people out in the streets. go back and see how wrong they were about welfare reform. see how wrong they were about balancing the budget in seven years. they said just like now vicious cuts were going to destroy america's economy and all of the things they are predicting now they predicted back in 1995. they were wrong then and they are wrong now. >> as kelly just mentioned senate democrats unveiled their plan for the budget. patty murray greeted the president over lunch on tuesday. it calls for raising tax revenue by 1 trillion and slashing spending by 175 million. >> harold is smiling. >> stop shaking your head. what is up? how would you like to be a democrat going back to the people of tennessee i raised your taxes a trillion dollars? >> how are they doing it? >> i shake my head. if you're a pedestrian and watching this, this is willie's

question. this is where we were six months ago, three months ago. i have great respect for senator murray and i believe she believes in their budget but they have to come together because i'm not sure shs any different. paul ryan's too. how do you examine to abolish after you had an election? >> these are political documents. paul ryan's document is a political document more than an economic document, telling america this is where the republican party stands. >> yes. >> and party murray's is the same. >> correct. >> they are going to get their budget out so now let's begin the process. this is how washington works! >> exactly. >> where is the reality in paul ryan's budget? >> where is the relate in partt murray's budget? call claire mccaskill and see if she wants to go back to missouri. >> are you guys going to support

a trillion dollars in new taxes? if so, we thank you because we are going to win seven seats in 2014. >> you simplify it so much. come on. >> it focuses on paul ryan's budget and let's be honest and say for the seven democrats and the majority in the senate, a trillion dollars in new taxes, that's not realistic either for democrats. >> i would agree but, joe, with all due respect, i like paul too. >> yeah. >> to say you're reappealing the healthy act when -- >> can i ask you a question? willie and i have a question for you. >> yeah. >> is there anybody you don like and respect? >> i'm a christian, joe. >> oh! yes! >> there is good in all. doesn't mean it's a good policy. >> you know, willie? harold had a campaign ad. >> i remember it. >> cue it up. >> do we have this campaign ad? >> i'm going to go to -- >> let's hear what the president has to say, all right?

>> that's what i'm trying to do. >> yes. >> because to president obama, balancing the budget alone is not only his top priority. >> paul ryan today put forward his budget and asking you to come forward with a budget that reaches balance. are you going to do that? >> no. my goal is not to chase a balanced budget for the sake of balance. my goal is how do we grow the economy, put people back to work and if we do that, we're going to be bringing in more revenue if we've controlled spending and got a smart entitlement package and potentially what you have is balance but it's not balance on the backs of, you know, the poor, the elderly, students who need student loans, families who have got disabled kids. that's not the right way to balance our budget. >> we need to have an entire segment on taxes and exactly what raising taxes means. and look at these budgets and we will. but there is one more story that i want to get to before the first block of the show ends.

more now on the ongoing fight over mayor michael bloomberg efforts to ban large sugary drinks in new york city. >> thank god. i never thought we would get to this story. >> a report in "the new york times" say many people the mayor intended to help with the ban are actually against it. >> wow. >> they did not want it it. huh-uh. although minorities are among the group hard hit by the obesity epidemic. dozens of hispanics and african-american groups joined it. the time report points out many of those same groups have received tens of millions of dollars from the soda industry to fund programs and nonprofit organizations that serve hispanics and blacks. >> good morning! that looks great. >> this was a discussion i was having with a top executive from

a major soda pop maker once when we were on location and he was telling me about all of these incredible programs they have. i thought to myself how brilliant. you keep buying them off. >> they are not buying them off. >> absolutely, absolutely. >> they are helping people. >> no. actually, they are making sure their brand survives. >> you ought to have some of the heads of the organizations on. if you look at the things people are sponsoring education programs. >> they sure are. i'm impressed. >> you would be interested to hear why some of them took the money. >> why they took the money? >> why is mika attacking civil rights group? >> i don't understand why they want to take a wonderful education program from a big company but why do they have to serve their soda in schools and vending machines? they don't have to. >> we all grew up with sugary drinks. we found a way to -- >> look how good harold looks. >> joe is a model of exercise.

>> i am. >> i think they are not in vending machines in schools. i think they removed most of them from vending machines. >> really? i went to a school where i see them. i won't name it. >> to your point an obvious statistically correlation between socioeconomic status and there is a link behind your story because many tend to be obesity. >> taking recreation out of schools. i would hope maybe some of the organizations are asking help from these companies to enassure that these kids have summer recreation opportunities and they have a physical education opportunities in their schools which is what we did growing up. i even drank everything from fast foods all of these sugary drinks and obesity was not an issue for me. >> i understand we all did that but it wasn't as plentiful as it is today. when we were growing up that is when the big gulp came to be. the first big gulp happened when we were in our teens. i lived near a 7-eleven and

let's say i spent a lot of time there. >> willie, where were you? i remember the moonshot, right? yeah. >> i remember -- >> i remember the big gulp. >> where were you when the big gulp hit? >>disgusting thing i had ever seen. >> i was in football practice and pensacola high and took a right. no, a piggly wiggly i think i went in to! it was awesome! >> pick a deli? next to that? >> yeah, that's what you do. preacher always knows he's got to end at 12:00 because if he goes over, then he makes you too late for -- >> be quiet. >> the buffet line is too line at morrison's. >> speaking of that. >> you can get to just as i am, right? when you're making the call up.

they got to wrap it up by 12:00 or the other churches are ahead of you in the morrison's line. >> disgusting display. >> would you just stop? turn that frown upside down. >> the impact that large big gulp and sugary drinks have on people. if you go to many neighborhoods in this country, especially poor neighborhoods, you're not going to find a whole foods market. >> that's right! >> you're going to find -- where they sell vats of sugar if you find a decent supermarket. >> part of the campaign should be helping to bring some of these companies to these neighborhoods as well. >> is there a campaign to do that. and to get -- there were some areas that are called food deserts where you have to drive 20 minutes to get to fresh food. that is unbelievable this day and age. >> i was there when the big gulp came up. the beach boys were on the radio. i remember it so vividly!

>> thank you, mika, for everything. >> you're welcome. >> we have a big show ahead and get to both sides of the budget debate. paul ryan is going to be here and his democratic counterpart democratic congressman chris van hollen. mika, this is huge. >> i'm excited. >> michael bloomberg will be here. >> a visionary. >> up next did president obama ruin his chance at a grand bargain? we take you behind the curtain. >> here is bill karins with the forecast. >> we like to call you a visionary but, unfortunately, it doesn't ring true! >> you need to be nice! >> okay. >> this guy is working hard here. >> he is working hard. when is it going to get warm? i want it to be warm. it's march. >> i know. i say the northern half of the country at least another week or two before we get into the nice beautiful stuff.

southern half of the country is enjoying now. yesterday we got rid a lot of the snow and first step in new england and the great lakes. you need rainy days like that to watch and clean everything on. got an inch of rain from philly to hartford. great lakes waking up to snow showers. the white on the map is install squalls rolling off lake michigan and through ohio and indiana. i don't think the roads will be too bad. be careful around indianapolis and in between columbus and cincinnati could drop quick coating on the ground. snow showers in buffalo today and enjoy another mild morning and especially boston and new york city. later this afternoon some of showers in the ohio valley work towards philly and d.c. but nothing like yesterday. hit and miss. i was telling joe how beautiful it is in march in the southern half of the country. this is just the banner time of year from florida all the way through the gulf coast. even gorgeous right now from oklahoma into areas of california. especially southern california. that continues into tomorrow

while the chilly weather continues through the great lakes. i still think a chance of snow especially friday into saturday the great lakes into new england and probably the least thing you want to hear as we approach st. paddy's day. walker watching "morning joe." we are brewed by starbucks. ♪ revolutionizing an industry can be a tough act to follow,

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and processing $421 billion dollars in accounts payables each year. helping thousands of companies simplify how work gets done. how's that for an encore? with xerox, you're ready for real business. ♪ all right. 27 past of the hour. time now to take a look at the morning papers. from our parade of papers the "los angeles times" for the first time the nation's top intelligence officials are citing cyberattacks and cyberespionage as a greater threat to america than al qaeda. according to the report, assaults on the nation's power grid and financial records are a

greater than concern this organized crime and weapons of mass destruction. the sequester is said to create problems for intelligence collection and analysis. the seattle times, boeing's plan to get their 787 dream liner jets back in the air has been improved by the faa. >> i can't wait to get on that plane! >> the internal battery components were overheating and sometimes catching fire. the faa has not set a date for flights. >> willie, if the batteries cause a plane to catch on fire. >> on-board fire is generally not good. >> they use aaa's instead of aa's? >> the old 9 volts! >> that was it! >> that's bad. bad. dallas morning news. google has settled a case with official from 38 states admitting they violated people's privacy during its street mapping project.

the settlement included a $7 million fine and could lead to more privacy problems for the company as they prepare to release the highly anticipated google glass. >> "the new york times" hostess brands has agreed to sell its snack brands including twinkies and ho ho's. it is worth 410 million and would keep the twinkie on the shelf. >> goldman sacks buying twinkies? >> they are not. come on. >> big news. other big news today. march 13th. george scarborough's birthday! happy birthday, george! down to politico, mr. mike allen, has a look at the playbook. you guys are taking us behind the curtain as you so often do. talking this morning about the

grand bargain. bl they, won't they get one? based on what we saw yesterday, paul ryan's budget from the house and patty murray's budget from senate democrats more or less likely today we can reach a grand bargain? >> less likely. we agree with the point that joe is making at the top of the show that there is a bargain to be had, but the truth bomb, it's much more difficult than it would have been before the fiscal cliff at the end of the year, before sqeequesterion kicd in. democrats with focused on immigration. and on gun measures. if this is going to happen, it's not going to be because of some secret talks that are suddenly ignited by these dinners. it's going to be as part of the regular budget process. maybe the biggest thing that this charm offensive will accomplish is give the president

some cred with republicans and help him with some of his other priorities and senator rob portman of ohio told us maybe the most sensible point. he said that republicans should assume the president is sincere. he says republicans should engage. the worst that can happen is they tried. a little moment from saturday's gridiron dinner showed us how far there is still to go. kevin mccarthy the number three house represent, during one of those breaks when everybody was milling around, saw that up on the head table there was an empty chair next to the president. he is like, this is my chance. so he went up and sat down next to president obama who was on his blackberry. when the president and mccarthy was thinking to himself the way that some other presidents would have been working that room at the moment. when the president looked up from his blackberry kevin mccarthy was kidding him. so when is my dinner invitation? the president said, i listen to paul. deal with paul, paul ryan,

someone who is intellect, he respects. they had a chilly, short conversation. the president said if you're going to get what you want, you need -- it was definitely a mars and venus conversation what people were looking at in an era of good feelings. >> the quote that congressman mccarthy gave us after the encounter about the president, he is still a law professor and would rather lecture you and put a red mark on your paper than talk with you. >> very different styles. >> mike allen with a look at the playbook behind the scenes. thanks, mike. >> have a good week. coming up next their last name is their bond. two members of the kelly gang join us next. oney for a good cause kelly here and talk a little football too. more "morning joe" when we come back. ♪ i looked across the river today saw a city in the fog

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what is now the head coach of notre dame football, brian kelly and new york city keith kelly. kelly gang a group that raises money for charities every year.

brian kelly and his wife are here to receive an award. the greatest halftime interview. >> i had to give the greatest halftime interview to get our team out there. that is the tough part. >> they asked coach how did things change? hopefully, alabama doesn't come out in the second half. >> rough first half. we played better in the second half but football is great and certainly it brings us all together but it brings us back to new york to do some great things. that is the power of, you know, being able to play at a place like notre dame, you get the opportunity to come to new york and be a part of a very special week. >> let's talk about the week. >> keith has put together this lunch a long time, the kelly gang. >> dinner gang. >> yeah. it started out as an informal group of kelly's gathering around and took a tragic turn when one one of our cofounder michael kelly was the first

journalist kill in iraq. we said we have to do something for the family the next year. donald trump flew the family down from boston and all kinds of people coming together. michael's family came up from d.c. and we raised some money. so many turned out and said you have to keep this going every year not only for michael kelly but a great way for the industry to get together. we raised money for the wounded warrior project and hurricane katrina and catholic charities and try to find a kelly doing good. after katrina, catholic charities was headed by jim kelly. buffalo bills quarterback jim kelly as well for his foundation. this year ever since we saw brian kelly's profile in irish america, we figured he is the kind of guy we got to get. after him for three years. in september they said we think we can do it and then he went on to have an undefeated season and we think that is no coincide. good karma all the way.

>> you and your wife have a foundation? >> we do. kelly cares foundation. my wife is here with us. a lot of the emphasis on it is her story and our story as a family. she's a two-time cancer survivor. so, obviously, cancer research, breast cancer research is very important. we also met in college. this is my life. and she's been part of it. so we met in college and so giving back educationally is part of the foundation as well. and we have lived in a lot of communities in this business of college coaching. you move around a little bit. so we have always felt like those three pillars are part of our story, our family story and that is the kelly cares foundation. >> so it seems appropriate that we give news on the pope right now. mike barnicle, bad news for you. it's black smoke. you have to wait another day to be selected pope by the college -- >> i got three votes yesterday. >> i think the everit part is

what is holding you back. i was born there. i think that may be a problem. >> we could get one later today. how great would that have been if we had the pope while brian kelly, the coach of the fighting irish. >> that could be a good omen next year. that we needed at halftime was the pope! >> so let's say my last name is not kelly which it's not and i'm watching at home. how can people get involved and help the kausecauses you are supporting? >> you don't have to be irish or last name kelly as long as you spell the name on your check. fund-raiser is hosted by the kelly's and hosted by one and all. anyone from original, creed, domination. it's to get good money. we raved probably about, i think this year we will will over the $500,000 mark since we started in '04.

we are like an all-volunteer army. no paid staff. like little league and the cub scouts, every cent we raise goes to the charity. >> fantastic. >> it's at michael's restaurant tonight. as close to a sellout but a few tickets available for 200 bucks at the door. >> great. >> coach, let's turn just for a minute to football. it's going to be very distracting and very distracting as we show vatican city while talking college football. but i'm curious what, as a leader of young men, what do you tell the kids -- i call them kids. we are all so old here. what do you tell these kids after the game, not only to get the younger players ready for the next season, get them in the right frame of mind to learn from what happened, but also for the seniors that ended on a disappointing note. what did you say to them in there? >> i thanked the seniors first.

because they have moved the program so far to put us in a national championship game and certainly doing that allowed us now to think about winning a national championship. we had a lot of room to make up for. notre dame had not been part of that conversation. >> right. >> as it related to playing for national championships. thanking the seniors first was the most important thing and tell them you know what it looks like now. i played 18 freshmen in that game. >> isn't that amazing? what a great opportunity. >> just to have all of those kids be on that field and that moment allows them now to work towards getting back there. >> if you're 18 or 19, you don't remember all of the times. i remember back when the dolphins got stomped by the cowboys. i think it was in '71 maybe they lost 24-3 in the super bowl. the next year, they are undefeated. it happens all the time. but what an incredible -- did you ever, ever think you were going to go -- have a shot at going undefeated last year? >> we looked at the schedule, i think we all said that is probably a daunting schedule. as coaches and i think we are like everybody else.

we just focus on the moment. if you start looking at it here is a win, a loss, i think you're doing a disservice. i just stay focused on one week at a time. i think when we did that, we found ourselves in a pretty good position. >> that's great. >> how much, if any -- go ahead. >> no, go ahead, mike. >> how much, if any, was the manti te'o distraction? was it a distraction internally? >> it really wasn't. it wasn't because he never showed that it distracted the way he led all year. in other words he was the first in the locker room and he was the first on the field. all of his actions as it related to his preparation never changed. and so we didn't see anything outwardly that would say we have got an issue here. and, obviously, alabama had a lot to do with him not playing quite as well as we played but it did that to all of the players on the team. but he handled himself in a manner that, you know, left us no reason to believe that he would be ready to play. >> do you think, coach, if you were talking to an nfl gm and

you probably are, is there any reason because of that manti te'o episode that they should draft him lower than they were thinking about drafting him? is there anything about his character that we learned from that that would concern a coach or a gm? >> i think everything is based upon a body of work. in my three years with him, i did not have a better teammate, a better leader, a better captain, and a better player in my three years at notre dame. if you want to take the body of work, i could tell you what he did for three years. >> unselfish guy. >> always. >> be elevated by the national press. he was a great teammate. >> he brought his family in which is the way to do it. so if there is a crack there for a moment, that you want to fall on one side or the other, you certainly can do that but i can speak to a body of work where he was one of the great players i got a chance to coach. >> thank you, coach. >> thank you. appreciate being here. >> hope to see you tonight. >> thank you again. >> thank you.

>> let's send it over to chris jansing who is live at the vatican, not talking college football. chris, mike barnicle is disappointed! he once again fell short of the vote. could we expect another vote later this afternoon? >> we can expect two more votes this afternoon and we will never know how many votes mike barnicle got. you don't have to be a cardinal but a male catholic. i can't say i'm ruling out a barnicle contention there inside the sistine chapel. the black smoke needs three votes now. one yesterday. two this morning. they will head to lunch now and leave the sistine chapel and have lunch. some people think they will what we call a little nap and back in the afternoon for one or two more votes. if one vote and somebody gets 77 ballots then a new pope. otherwise, no smoke. second ballot. then you would see smoke.

it's really interesting to try to read the tea leaves because none of us knows what is going on there, but the generally accepted wisdom here if it's early, it will be one of the front-runner so to speak, somebody like cardinal scola. the longer it goes more likely to be a surprised candidate. maybe like someone from the united states. we will just have to wait and see. right now, one thing i can say with certainty is that this vote came about 10, 15 minutes earlier than we saw eight years ago and so we know that cardinal ray who is running things and who has a very good reputation for business like procedures is keeping things moving inside the sistine chapel. joe? >> thank you so much, chris. we greatly appreciate it. more good news, willie geist, from mike barnicle. chris talks about him taking a nap in the afternoon! he likes naps in the afternoon. >> i love those. >> you have to love the conversation we are having because you have coach kelly actually quoting jim carey from

"dumb and dumber." all have have to be is be a catholic and you can be voted pope. he says? >> i still got a chance. >> more "morning joe" when we come back. ♪ a cold war coming on the rainy day ♪ ♪ for the first time... ever... she let him plan the vacation.

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♪ live look at capitol hill. we have got time for one must read opinion page. try to bring kelly o'donnell in here. mayor bloomberg's anti-obesity writes this. one is to push governor andrew cuomo and the state legislature

to impose a penny per ounce tax on sugary drinks. the mayor and his health officials are right to ashesert that sugary drinks contribute to obesity. mr. bloomberg has worked to improve public health on many fronts. thanks to his efforts smoking is outlawed in most places, transfats are banned. calorie counts are routinely displayed but the big drinks ban was illy conceived and poorly instructed from the start. the mayor will be on the show this morning coming up. let's look at the "wall street journal." a ryan reboot. doesn't the house budget chairman understand that the 2012 election settled every political question in president obama's favor? no. the federal fisk is a shambles.

mr. obama said would solve everything and despite the modest sequester spending cuts. thus it is still an important document even if it has no chance of becoming law later this year. kelly o'donnell, republicans understand, as well as democrats, that these budgets that are being relieved today really are more political statements than documents that actually have any chance of being signed into law, right? >> if they didn't take their sort of predictable positions they probably would be criticized for abandoning some of the ideas they campaigned on. yeah, they start in sort of the extreme i would say blueprint oriented knowing they have to move. if there is going to be any real work on this, they are going to have to come toward the center. one of the things talked about so much, joe, you can appreciate it, having served, that regular order is now the new sexy term

in washington. all of this talk about really getting back to legislating the old fashioned way. >> like infrastructure. >> yeah. it could bring about real progress on a budget by kind of going back to amendments and committees and doing the day in and day out work that legislators like and sometimes produces a better result. if not that, then i think the hill ought to consider this white smoke idea. we could just -- i mean, out of the house republican meeting with the president today, there could be smoke from speaker boehner and we have to determine what color it is. >> exactly, exactly. i would say a nice deep rich merlot red. harold, could you say regular order? >> regular order! >> oh, my gosh! >> don't that sound sexy? it is. it's like infrastructure. >> republicans and democrats alike have been complaining these budget deals are done in the back room with two or three leaders.

so i think there are leaa lot o people on both sides -- >> what? >> a lot of good that has done for us. both mayor bloomberg and congressman paul ryan will be among our guests this morning. a big show to come. we will be right back with much more "morning joe." ♪ this day calls you.

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>> hi. who is this? >> carlos scola. who the hell is this? >> i'm dave letterman. i'm calling from new york city. >> no kidding? hang on. i'll put you on speaker. >> how is the conclave going? anybody emerged as the front-runner? >> hello? >> well, it's a couple of votes for darwin and some wise ass wrote in joe pesci! >> have you guys been able to agree on anything yet? >> yeah. we agreed that indicate hudson is not only hot, she is red hot, right, guys? >> whoa! >> that is pretty good. welcome back. you like that one? mike barnicle and harold ford jr. is still with us.

can't look at the same way, can you? >> my segway! >> we have the moderator of "meet the press" david gregory and nbc news chief white house correspondent and host of "the daily rundown" chuck todd. >> good morning. >> they don't look as amused by the letterman. >> i'm amused. >> is that your i'm amused? >> i guess so. >> wow. >> they are a tough audience! >> awkward. i think i'm just going to -- >> a little awkward. >> like the muppets. >> we have a lot of stuff going on, guys. ron fornia, yesterday, if you can start being serious now! i wanted to have a good time but if you really are going to drag us into that ditch to news, we will do it! >> talk about the pope. >> we are not going to talk about the pope. so ron fornia had a fascinating conversation with a top aide

chuck todd over at the white house, that is your beat, obviously, saying basically saying this whole reach-out thing is a joke, we are just doing it for you media guys. my friends in the white house certainly haven't been saying that. this is a joke he reports i hope you all in the media are happy because we are doing it for you. i have no doubt that ron talked to somebody high up in the white house. i'm certainly not undercutting his story. i'm just saying the people in the white house i've been talking to really have been skeptical up until the past week or so. then they started saying, you know what? maybe we can get a deal and maybe do something together. are you guys hearing the same thing? >> i tell you what, there is still a sentiment inside the west wing that doesn't trust this process. that thinks we in the media drove this, that we in the media are whining and we push it and we always were biased toward bipartisanship and if we don't see it, then we criticize and they hate the false equivalency.

all of those things. there are some in the west wing that think that so it doesn't surprise me that ron found somebody who said that. i think the new chief of staff, dennis mcdonough is the driving force behind this. he is the new person at the table so he's the one taking a fresh look. he's the one that was doing the outreach phone calls when he was in the transition mode. and would find out outside of the west wing the number one complaint in washington was the president doesn't do a great job reaching out. the president doesn't do a good job reaching out to congress. so i think that there are -- joe, that this is a case where everybody is right. there is a faction that says this is a waste of time. we have been down this road. watch. lucy is getting the football. >> david, if i can just add. i think the president doesn't view it as a joke. i think he recognizes that this was a tactical shift that he had to make. if he was going to break through on something.

i think you wrote in one of your op-eds last week. the president sensed they had some advantage here and the president miscalculated how sequester plan could move forward and how the pressure could move forward to try to get a sequester replacement. i think he recognizes he has to pick some senators off, some members of the house off if he is going to really do something that gets in his mind toward a balanced approach on the budget and i also think that a lot of members in his own party as well are chafing at the idea they are not in the mix on some of these big discussions. it can be the budget, it could be other things like guns that they want into this process and i think that is why there is a little bit of celebration going on capitol hill about this return to regular order, which is basically congress doing its job without the president telling them what to do all the time. >> chuck, the president came out. he said what democratic

presidents say about the budget. we hate sunshine and daffodils and hate anything that is nice. that is regular order in and of itself. i see democratic budget and i go, look. tax and spenders, what a big shock. a trillion in taxes. good luck talking about that in my district. but you also, though, what feels so much better about this process now is that while they are sniping at each other, you've got them working behind the scenes and, i'll tell you, i'm tipping my hat. i've been really tough on the president, certainly over the past month or two, but i tip my hat. you know? it's not easy for any president to go up to the hill, sort of hat in hand, especially not easy for this president from what everybody said about him. he doesn't think it's his job, it's his responsibility, but he did it any way. i think we should all salute him for that.

>> i hear you but i have to say the budgets aren't farther apart. for all of the happy talk of last week, what happens is you had basically both parties said, house republicans and senate democrats said we are putting our worst offers on the table. here you are. you think that we have gotten past some of the politics and we have gotten past some of the nastiness and certainly in the feeling, everybody feels better. then they say, okay, now that everybody feels better, here is our worst offer and both sides put their worst offer out there. and you can, okay, a long way to go. >> these are political documents and statements of principles. paul rein saying we lost the election as we look at the democratic plan but ryan says we lost the election but doesn't mean we will abandon or principles. more of a political document.

we talked about it on "meet the press" sunday. does the president start to make a shift where he doesn't just signal that he is willing to do entitlement cuts, that he is willing to do means testing, that he is willing to do that gradual reduction of benefits but he starts affirmatively talking about the need to take on entitlement reform. dick durbin, a progressive senator from illinois who voted for the simpson/bowles said we have to do something about medicare and social security. we have to take that on. will the president campaign for that openly as he tries to lure me more republicans to the table? >> dick durbin is another hero on this front in saying what very few people have been saying. you got to give a profile and courage award to him. >> and tom colburn. >> if you believe on one side that revenues have to be raised

in some regard to get to a balanced budget and on the other side the entitlements have to be reformed, chuck, how do you reconcile what we just said here some we are going to talk to paul ryan in a couple of minutes here. john boehner has said it many times. we are not bluffing here. we are not going to raise taxes. we gave you 600 billion a couple of months and it ain't going happen. yesterday tom harkin saying we told president obama in effect be careful about this grand bargain. we don't want to touch social security or medicare when others way to keep them solve vent besides cutting benefits. where is the movement between those two positions? >> i don't think there is any movement there, but in a final deal, i think that if this deal does come together, tom harkin is not going to support it on the left. and half of the republican conference is not going to support it on the right. if you do strike the balance and the grand bargain you have to sacrifice that. i think it frankly can't come from the house.

the budget is not -- you know, the compromise isn't going to come from the house. it's going to come from the senate. right now, you have paul ryan, his job was to devise a budget 218 votes and not 130 republican votes and the rest democrats. he didn't devise that budget. patty murray devised a budget to get 51 senate votes out of 55 and not find 51 votes that would get you, say, 35 democrats and 26 republicans. she didn't write that budget. >> no. >> so the question is when does that happen? at what point does that happen? the idea is both sides pass their budget and then we go to a conference which my fear is it could look like the super committee again where they will say all of the right things and then deadlock. >> david gregory, i think we have paul ryan waiting so we will go to him. david, quickly.

it's not always what people say on the show that i pay attention to. it's what they say when the camera is turned off. and at "meet the press," when i thought -- everybody i talked to after we did the show on sunday, they started talking about a deal. >> yeah. >> you know what? we will give on this if they give on that. i think more than any time over the past four or five years, you had politicians who understood they needed to come together. they needed to do a deal. >> yeah, i think that's right but i still think we have to somehow and i'm sure you'll take this on with chairman ryan, is deal with what role the government is going to play in economic restoration. you know? the president certainly believes that you don't need a giant stimulus again but that there is certainly a role for government to be replacing some of these education cuts and deal with the fact that federal and state workers jobs have been lost and would the unemployment rate be

lower if some of that hadn't happened? what does it take to get the economy going a little bit more? is that a bigger priority in terms of the role of government that even dealing with some of our shorter term debt. >> david gregory and chuck todd, see you coming up "the daily rundown, chuck." joining us from capitol hill is chairman of the house budget committee, congressman paul ryan. good to see you. >> how are you doing? >> good. looking at the framework of your budget are there any bargaining chips in it? >> oh, sure. look. mika, we take spending down by 4.6 trillion the next decade meaning spending grows by 3.4% the next decade instead of the 5% it's now on. somewhere between that 5% and 3.4% is probably in agreement. i've long been saying since this

election i know we will not get everything we want but hopefully a down payment on the problem and step in the right direction. what i'm pleased about with the senate acting today on putting their budget together at least they are doing a budget. look. i don't like their budget but the vehicle is here, the process is being revived. it's in front of the public's view so if we pass our budget and the senate passes their budget we fleece have revived a budget process through which we can look for common ground. >> that is hopeful. >> that is the idea here. >> that is hopeful. i think anything looking at either budgets would say watching the way y'all have operated the past few years they are very part apart. >> that's right. >> can we look at full repeal of obama's health care law look at that as a bargaining chip? >> sure. i would happy to have him agree on that. do you expect us to wake up one morning and saying we like this law and sec thoughts we will keep it. we will not put it in our budget

vision. sure, there are things we believe can get us a step in the right direction and down payment on the debt without offendering either party's philosophy and those are the things i think what i would call the sweet spot in some kind of an agreement. >> we were talking to david gregory about this. i've noticed and certainly some around the table have noticed it seems like the two sides are in a position now where they are more willing to split the difference and do a deal. do you get the sense that there is an opportunity after speaking to the president the other day, and then comment on, i know the president said what democratic presidents always say about republican budgets. we don't like kids, we don't like old people, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. but that doesn't sting quite as much, does it, when you know that you have an open channel to the president and you guys are talking. >> it didn't come across as terribly charming to me. >> right. >> but, you know, look. we are used to this. the question i guess is, okay, so sure he goes on

stephanopoulos show and says these a lot. the question is he going on the campaign trail and campaign against us like he has been since the election? was the so-called charm offensive a temporary poll-driven political calculation? or was it a sincere conversion to try and bring people together and start communicating? i hope that is the case. >> what do you think, paul? >> i don't know. >> you spent some time with him. >> i don't know. we had a frank conversation and candid with each other. look. i ran against him so we have different views. >> right. >> but at least we started talking. this is the first time i ever had a conversation like that with him so i think that is a good constructive start. the question is, is there follow-through? the question is does the campaign start back up or does the engagementment in a real constructive and promising way? i don't know the answer to that question. time will tell. >> good morning, congressman ryan. harold ford. >> how are you doing? >> i'm doing good.

a few weeks back, a guest on the show that ridding ourselves in limiting deductions for mortgages and so forth at 28%. is that something you could find yourself to agreeing to and, two, is there anything in obama care has worked in your mind, your eyes some you're one of the most skilled thinkers on the budget and particularly health care. is there something working you might be able to embrace and republicans might be able to embrace to move this process forward? >> first point on the tax spend tours you talked about. we see that as a necessary part of tax reform. all of those things you mngsed to me are fair game in tax reform. as a revenue generating exercise to fuel more spending. you have to understand, harold, we. want to have a competitive tax code to create jobs and growth and be competitive internationally and bring the tax rates down competitive so we

can have a fast record on the growth you need the loopholes to do that. we don't want to use those for spending and we want it to bring rates down. on the obama care thing, look. exchanges at the state level is something we have always been talking about. tom colburn and i had a bill. i think they have kind of messed up the idea of exchanges but the idea from conservative standpoint is a revived idea that can work. the other thing is high risk pools. they screwed the high risk pools and didn't work in obama care but a way of making them work from our minds to make sure that people with preexisting conditions can get considerable health insurance. we think some in that law were destroyed but revive those things in an effort to replacing the law. i mean when i say this i think this law will collapse under its own weight. i don't think the millions of americans will have a rude

awakening the health insurance they have with their jobs will be happy and access they get when medicare and medicaid providers deny people access to care. this thing is going to be a budget buster. i don't think it's going to be a popular law and i think the country will be asking for alternatives and it's our job to offer them. >> congressman, how would you explain to people what you consider to be the role of the federal government in providing access to health care for poor people? >> mike, i think we can have a system where every american has universal access. without a government takeover. take a look at the act i introduced with coburn and richard burr when obama care was being delivered. it gave you health insurance for the uninsured and gave you universal system. so, yes, there is an important role for the government to play but it shouldn't play the only role in providing health care which i think we are headed with

obama care. the federal government is important on set up good insurance markets and federal government can help us deliver transparencies we know the costs. the federal government will spend 4.5 trillion the next ten years on health care for under 65-year-olds. we could do it far better than what we are doing now through obama care. spend it through the individual and get refundable tax credits and that means the poor get it regardless of their income liability and that gives them the wherewithal the money to buy health insurance and if you do the insurance reforms the right way they will be able to get affordable insurance. yeah, i think a big role to play but not the only role. we want a center where the federal government helps but not where the federal government suppresses innovation and competition. we want choice and competition. we think that drives better outcomes and you are denying choice and competition. you're basically purging it for the marketplace with obama care. >> chairman ryan, good to see you this morning. for people watching this show outside the beltway and want to know what the next step is in a constructive, productive

process, not just a partisan one, what do you hope happens next? you put your budget out yesterday knowing full well with a democratic president and democratic senate the affordable care act is not going to be repealed right now. patty murray put her budget out knowing they will not go for a trillion dollar in new taxes. with those two polar opposites sitting before us right now what is the next step here? >> we each pass our budgets which is important it creates a vehicle we can go to conference with so we have the budget process being revived. then we start talking. then we start looking for common ground. i don't think patty's budget gives a lot of room for looking tho forthat common ground but i think this is where the president can get engaged and find common ground on spending cuts that get ous a path getting our debt stabilized. if we get long-term debt reduction today that will help the economy today. if we put things in place that get the debt under control? in the out years that will help the economy today and help the bond markets and stabilize

things. we think this is good for everybody. i do believe there are things we can do that shouldn't offend either person's philosophy as we do this. and it's those kinds of things we have to look for. i don't want to negotiate for the media. i don't think that is wise on anybody's part but what you do and the final budget agreement, the conference report, i think, is the best vehicle for it because we are do it in plain sight and going through the regular order of the founders envision congress would work on instead of some back room deal. >> transparency always preferable. all right. chairman paul ryan, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> we appreciate it. >> up next the democratic response. ranking member congressman chris van hollen joins us next. you're watching "morning joe." ♪ ♪

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beautiful day in washington. look at that! the sun comes up. joining us from washington is democratic congressman from maryland and ranking member of the house budget committee, congressman chris van hollen. here on the set is best selling author and aaward winning journalist carl bernstein. he is co-author of the book "his holiness john paul, ii." and get to that in a second with all that is going on at the vaeck vatican. chris, are there points to be bargained on there? because they seem very far apart. >> well, the difference is that the senate bill, just like the house democratic budget alternative that we are proposing, begins with the balanced approach. in other words, we understand that we have got to make cuts. we have to build on more than

1.5 trillion dollars of cuts that have already been made and we need to do more on that and the senate budget does that as does the house democratic alternative, but we also believe that the only way to reasonably bring our deficits under control af without doing damage to the economy and investments in our kids' education and commitment to seniors is also include some revenue and we would generate that revenue through the kind of tax reform that harold was asking about. >> okay. so tell us about that. is it all through closing loopholes and tax reform or is it raising tax rates on middle class americans, upper middle class americans? >> no. >> are there any tax rates being raised? >> no, no tax rates being raised. this follows the general approach of the bipartisan simpson/bowles commission. they begin tax reform from the tax rates we have now in after the january agreement. what we propose is to do tax

reform in a way where you can deal with the rates but you can also generate revenue to reduce the deficit by closing a lot of these tax loopholes. as opposed to the ryan republican approach where they plan to drop the top rate from 39% all the way to 25%, they claim they are beginning to do that in a revenue neutral manner but we know from the last presidential campaign, when mitt romney proposed a much more modest tax reform plan, that you can't do that without actually increasing the tax burden on middle income americans. >> budget on the democratic side, back to that. the argument will be that you guys already got taxes and that now you're trying to humiliate the republicans. i mean, at some point you know? >> also it's a trillion dollars of new taxes. you know that kate hagan aren't able to support that and go back to north carolina next year and win. >> here is the thing. >> is that not the political

reality? >> no, i think she can close a lot of tax loopholes for upper income americans. after all, you know, mitt romney and paul ryan both talked about the fact that all of those tax breaks for higher income individuals are in the code and they are all still there, joe. >> sure. i support closing a lot of those loopholes as well. >> right. >> i'm just saying, though, you have a lot of moderate to conservative democrats in the house and some moderates in the senate that aren't going to go along with the senate plan because it's a trillion dollars of new revenue and that is going to be hard to sell to the voters and paul ryan saying we are going to repeal obama care. >> i don't think so, joe. because this revenue, even if you take it together with the revenue from january, is still less revenue than the revenue that was embedded in the bipartisan simpson-bowles plan. the house proposal and senate proposals will have similar ratios of cuts to revenues when

you look at what we have done over the last couple of years consistent with those bipartisan regulations. the difference between the house republican, the ryan plan, and the plan that democrats are putting forward, is that our plan begins really where the bipartisan commissions are in terms of the ratio of cuts to revenue going in. and that is why we say we have a balanced approach to this as opposed to an uncompromising approach. now i understand that paul's position is sort of their extremist position and hopefully by the end of the day we will be able to bridge these differences but it takes more than finding ground. it requires compromise. >> what is one man's extremist budget is another man's reasonable budget. carl? >> my understanding from white house is that the president is a real pragmatist on these questions. he knows he has a problem about

the democratic leadership as well as the republican leadership. i believe, you tell me, you're my former congressman, that is my former district you're from, aren't you hearing from the white house that the president really wants to break some heads here, including those of the democratic leadership? am i wrong on everything i'm hearing? >> well, two things. number one, i have no doubt that the president wants to reach an agreement and that the president is willing to make tough decisions and tough choices to do it. and the president, as you know, has laid out some proposals that do get a lot of pushback from a lot of democrats. and as you said before, what is going to happen here on the hill is that, you know, paul ryan will lay out his plan and democrats lay out their plan. that the president may look for other areas where he can bring the parties together, but the president's proposals that he has put forward will require that we close some of these tax breaks for the purpose of

reducing the deficit. coupled with targeted cuts. >> where do you expect him to push you, mr. congressman? not the republicans to me where the ground is going to be gained. we know there has to be some you cuts in medicare and social security. how do you do that and, at the same time, increase revenue? >> interestingly, the budget that we will put forward, the house democratic budget, will actually have more medicare savings in the ten-year window than the republican budget that the house republicans just put forward. the difference is this. we do it in a very different way. the republican approach, like the voucher plan, premium support, whatever you want to call it, takes the risks of rising health care costs and put them on the backs of seniors. right? you get a voucher but the voucher doesn't keep up with the costs of health care. the approach we have taken is build on the affordable health care act, obama care is change the sensitive system in medicare

to help reduce costs and we ask for prescription drug companies to paying the same kind of rebates they were paying in 2003 for theme on medicare and medicaid. ways to do this without hurting beneficiaries and benefits and where that discussion will take place. >> i don't think anybody is going to go for vouchers, quite frankly, but what about means testing? means those older and can afford it will help pay for their own medicare if they are in upper brackets? >> right. here is the thing. we already have means testing, you know? seniors do pay premiums based on their income. there's a variable rate. that is something you could look at if we had republican colleagues who are willing to meet us halfway. but the one thing we don't want to do is to say to folks who had median income is $22,000, that is the median income somebody on medicare you have to pay more and contribute more.

while we are not closing these loopholes at the high end taxpayers to reduce the deficit. we think we should have shared responsibility not a lopsided approach. >> chris, we have to go. but quickly, you think a deal can be done? >> i do, joe. what is that? >> you're optimistic, right? >> we have a window between now and august/september time period. look. the interesting thing as we debate it today we will take a break and the house republicans will meet the president. see how it plays out. can i say one quick thing? the ryan budget does not eliminate obama care entirely. they eliminate the benefits in obama care but for them to hit balance by 2023 in ten years, they keep all of the taxes in obama care and they keep all of the savings we made in medicare, the 215 billion that they ran against.

it's really important. they kept the stuff that helped reduce the deficit, got rid of the benefits that will help provide access to health insurance. >> chris, you got that point in. >> i think it's important for people to understand that. >> thank you so much, chris. appreciate it. even hearing him talk, you do get the sense hearing chris and paul talk, i think there is a deal to be done. i actually think, for the first time in a long time, both sides are holding pretty strong hand and that is why they are coming together sequester didn't work out the way the president wanted. the fiscal cliff didn't work out the way the republicans wanted. i think they both have -- it's in their interest to deal with each other. >> it's looking hopeful. coming up on "morning joe," she is one of the very few to have won an emmy, a grammy, an oscar, and a tony award! the great rita moreno joins us with her memoir.

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39 past of the hour. we are watching, obviously, what is happening at the vatican, carl. you've writtenextensively and

what are the turning points this may bring about? >> there is no question that the cardinals are aware that the priesthood its itself is in crisis and how to deal with this crisis is the great question facing the church there. there are not enough priests, on top of which the scandals involving criminal, pedophileia by priests and the problem they recognize has an epidemic and river has to be cleaned up and no longer put under the rug has to be addressed structurally over time. some i know among the cardinals, a few perhaps, who would like to see perhaps and i think it's the real answer, a vatican three, a vatican 2.5, something that is open stage to the world that says we are going to look at our

institution internally, how we can continue evangelization and at the same time renew the institution itself structurally when the role of women and priests. >> lanny davis is former special counsel to president clinton takes us through a lifetime of crisis management as a washington attorney. the real story behind his client's famous scandals next on "morning joe." [ male announcer ] when it comes to the financial obstacles

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for current and former military members and their families. get advice from the people who share your values. for our free usaa retirement guide, call 877-242-usaa. all right. 44 past of the hour. here with us now is cofounder of purple nation solutions crisis manager lanny davis. he is out now with a knew book "crisis tales five rules for coping for crises and business

politics and life." >> and life. >> the most important part of it there. let's find out about that. >> let's do that but continue the conversation we have had. we used to in the '90s would butt heads all the time. some really, really tough angry debates. >> but we have grown wiser. >> we have but also even off the air, it was never personal. >> no. >> and we are talking about how things have changed so much that actually personally. i think all of us have great interactions with people, but whether it's twitter or whether it's, you know, e-mails, whatever it is, blogosphere. >> i start with my first rule which answers what is happening in politics in my book and paul ryan and chris van hollen should start there and start with facts. let's agree on facts and do our political philosophy and differences. if you start with name calling

which happens in the internet you'll never get to home plate either in a crisis or a political stalemate. >> you get the facts out first of all. what is the next thing? >> after that you have to have messages that people understand. i think the obama white house often failed on simplifying things down, for example, i'm strongly support the health care legislation. they lost that debate early on because the republicans define it, you just heard paul ryan, a government takeover. this is an entirely private insurance system on a competitive exchange. that is a conservative idea which he embraved. no government takeover here other than requiring preexisting conditions and certain requirements. barack obama didn't even support the public option which most liberals like me did support. >> right. >> so they lost the debate because they lost and didn't command the heights of the message that this is a good thing for america and i think that is an example of poor, simple messages. >> yeah. >> so what was the secret of

bill clinton's success in crisis management? this was a guy, it was famously dismissed when he was president. we heard a lot of people on sunday shows predicting he would be gone by the end of the week. and he kept his head down and he survived some scandals. how did he do it? >> it took a long time because this was a subject humiliating and painful to admit in public, his private behavior. but -- >> by the way, i'm asking this question because you were there. it plays a big role in crisis management for you. i'm not gratuitously bringing this pup. take your experience. >> i started my book out that life changed starting with president clinton. he suffered greatly and ultimately had to convince the american people he was sorry. once he did that, america is very forgiving if they think it's authentic and they think people have been put through

enough to justify their forgiveness. >> let's get to some of your rules because in the last one is so interesting to me. especially given what you just said. get ahead of the story. fight for the truth using the law, media and politics and never represent yourself in a crisis? >> you're looking at a victim of reading a story about somebody who is an awful person and represents the wrong clients and it seemed very one-sided and distorted. i thought to myself this is in "the new york times." that person needs a good crisis manager. i realized, wait a minute, that's me. i tried to organize and manage my own crisis at the end of the year between christmas and new year's with my family surrounding me. i did a terrible job. didn't get the facts out. i violated every rule i tell clients not to violate and i told the story of learning all of the wrong lessons by violating these rules and i thought it would be telling for me to tell that story. >> do you ever have a crisis to manage that you could not manage?

>> no. honestly, there are certain individuals i would never represent because they are un -- incapable of. i represented penn state university, represented the trustees tell the story why they removed joe paterno, but i would never represent jerry sandusky, an evil predator. if somebody does something terrible, i have represented people who are ready to own up and take responsibility and fix the problem and do it quickly. the key part of the book is tell it all, tell it early and tell it yourself. >> you have a client, tremendous issues surrounding that client. and human nature is such that a lot of people want to delay, delay, delay, deny, deny, deny, deny. how do you deal with the human nature aspect of crisis management? >> it's a problem and a great question, michael, because everybody in crisis has the wrong instinct is to hold the information back. it takes people like me to stand up to the lawyers who are usually saying, deny, deny,

deny. we will win it in court. and i say you're going to have a ruined reputation if you listen to your lawyers. so it's a battle between lawyers and people who want to tell the truth quickly lawyers. so it's a battle between lawyers and people who want to tell the truth quickly and get it over. but the instinct is deny, richard nixon, going forward. >> first of all, good to see you. my first assignment as a professional was something lanny davis asked me, as a mentor and a friend. lance armstrong, how would you advise them? >> full disclosure, i did talk to his lawyers and i thought he did a good job on oprah beginning, but he didn't finish. and finish is all the facts. do a geraldine ferrara, everything. and then make it a teaching moment. he knows everything about doping. nobody is more of an expert about doping than he -- he should be a teacher and get rid of this and clean it out and he could be a leader in that movement. he's never going to be able to be over it.

he's always going to be charged with it, but he could do -- >> but he's still trying to play it. he didn't apologize to the people whose lives he tried to destroy for killing the truth. when oprah asked why people should forgive him, he said, because i deserve it. i mean, wrong, wrong, wrong. >> he started it with oprah. i don't think he finished it. i wish he had. i still think he can finish it. he can still turn something bad into good if he teaches and clean this thing up. seth davis is writing the book too. some day he'll be on "morning joe". >> we can't wait. >> the book is "crisis tales: five rules for dealing with crisis in business, politics, and life." you can read an excerpt on our website, mojo.msnbc.com. >> thanks, lenny. still ahead, mayor michael bloomberg will join us here on set. got a lot of questions for him. a couple other mayors coming along as well. >> ron's going to be here, ari's brother. >> we'll be right back. everyone's retirement dream is different;

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still ahead on "morning joe," mayors mike bloomberg and rahm emanuel join us with other city leaders from across the nation with their take on business in washington and what it means to main street america. that comes up in just a few

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good morning! it's 8:00 a.m. on the east coast, 5:00 a.m. on the west coast. you need to get up right now. time to wake up, as you take a live -- >> go back to bed. >> no, you need to wake up. there's a beautiful day ahead of you. take a live look at new york city. welcome back to "morning joe." back with us on set, we have mike barnicle, harold ford jr.,

and in washington, kelly o'donnell. later today, president obama will meet with house republicans in hopes of striking a bipartisan deal on several issues, ranging from deficit reduction to gun legislation. president obama kicked things off yesterday, meeting with senate democrats who reportedly pushed back against any potential deep cuts to entitlement programs. but the president's outreach, which began a week ago, when he dined with senate republicans, apparently isn't going over well with everyone. the "national journal's" ron fournier asks, "is this a schmooz-a-thon a legitimate act of leadership or a cynical public display?" he quotes two white house officials, one of whom called the strategy a, quote, joke that it's meant to satisfy the media more than anything. another said if it's a bipartisan deal, it won't be because the president shared

steaks and merlot with a few senators. >> harold ford, an awfully cynical thing for people at the white house to say. >> that's a lot of sniping going on. >> i can tell you, i spoke with valerie and some other people over there and they sure don't belief this. they think, like we think, after talking to members on both sides, here's a deal to be had. and valerie and the president and everybody else believes that now's the time to strike. >> the view expressed by whomever that person was, you can only hope, is wholly wrong. if you just based it on the comments of a few senators, including a great friend of your show, tom coburn, a recent friend of your show, ron johnson, it appears that not only did it have an impact on them, it unthawed some things and made clear not only to those in the senate, but particularly those republicans, that not only could a deal be reached on this issue, but there's work to be done on a whole range of things. so i hope they continue doing these things, and whomever may

have said that, i hope that that person's position of power is reduced and he or she doesn't find themselves determining what the agenda is for the meetings. >> mika, i think it's particularly dramatic, this president going up to the hill. >> yeah. >> especially for this president, as somebody who, some have suggested, believe it's beneath the dignity of the office for the president to go up to the hill. and a lot of presidents would believe that. i'm not going to go up there. >> i'm not sure that's -- >> but i think the president should be commended for doing it. >> exactly. and it's not exactly a warm atmosphere that they've set up for him there. >> well, and the president himself said some really tough, harsh things about paul ryan's budget, but you know what, there are things you say for your base, and there are things you do. and right now, the president, he says what he needs to say for his base, the harsh things about the ryan budget. but he's still talking to them while everybody in the base, mike, is -- >> sniping.

>> you know, they're sniping, not only at the president, but saying horrible things about paul ryan's budget. and it's just, you know, you really get a sense here, the last 48 hours has been a great, i think, window into the heart of american politics right now, where you have the extremists -- >> yes. >> who occupy the 5 percents on both sides, and we see them on our twitter feeds, we see them online, you see them on talk radio and cable news shows. and then you have the president and everybody else trying to move beyond those extremists and trying to get things done for the country. >> the interesting thing, at least to me, about the president of the united states, and kelly, perhaps you could share some insight into this, more than i have, certainly, is that he is now in a position where he can't win. if he does not go to dinner with a random selection of republican senators, or if he does not go up to the hill, he remains described as aloof, arrogant,

removed from the process. if he does go, he's described as a fake, or, you know, this is a joke, or he doesn't really mean it. this is a weird city that you're operating out of and reporting from, kelly. >> well, mike, i think perhaps the white house official who was telling our friend, ron fournier, that this is a joke, maybe that was somebody who advised the president not to do this, because when i'm talking to senators, talk to a number of democrats who were spending time with the president yesterday, republicans who dined with him last week, to a person, they have been impressed by the president's effort. and while they all say follow-through will matter, the gesture of coming to them and spending time with them has been appreciated. it's not about having a glass of wine with the president or socializing with the president. it's about having a few minutes where you have the attention of the most powerful person in the world, and you're able to, as a lawmaker yourself, get some of your thoughts across, get a sense of the president, and when you talk to republicans, what i

was struck by is even a couple of people who are aligned with the tea party, a ron johnson, a pat toomey, talked about seeing a sincerity in the president that surprised them. and so for democrats, and speaking them yesterday, they were saying that they had not seep the president on the hill, coming to them in this sort of a setting since 2009. and it mattered to them. they wanted the chance to talk about things. it was family, so to speak, so there were some contentious moments. i'm told he was pressed pretty hard about the drone policy, but when it comes to the budget, i'm told he encouraged them to sort of be on the same team, get to patty murray's budget, which comes out today, and be supportive of that. so they found it valuable. so the notion that it's some sort of a media thing, i hope not. i think there are people that do appreciate that the president's made the effort. >> there's a new poll i should point out too, "washington post"/abc news poll. president obama's favorability

went down 5% from january when he sat it 50%. >> and if you look at his approval rating at 50, that's only 41 points higher -- you knew where i was coming. >> he's only at 50, they say. >> he's only at 50. the poor guy. >> anytime the strike by the republicans. >> you never want, willie, when you're president of the united states, to be within 40 points of congress' approval rating. >> in fairness, i think they've reached double digits now in congress. which is progress. harold, i think we would all agree that it's better than not that the president is up there speaking to coke. it's what many people have asked for. but when you look at the numbers, at the budget that paul ryan proposed yesterday versus the budget that patty murray and senate democrats have put out, it's very difficult to reconcile those two things. i understand they're markers and statements of principle and all that and we can move from there, but when you talk about paul ryan including the repeal of obama care within that, that's

not going to happen. you talk about $1 trillion of new taxes for patty murray. that's unlikely to happen. so where is that middle? >> it's going to take the president to forge and find the middle, which i again echo the points made at the beginning of the show, and to mike's point about the weirdness of the town. there was a time when this was not weird. you come from one of the great states, one of the great leaders who helped create this environment, the great tip o'neil understand you had to work with both sides. >> and teddy kennedy. >> but to willie's point, it's going to take the president to unthaw this. and he's going to probably take as many arrows, as you've said before, joe, from democrats, the president will, as he will from republicans. there are democrats that are staunchly opposed to any spending -- >> can i just say, harold, it's actually nice, because this president hasn't really crossed his base an awful lot over the

past four years. it's nice for me to be able to say to republicans, who say, i think judgmentally, and i think conservatives who legitimately say, he never crosses his base. he always attacks us and he always does what's safe for him and his political base. that's not the case anymore. he was getting railed, hammered on social security, on entitlements, on a lot of these spending cuts. his base is going more extreme than ever before. and the president's going to hear from him. because they say there's not a spending problem. >> i would agree. >> and you know, the president's actually, even though they don't want to hear this right now, the president's actually doing them a great favor. >> i would agree. are. >> because when nancy pelosi says there's not a spending program, americans don't believe that. when liberals say, we don't have to do anything about entitlements for a decade or two decades, americans don't believe that. the president's actually pulling his party back of the center by engaging in these -- >> mika makes the point over and

over again, i think rightly, that congress has a responsibility as well here. i would even argue, democrats if congress, when we were there, when the balance was budgeted, when clinton made great strides in doing that and great strides in reform, the democrats were blue dogs. he lost a big chunk of liberal democrats. and you would not have found -- the president would not have found a majority. it's going to take that same kind of courage from moderate to conservative democrats in the house to give this president a cover, if he pushes and advances -- >> and it's important to remember, mika, that liberals were telling bill clinton that welfare reform is going to throw millions of poor people out in the streets. i mean, go back and see how wrong -- see how wrong they were about welfare reform. see how wrong they were about balancing the budget in seven years. just like now, they were vicious cuts, that we're going to

destroy america's economy, and all the things they predicted now, they predicted back in the 1995. they were wrong then and they're wrong now. >> coming up on "morning joe," she's one of the greatest entertainers of her generation. one of the few who has worn all four major awards. an oscar, emmy, grammy, and tony. rita loreno joins us straight ahead. >> you know what else juicy, we get a lot of mayors. >> it's like, whoo, hot! up next, a mayor's convention has broken out here at 30 rock. new york's michael bloomberg joins us with the winners of his new leadership challenge. but first, here's bill karins with a check on the forecast. >> you're a fearless leader. good morning, everyone. i don't know how they do it up there in fargo, but they do. they make it through the winters and then what they call spring. and right now the temperature this morning walking out the door is negative 5 degrees. this is just not fair.

and just like that, they went up 5 degrees too. now they're at a whopping zero to start their morning. that's not even taking into account the windchill. very chilly in the northern plains. all that cold air is rolling down through the great lakes. one more nice, mild day from boston to new york down to d.c. and then some of that colder air will arrive for us as we go throughout the end of this week. and if you live in the southern half of the country, this is why you live in the southern half of the country. the month of march and april is gorgeous, and it's beautiful everywhere from florida to texas all the way to california. our mid-march weather pattern, unfortunately for the northern half of the country, remember, last year march was warm and beautiful, we look kind of stormy and snowy over the next couple of days. and one of our computer models brings one, then two snowstorms across the northern half of the country. this will be a total accumulation map possible over the next seven days. that pink would be 6 to 12 inches. let's hope this map is wrong. i'm sure it's a little high, but just shows you, we have a chance for more snow as we go throughout the middle of march

over the next seven days. we'll give you a shot of new york, areas looking at rockefeller plaza, skating still going on. temperatures will get colder as the week goes on. you're watching "morning joe," brewed by starbucks. we're here! we're going to the park! [ gina ] oh hey, dan! i really like your new jetta! and you want to buy one like mine because it's so safe, right? yeah... yeah... i know what you've heard -- iihs top safety pick for $159 a month -- but, i wish it was more dangerous, like a monster truck or dune buggy! you can't have the same car as me! [ male announcer ] now everyone's going to want one. let's get a jetta. [ male announcer ] volkswagen springtoberfest is here and there's no better time to get a jetta. that's the power of german engineering. right now lease one of four volkswagen models for under $200 a month. visit vwdealer.com today.

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ladies and gentlemen,

there's a story out of new york city that's making a lot of national news. mayor michael bloomberg sponsored a law that will prevent the sale of all sugary drinks larger than 16 ounces. but yesterday, hours before the law was supposed to go into effect, a judge declared the giant soda ban illegal. well, new yorkers immediately took to the streets to celebrate. it was crazy. >> drink up, everybody! we won! >> yeah! >> chug, chug, chug! >> hey, some of us has to work in the morning! >> i don't know how they actually got that video of you, joe. >> that was -- >> the guy with the big gallon tub there. >> just stop. >> welcome back.

this is sort of the "morning joe" mayor's convention. we'll talk about the soda ban in a minute. but here to join us, mayor michael bloomberg, he's here to announce the winners of his bloomberg's philanthropy mayor's challenge. with us, philadelphia's mayor michael nutter. houston's mayor, annise parker. santa monica, california,'s mayor, pam, and rahm emanuel. congratulations to all of you. you all are winners in some way, shape, or form. let's start off, mr. mayor, with what is the mayor's challenge? >> well, federal governments are not addressing the challenges, state governments aren't, it's cities that are doing it. so bloomberg put out a challenge. the best idea that will help cities, but they have to be tre transferable. providence won, they won $5 million, and four other cities got $1 million. >> what was it you brought to the table for 5 million bucks? >> we're very, very fortunate

and happy to be part of this. we focus -- we're focusing on closing the vocabulary gap that exists between lower income kids and higher income kids. and we have the technology out in colorado that's going to help us do that. we're going to be doing home visits with our parents and helping not only develop young people and young children, but helping though develop the first teacher in their life, and that's the parents as well. we want to close that gap. >> we have a problem with texting and all that stuff going on, kids don't have a vocabulary anymore. so that's a big deal. >> what are some of the other ideas? >> everybody else got $1 million. >> they're trying to measure the well-being of the people, because there's lots of different ways to measure it. they're trying to solve one of the big problems, what do you do with all the waste that comes out? how do you sort it, how do you recycle, how do you pay for getting rid of some of this stuff, or get paid for it. they're handling big data sets. chicago is doing that. angel talked about what they're

doing in providence. so, you've got a bunch of things, and in houston -- actually, houston and milwaukee won the popular contest. houston actually won some money, milwaukee did. but those are the two cities that are the most popular. because we did a national survey. >> annise parker, what was the idea you brought to the table? >> a one-bin recycling and trash solution. what is the future of recycling? beyond curbside recycling, beyond the single stream recycling, can you commoditize the entire waste stream? 50 years of recycling education, we still only recycle about 30% across this country. how do you take it to the next step. >> and you did. >> we've got rahm in chicago. rahm, how you doing? >> good, joe, you? >> we were just talking to your brothers. we love your brothers. >> my thought and prayers are with you. >> yes, thank you so much. so let's talk about what chicago did to earn the grant. >> we did -- look, every city collects a huge amount of data and every city's services are

usually on a reactive position. we want to get to a proactive and preventative type of measure, so we're going to collect all the data. you take an incident like when chicago had its blizzard. before, if you looked at weather, traffic, pedestrian data, you could have done something on a basis that got proactive when that storm was coming in, that would not have had people stuck on lake shore drive and we're going to have that available to every other city. and that's the kind of information that we're going to make -- every city collects huge amounts of data, but we never actually use it, colate it, and get in a very predictive type of position where it's much faster to provide a service. so we're going to go from a reactive position to a predictive position and have those services in front of a problem where it's much cheaper to solve. >> that's so exciting. mayor nutter, we always talk about, over the past couple of months, we've been talking about microtargeting the politics. that's actually nothing new for the advertising industry. but what rahm's talking about and what the mayor's trying to

do here is bring mayors together from all these different cities, and again, use the data, and all of these talents, all of these skills, all of these great ideas are transferable. >> i think the leadership of mayor bloomberg across the country and certainly bloomberg philanthropies has excited cities who are the incubators of innovation. excited to hear what mayor emanuel is doing in chicago and many of us will not only do our own ideas, but will probably try to utilize many of the others ideas as part of this challenge in philly. whatwe we're trying to do is ge social entrepreneurs actively engaged in problem solving with us. government does not have all of the answers. you have all these young people running around with all kinds of ideas, starting businesses, actively engaged on the private sector side. we want to make it possible that they can also be engaged on the government side, help us solve problems, figure out how to make some money at the same time, save money for us. we may make some money as well.

so all of these ideas instigated, really, and inspired by bloomberg philanthropies and the work that mayor bloomberg has done, international entrepreneur, and someone who's well known for innovation. >> i'm glad that you all can all use each other's ideas. >> we do all the time. >> we always talk about, we republicans always talk about the 50 states are legislative laboratories, and it all sounds great philosophically, but you have mayors actually working on the ground with the most immediate concerns. and to be able to share all this information -- and i love all these cities, i do. i really do. >> let's go to santa monica. >> but the city i love the most between january and march, out of all of these things, santa monica, mayor. so what's santa monica doing, other than guaranteeing perfect weather from january through march, when we're freezing up here? >> we're going to measure well-being. we think it's a big idea. it's a idea whose time is overdue. think about it. if you were the a community of people to be resilient, they need to be feeling good. they need to have a positive

outlook. this is not crunchy granola, by the way. some people think that. this is about how to build that resilience in people. we're going to measure. we're going to define it, we're going to measure it, and we're going to act on it, again, using data. >> really quickly, what would you measure? what factors would go into -- >> creating the index, education, social connectiveness. >> physical fitness? >> well, physical fitness is part of wellness. but social connectiveness, your links to education, economics, how that all comes together could create and give you the arena, the tools to thrive. >> i already want to move there. >> i know, i know. especially in january through march. come on over. so mr. mayor, everybody that knows you always says you're a data guy. everybody's been pushing you to run for president over the past several years and they say, well, he's a data guy and he's looking at the data and it just doesn't show that to be a possibility. here's an example, though, of

where you're encouraging other mayors to look at the data, like rahm said. to look at the things that can help predict the next crisis and help you be more efficient. >> joe, all of us have talked about the federal government, they won't do anything, the state governments don't do anything. it's the cities and the cities around the world that are addressing the real issues. crime and education and culture and the environment and that sort of thing. and particularly, i love in what conservative elements would say, you have too much big government, it should be local, that's exactly what we're doing. we're doing things at the local level. the bloomberg challenge, however, was one of the requirements that has to be projects that others can use as well. and in fact, we took the top 20 out of the 305, brought them all together for a camp for a couple of days, and they shared their ideas with each other and tried to help each other. because we're all in this together. it's a competition, but we're all americans. >> so, rahm, obviously, you inherited a real crisis in chicago that has been going on for quite some time.

so many games, such a complex landscape. obviously, it's exploded over the last couple of years, lots of gun violence. here's a great example of how you and mayor bloomberg and other mayors can talk about what's working for other cities, what are the best practices? what are you learning by talking to mayor bloomberg? and of course you're learning a lot by staying connected with your own city, but what are you learning on how to get ahead of this crisis in the coming years? >> first of all, i want to put a plug in for mayor bloomberg. he is a colleague to all of us. this incentivizes all of us to do something creative not only in our own city, and then every other city can share that -- not just the experience, but the product you develop. and that's a kind of incentive, because the reforms of government, at the local level, are essential, so we can deliver more services and better services than we have in the past. second is, you know, we had, in february, a 50% drop, one of the biggest drops in homicides ever.

you have to go back to january of 1957 to see that. and some of the ways we're doing it is looking at historical, as well as predictive data, and getting ahead in localized areas, because few people in small parts of the city create the bulk of the crime. and that's where we've done a saturation -- a strategic saturation. and so that kind of data. second is, as i think every mayor here would say, i kind of say, to deal with this problem, you kind of have to have a focus on the four ps. policing, prevention, penalties, and parenting. and all four of those have to work together. you have to have stiffer gun laws, preventing criminals from getting access, but penalties if they do. strategic policing. after-school programs, job training for young kids, but you're not going to solve this problem if parents also aren't involved in their kids' education, which is why what the mayor is doing in providence, and we just in the city of chicago went to universal, all-day kindergarten. we have got to make sure that parents are involved in their

children's lives in a comprehensive way. you do that and you'll break the cycle of violence. >> mayor nutter, whether you're talking about guns or whether you're talking about public health, there's so many different challenges that mayors face today that they didn't face ten years ago. when you seem to have money coming out of the vents from the feds and the state levels. how do you guys handle the shortfalls that you now have to experience? >> well, we're innovators, we're on the ground. you can't pass a continuing resolution as to whether or not you're going to pick up the trash or move snow or whatever the situation is, right? there's no debate about it. we do an evaluation every day. you either did the job or you didn't. and when the economic crisis hit all of us in different ways, you had to become more efficient, you had to be more effective. some things we had to stop doing or cut back on some others. because people want a high quality of service. so that forces the innovation, as much as any of us want to do

certain things anyway, when you have no money, it does cause you to focus your attention that much more acutely on challenges in front of you. but this challenge has caused all of us to think about our governments in a variety of different ways. and i'm going to be looking at some of those ideas as well. we share information in a variety of ways. it's the greatest compliment is someone else is doing the thing that you're doing, adapt it to your own town, and make it work. and our job every day is to get stuff done and move on to the next. >> and what are the challenges in california, mayor o'connell, where you have california undergoing such a dramatic crisis, financial crisis? >> the point there is about resources. how do you deploy the resources? that's what we think we'll be able to do with our index, is to use that data to say, what is working, what isn't working? we found out already, we thought our kindergartners were better prepared for school than they are, pre-k.

we can target resources in that area. it's about measuring, finding where the need is, and deploying those scarce resources in an innovative way and in a targeted way. >> all right. before we go, and congratulations to you all. thank you so much for unveiling these accomplishments on our show. mayor bloomberg, i want to ask you about the soda wars here in new york city, which i think could have such a profound impact on the rest of the country, as the conversation continues. not going to argue the science of the toxicity of sugar, and in a book i'm writing that's coming out in may, i even go farther and talk about the addictiveness of these substances that are put in almost all of our foods, but let me ask about what you put forward here in new york. do you think that the approach perhaps wasn't the right one? should you have gone after overall portions? when you look at the judge's ruling and how he describes why he struck down -- >> we think the judge is 100% wrong. we think we will prevail in court. obesity is something, for the first time, mika, in the history

of the world, more people will die from overeating than from starvation. this is the first disease that has gone from a rich person's disease to a poor person's disease, that obesity among people that have less resources and less education is so much greater than those who are more fortunate. this is a poor person's disease. we've got to do something about it. and the cost of treating obesity is going to bury all of us, because the health care costs are something -- we can't afford our health care now. this is going to -- >> i don't disagree, but look at the front page of "the new york times" today, and look at the battle that -- look who you're up against. rahm, jump in, and then the mayor. >> i want to -- if i can, we have a different approach in chicago, but mike and i are trying to go to the same goal. we have a comprehensive wellness plan. obesity drives two other chronic illnesses. both on the heart, blood pressure, as well as on diabetes. now, we have a different approach, but that said, mike and i share the same goal, because if we don't tackle this

issue of obesity, the health care costs will swamp everything else you're trying to do. not just for a city, but as a society. and whether -- i actually think mike's going to win this case, but that said, he has to -- he's going to win the campaign of focusing on obesity as an illness that is driving so much else of our health care costs. >> let me just also point out, we tried to get the federal government to do something. you can use food stamps to buy sugar-filled drinks that hurt you and the purpose of food stamps, look at the enabling legislation, is to improve the health, not to reduce costs. we've asked states to put in taxes. "the new york times" says you should do those things. yeah, if we could do them, we would, but the truth of the matter is, nobody else is doing it, and you've got to do what you can do. and the portion control size, just using the cup, doesn't take away anyone's right. if you want 32 ounces, take two cups. if you want 64, take four. it's just there to remind you, this is not good for your health, and then let people do what they want to do. we're not trying to ban

anything. we're simply educating and we do that with a lot of things. >> encouraging healthy habits. let me ask you, mayor parker, your state may not be taking medicaid money from the government. we're talking about health care crisis. how much more difficult does that make your job? >> everything rolls downhill to the cities. >> mm-hmm. >> we have the people in our streets, we have the people in our local hospitals, and we have to figure out a way to deal with them. all of us, as cities, also have balanced budget roirequirements. so we have to stay within our means, with or without the help of the state or the federal government. that's a challenge in texas right now. >> mayor annise parker, mayor pam o'connor, next to her. mayor angel taveras, mayor michael nutter, mayor rahm emanuel in chicago, and mayor michael bloomberg of new york city, thank you so much. >> thank you all so much! we appreciate it! this is exciting. >> i'll join you. >> absolutely.

>> in the soda wars. all right, tomorrow -- >> she does every morning, by the way. i can't get a word in, it's terrible. >> that's the market working. >> that's right. barney frank will be here tomorrow, also microsoft's bill gates. more "morning joe" when we come back. with the spark miles card from capital one, bjorn earns unlimited rewards for his small business. take these bags to room 12 please. [ garth ] bjorn's small business earns double miles on every purchase every day. produce delivery. [ bjorn ] just put it on my spark card. [ garth ] why settle for less? ahh, oh! [ garth ] great businesses deserve unlimited rewards. here's your wake up call. [ male announcer ] get the spark business card from capital one and earn unlimited rewards. choose double miles or 2% cash back on every purchase every day. what's in your wallet? [ crows ] now where's the snooze button?

i think anybody, though, looking at either of the budgets would say these are really, especially sort of watching the way y'all have operated over the past few years, they're very far apart. >> that's right. >> a full repeal of president obama's health care law. can we look at that as a potential bargaining chip? >> of course we're not going to put in our budget vision. i'm kind of surprised that people are surprised that we still don't like the law. but, sure, there are things that we believe can get us a step in the right direction, that can get a down payment on the debt, without offending either party's philosophy. >> the difference between the house republican, the ryan plan, and the plan that democrats are putting forward, is that our plan begins really where the bipartisan commissions are, in terms of the ratio of cuts to revenue, going in. and that's why we say, we have a balanced approach to this, as opposed to an uncompromising approach. now, i understand that paul's

position is sort of their extremist position. hopefully, by the end of the day, we will be able to bridge these differences. but it's going to take more than finding common ground. it's going to require compromise. >> that's congressman paul ryan and chris van hollen, earlier on "morning joe," laying out two very different perspectives when it comes to the budget. i still think we can have a deal. peace breaks out -- >> was there something you needed, barnicle? >> yes, but i can't get it right now. >> you mean when the red light's on top of the camera, you can't get it? >> yeah. >> i mean, heilemann's not here, so it can't be pharmaceuticals. let's turn right now to a few business before the bell headlines. >> samsung will be looking for a big moment tomorrow when it reveals -- i did that for lewis. i did that for lewis. when it reveals the latest version of its galaxy smartphone. the company currently leads the smartphone market, but now faces the challenge of big expectations to try and meet the hype.

samsung is rolling out several new features including a faster processor, improved camera, a larger screen, and new hands-free technology that allows you to scroll through the smartphone using nothing more than your eyes. >> so that is -- actually, you should be pretty excited about that. you kind of did a mocking read, and i'm not sure why. >> oh, no, i like samsung. >> you want samsung to take down apple. >> i'm very frustrated with my iphone that just can't charge itself. it can't seem to charge. >> there's always something -- >> what is it with you and the iphone? >> all the different chargers you need for it, and then you get a battery pack for it and it needs a different charger. are you kidding me? >> steve jobs died. >> come on, man. >> coming up -- >> hold on a second. we've got a host of stories here too. >> no, we killed it. >> no, we did not -- >> i killed it. >> people have been trying to kill it -- hostess is actually selling the twinkies brand to investment firms and that means the snowballs and twinkies

and -- >> ring dings. >> this deal is reportedly worth about $410 million, but more importantly, this is a scientific fact, and you can talk about it, good for your health. >> lewis thinks he can just chime in now. >> lewis, i would be quiet if i were you right now. she's not happy. >> two words for you -- >> rita moreno coming up! she is straight ahead on "morning joe." revolutionizing an industry can be a tough act to follow,

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♪ ♪ i like to be in america ♪ everything free in america >> that was fantastic. and that was rita moreno as anita in the 1961 film version of "west side story," for which she won an academy award and the oscar, tony, grammy, and emmy award winner joins us now. that's amazing. that's pretty amazing. >> you know, now and then i go past the awards, because i really forget -- >> do you talk -- >> i look at them, and i'll suddenly say, not too bad for a puerto rican. >> not bad! not bad at all! >> not so bad! >> it's pretty amazing. >> i have to tell you, i don't want to use up my time, but i have to tell you that your piece with the mayors was sensational. >> wasn't that fun? >> he won me over. >> he should. >> i didn't know it was about

that -- that it affected the health industry. and i just said to mayor bloomberg, you've got to present this differently so we understand what it is you're after. >> well, i think he's trying every angle. and to those who are critical, i say, give me a better idea. take a look around and give us a better idea. at least he's got ideas. >> for years, i have done so many ads in spanish about diabetes, about eating all that fat, about -- because latinos are real sinners in that respect. i was brought up on grease. i love it! >> and southerners, by the way. my grandma, that's why every time i hear mika talking -- i think about the grease! everything we did, my grandma just put it over a skill, sugar, sweet tea, i'm drinking it now, but you're right. it's a cultural -- >> the black community as well. it's reached epidemic proportions. >> so let's talk about your career and this book. >> thank you! >> and talk about how you've been breaking down barriers your entire life. >> well, that's a huge question. what do you want to know?

>> well, go ahead. >> well, talk about breaking barriers. >> the book starts with me coming from puerto rico with my mom on a ship. we were very poor. we could not afford an airplane. didn't speak a word of english, either of us, and she somehow -- in a way, it's a story about my mom. the courage to be an 18-year-old girl with a child, a 5-year-old child. anyw anyway, we came here, and i kept thinking, why did she say this was the land of opportunity? i was freezing my behind off. it was the first time i had ever seen a tree without leaves on it, and i said, what happened to the trees? what's wrong here? it was gray and freezing. and then i think what's one of the most important parts of the book is the old hollywood that i was a part of that no longer exists. and it was filled with racial bias. and i explain all of that in the most colorful ways that i can. it is my first book, "i am a novice."

give us your shock. what was the first eye-opening experience when you were in old hollywood, and you said, wow! >> that's a good question. >> i'm not home anymore. >> is this kansas? >> ain't in kansas. and this isn't what the rico. and i'll tell you what it was, it had to do with my name, i had a latino name, and that's the only thing i was allowed to do. i sang and dance, i never did get to sing and dance again, it's crazy, until "west side story." i only played people, outsiders. i played egyptian girls, i played arabian girls, played american indian girls, and after a while when i got that message, i learned the to -- i decided, these people needed accents, so i invented my own accent. how does a polynesian girl speak? how does an american indian girl speak? so i invented what i now call the universal ethnic accent. which means whenever i play a polynesian or east indian girl from india, they all sounded the same. >> but that all, of course, changed in 1961.

>> it changed -- the door is ajar. it's pretty good, but it's really ajar. you still have -- it's a door, and you still have a lot of pushing to do. but at least, you know, we are present. and that helps a lot. but that hollywood was a very tough place. and really, i felt very diminished and demeaned. >> so who, besides yourself, helped you get that door ajar? >> nobody. because i'm one of the few people, when i was speaking with sonia sotomayor, a wonderful lady, in the supreme court, she had mentors all over the place. i didn't have one. >> by the way, you explain, you were at a book event with her, 800 people -- >> showed up. >> it was a remarkable event. >> it was amazing. this was last monday in washington, d.c. it was like a rock show. she's like a rock star now. and she's a wonderful woman. she's funny. and i don't want to use the word, but she's just a regular gal. >> and she had mentors. >> she had loads of them. i had none. >> but you had your mother, didn't you?

>> she wasn't my mentor. >> but you had your mother, though, as far as -- >> i had my mom. >> the 18-year-old that had the guts, that had the savvy to get on a ship and come to america. >> oh, she was astonishing. you know, my mom, how do you do that at the age of 18 -- is that my mom? she was a beauty. isn't she gorgeous? >> beautiful. i want to know the moment that you did get why she did it. >> she wanted a better life for both of us. >> so what was the moment that you actually got it? you're thinking, you're cold. >> exactly. i didn't get it for a long time. i really didn't. i was called speckel at the time. this is how i agrgrew up. this is how i came to know myself and hate what i knew. the book is really about trying to find the me acceptable. it's a book, i call it my destination book, because i had a journey to make. >> so you started by emulating -- >> elizabeth taylor. there was no role model then. >> a lot of rock stars, like bob

dylan pretended he was woody guthrie until he became bob dylan. >> i was way out of my camp. elizabeth taylor had nothing to do with my kind of life. >> i don't know, mike and i would say you weren't out of -- >> you were doing good. >> you're doing okay. and you're still doing okay. >> amazing. >> amazing. >> 81? you're lying to us. why are you lying, after all of these years in show business. >> your lips to god's ears. i am 81. and i show off about it a lot, because i think it helps women to understand that it's not the end of the world. you know, they get to 40 and they get all hysterical. >> i did. >> did you get hysterical. >> my mom says she still works with a chainsaw. >> mika did not get hysterical, but that's because her mom's 80 and is a sculptor. >> did you see that great picture with marlo brando, because i had a long relationship -- >> i did! i heard about that! that was steamy and very volatile! >> i had a very long,

tempestuous relationship with marlo brando, almost eight years long, and then elvis presley came along, and i thought, great, at least it will make marlo jealous, and he went ballistic. >> did it really? >> well, he have the philander, not i. and when elvis presley let it be known -- you going to show my behind on tv? just put your hand -- >> is that marlo brando? >> that's marlo. you know what's interesting, after i passed away, i found out that that was the only photograph in his house, anywhere, the only photograph, and it was in his bedroom, and that's when i accepted the fact that he really was in love with me. the only picture in his house. it was auctioned for -- it's a picture i gave him. i'm sorry i gave it to him. he wanted it, he wanted it -- he said, please give it to me. i said, i like it, and he said, i like it more.

give it to me. >> so you gave him what he wanted! >> to the bitter end. >> you can read an excerpt on our blog, mojo.msnbc.com. rita, it is such a pleasure. >> we want you back on the show. maybe we can get adrian on. >> wouldn't that be fun? >> that makes a lot of sense. we'll be right back. mallon brothers magic?

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